How do you plan a family vacation to the 5th largest city in the world? Here are my top 10 favorites in Mexico city for families with children. We traveled to Mexico City in June. We were able to get a great deal on flights in mid June and we jumped on that, immediately. We booked an amazing Airbnb in Condesa where we felt safe and comfortable, while still able to enjoy the vibrant culture of Mexico City.
The Condesa neighborhood reminded me of a hipster, European, family friendly neighborhood. A couple of things that stood out to me were the parks and the restaurants. Everything we needed was within walking distance, and thank goodness because the traffic in Mexico City is insane and a 2 mile car ride could take 2 hours in rush hour traffic. Yes, it’s better to just walk.
Our AirBnB had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It also had a rooftop patio with a washer and dryer. Honestly, we did not use the patio area and we asked the cleaning lady to do our laundry. It was a little less than $20 a day to have her clean the entire AirBnB and do our laundry. IMHO- totally worth it!
There are obviously a TON of things to do in a large city like Mexico City, but for families with kids, these are totally doable in a 7-10 day trip.
- Teotihuacán
- Coyoacán
- Papalote Museo del niño (Children’s Museum) y Museo del Chocolate
- Voladores- outside Museo Nacional de Antropología and Parque Chapultepec
- La Marquesa National Park
- Lucha Libre – Go on Sunday evening (5pm) for Family Night
- El bazar Sábado and brunch
- Kidzania- if your kids speak some Spanish- at the mall (buy a groupon)
- Tacos at Tizoncito
- Parque España
- Teotihuacán:
Cost: $50 roundtrip (Uber), tickets for the pyramids were a little less than $5 each, money for souvenirs, money for lunch at “La Gruta” (or pack a picnic lunch)
This is a definite must and was a favorite for my kiddos. We took an Uber from our Airbnb in la Condesa for $50 (roundtrip). Make sure to pack a little snack for kids because it is about an hour drive. On the way there, our Uber driver was a wealth of knowledge about Mexico City. He told me all about the different activities and places to visit, which was awesome since I didn’t really have an itinerary for the day and hadn’t researched much.
I recommend using the restrooms at the entrance of the pyramids. I believe there are other restrooms once you get closer to the pyramids but after the long drive, we definitely needed to stop. We packed our backpack with 2 large insulated CamelBak water bottles and sunscreen (A MUST!) but I totally forgot to pack a hat! Lucky for me, at the entrance are a ton of souvenir kiosks with A MILLION different types of hats.
The kids loved climbing the pyramids and reading all about each one. After la Pirámide del Sol, they were wiped and our water supply was almost depleted. (I recommend packing MORE WATER!). There were a few people selling beverages in the park area too. We spent the entire morning walking around visiting the ruins and pyramids. The kids LOVED the bird whistles and jaguar noise makers for souvenirs.
Our Uber driver told us about La Gruta for lunch and told us it was a must. We walked over to the the restaurant which was about a 5 minute walk from the pyramid area. La Gruta in Spanish means “grotto” and the restaurant is literally in a grotto. I can’t say enough amazing things about this restaurant. The food, atmosphere, service were excellent. It is the type of restaurant you will never forget. The menu has typical Mexican dishes like tacos, quesadillas, mole, etc… In the back of the restaurant there were women preparing homemade tortillas. The entire restaurant was lit with candles, including a candlelit path to the bathroom (which felt like we were walking in a bat cave). There were musicians traveling from table to table to play your song requests.
Overall, the entire restaurant provided a ton of entertainment for my kids. After a hot, tiring day of climbing, the coolness of the grotto felt amazing. Not to mention, the smells of corn tortillas, the calmness of the candlelit grotto, and being serenaded by my favorite Mariachi song, “Cielito Lindo”, this place is a MUST visit.
2. Coyoacán
Coyacán is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Mexico City and is also home to one of my favorite artists, Frida Kahlo. Although we didn’t visit Frida’s house (museum “La Casa Azul“) with the kids, I highly recommend it. Go online and. buy tickets ahead of time. My daughter was having some altitude sickness while we were in Coyoacán so we decided to skip “La Casa Azul”.
It was about 25 minutes to get to by Uber and a great area to walk around, visit the market, iglesia, and taste amazing tostadas, churros y café recien rostizado. We got fresh roasted coffee from a café called Café el Jarocho. There was a tiny, hole in the wall churrería about 2 doors down.
