One and a half weeks into this working holiday in Mexico City, we’re getting a little better at travelling with an infant. We spend a little more time preparing for outings and a lot more time simply wandering. Of course it’s different than before, and of course it’s still great.
Mexico City probably won’t make anyone’s top lists for places to go with an infant, but it’s a surprisingly great place to be travelling with one – in the (at least) modestly affluent areas – of which there are many in Mexico City.
1) Parks and Green spaces
Large leafy parks dot the city, each filled with benches, tall shady trees, flowers, fountains, dogs, and playgrounds. Many of the streets are lined with shade thanks to overgrown palms and conifers, and more than a few avenues have tree-lined medians down the middle of them isolating walkers from the calmed traffic around them. To us, it is a surprising expanse of greenery in a huge city we feared would just have isolated parks surrounded by asphalt, traffic and pollution.
2) Stroller Friendly Sidewalks
Kind of, we’re still in Mexico. The sidewalks, however, tend to be about twice the size of an average American city sidewalk. Plenty of room and a reasonable amount of ramps on the curbs. There’s still a good amount of cracks to avoid and a lot of sidewalk buckling from the aforementioned trees, but we haven’t had many problems going on long rambles throughout the city.
3) Sidewalk Eating