As a Spanish teacher, one of my favorite finds in Mexico are wooden toys from the market. Coyoacán has tons of them, as well as handmade bracelets, jewelry and paintings. They are VERY inexpensive too!
For lunch, I highly recommend going to the “Tostadas de Coyoacán“. It is a huge marketplace and they have different spots for serving tostadas. They have barstools around the kiosks for you to eat, or you can take them “to go”. They are absolutely delicious and VERY CHEAP!
Another fabulous lunch spot in Coyoacán is Fonda el Morral. They had great soups as well as amazing Mexican dishes. The smells were amazing and there were women making fresh tortillas next to it. Here’s a video clip to get the laid back vibe this place has. It was perfect for kids!
3. Papalote Museo del Niño and Mucho Mundo Chocolate Museo
Cost for Papalote: approximately $200 pesos (around $11 per person)
Cost for Museo de Chocolate: $220 pesos for 2 adults and 2 kids
This is the Children’s museum in Mexico City and it is located within a park area with tons of green space, an amusement park and even a food court. We got there right as they opened, 9am and it was perfect because is is a place for field trips and gets busy later in the day. There were tons of things for my kids to do and the museum was very hands on. Some of our favorites were making a rocket and launching it, the bubble area where you could create large bubbles that completely enclosed your body, and a science lab where we learned about water and pollution.
For lunch there is a food court with restaurants like McDonald’s, Sushi, ice cream, Subway, tacos, and Dominoes pizza. It is a beautiful space where you feel like you are outside. You could also pack a lunch and eat in this space.
We also enjoyed the Museo de Chocolate. Our tour guide was excellent and we learned everything you would want to know about the history of chocolate! As a teacher, I love when places like this really set up for the senses. Meaning, there is tasting, smelling, touching, listening and definitely lots to see! (Here’s a little clip of our tour guide and the kiddos drawing in the chocolate) There were hands on spots where the kids could draw in the chocolate as well as a room filled with chocolate that smelled amazing! At the end of the tour, there was a nice cafe for ordering drinks. They had a great gift shop for gifts to bring back home too!
4. Los Voladores and Parque Chapultepec (outside the Museo de Antropologia)
After we spent the morning at Papalote, we went to see the Voladores. The Voladores, or “flyers” perform an ancient, Mesoamerican ritual or ceremony where they climb a 30 meter pole. The Voladores are attached to the pole by rope. 4 of the 5 Voladores start spinning on the ropes and perform different formations as they get closer to the ground. The 5th Volador stays at the top while playing music.
After we watched the Voladores, we walked over to Chapultepec Park and wandered around. There were little boats you could rent (more like kayaks), a playground, snacks, and face painting. My daughter loved the facepainting and it was only a couple dollars for the most amazing face painting!
5. La Marquesa– National park
La Marquesa is a national park, southwest of the city. It is approximately a 50 minute ride to La Marquesa and once you are there, it is almost impossible to believe that you are so close to the capital city. We heard that la Marquesa is a great place to visit on a Sunday afternoon, because that’s what all the local families do. Once we arrived, we quickly realized, they were right! We were the ONLY tourists in the park (or that’s how we felt) and of course I LOVED every moment of that feeling! As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, we were greeted by several horses and horse guides. We were able to pick our horses for riding. (BRING BUGSPRAY, SUNSCREEN, WATER and appropriate shoes and long pants- of course, we didn’t have any of this and were still fine). The guide took us on a long ride through the park and it was perfect because it allowed us to see all of the different activities in the park.
Some of the activities they have are: those giant inflatable balls where the kid goes inside it and rolls around in the water, ziplining, 4 wheelers (not for the safety concerned but they do have a few helmets for kids), and horseback riding.
There are several small restaurants that serve amazing, traditional Mexican foods. We ordered MANY dishes and drinks and the prices could not be beat! The best part about the restaurant we chose was that it had a hammack and the kids were entertained with that for most of the time. Throughout the park, you can also find little shops that have snacks and drinks. We loved ordering the Piña Coladas which looked like this-
6. Lucha Libre
This is the famous Mexican wrestling event. We went on a Sunday because it’s “Family Night”. We bought the tickets ahead of time by going to the stadium “Arena México”. You can also get the tickets from Ticket Master but for some reason, it wasn’t giving us the “Family Night” rate. The tickets were so cheap! I want to say they were less than a few dollars per person and I think the kids were free! There were tons of snacks and drinks once we got there. The kids were definitely entertained and LOVED the masks! They sold a ton of Lucha Libre masks outside the arena, for great souvenirs.
7. Bazaar Sábado and brunch at HKUH
Bazaar Sábado is a farmer’s market type market but with more upscale types of handmade arts and crafts. The items for sale ranged from homemade soaps to large pieces of art to small souvenirs. We arrived before they opened and were able to walk around the entire zócalo in about an hour. We didn’t buy much since most of the items were more expensive. It was fun to see all the different artists and variety of work. After the market, we went to brunch at a restaurant nearby. My kids bought some souvenir mini violins which they were not able to play even close to as amazing as the man selling them, but they were fun anyway.
*There are MANY restaurants in this area for brunch. I recommend making a reservation as there were many families doing the same thing.
8. Kidzania (Santa Fe)
Cost: Kids ages 4-16 $325 pesos and adults $180 pesos (I purchased a Groupon in Mexico City for Kidzania and it turned out to be a LOT cheaper. MAKE SURE TO PRINT THE GROUPON AHEAD OF TIME!!! They won’t accept it on a phone.
Kidzania is a kid size city inside of a mall. It has everything a real life city would have. Fire station, hospital, grocery store, barber, pharmacy, vet, restaurants, etc… The only difference is, it is all built for kids.
When you get there, you have to get a job and learn how to make money. By doing each job, you earn “Kidzania dollars”. You have to visit each place and get information on the career or task and then you have to participate in the job (in some way) and then they pay you. I would say overall, this place is just amazing and fun to visit however, most of the staff does not speak English and my husband and I had to help my kids quite a bit with the Spanish. They still had fun with it and I am glad we visited.
There was a small food court inside Kidzania. I think we ordered Pizza and McDonald’s. It wasn’t very good food but of course my kids thought it was pretty great.
Here is a short video clip of our day at Kidzania
9. Tacos at Tizoncito
Tizoncito is a chain of Taco restaurants in Mexico City. There happened to be on about a block away from our AirBnB. The service was speedy fast and the tacos were TO DIE FOR!!! We ate at Tizoncito at least 3 times during our 10 day stay in Mexico City. We also ordered them to go and that worked well.
10. Parque España
Parque España is a beautiful park smack dab in the middle of the city. My kids LOVED the playground equipment. There was a ton of exercise equipment as well, for adults. There were walking paths all around the park and fountains (but these were under construction while we were there). The park was quiet and so enjoyable to get away from the craziness of the city. The part that most captured our attention at this park was the dog walkers/dog sitters in the park. Each time we went, we would see at least 2. The dogwalkers had approximately 20 dogs each. Now, if you just heard this and weren’t able to see it, you would think this was INSANE! Well, it was insane, because the dogs were so well trained that the dog walker had each dog in a “down stay” as he took turns with the dogs, walking them in the park and training them.
Video clip of los perros en el parque.
Restaurants and other places to visit:
Café Maque in Condesa – excellent for brunch, great breads, outdoor atmosphere, great music and Mariachis. Here’s a little video clip so you get the vibe here.
El Pujol– You will definitely need reservations to this restaurant. This is the best Mexican restaurant in the world. If you have childcare, I HIGHLY recommend visiting this place!!! I learned about this restaurant because I am a HUGE Rick Bayless fan. I read about all of his recommendations for restaurants in Mexico City and decided El Pujol is a MUST. The experience is unforgettable. I loved seeing how Pujol interpreted Mexican street foods into exquisite presentations.
***You can also watch Chef’s Table on Netflix and see Enrique Olvera (owner and chef from Pujol). All I have to say is, INCREDIBLE TALENT!
Tout Chocolat– This high end chocolate shop was only a couple blocks from our AirBnb and my kids loved walking there to get macaroons.
Toscano Cafe Condesa Market – This café was less than a block from our AirBnB and we ate here most mornings for breakfast. The coffee was great and John ordered his “Café con soya doble carga” everyday. This tiny little restaurant had a huge wall they would climb to get different ingredients they needed. Most of Mexico City is set up this way so it’s entertaining how they make the space work for their business.
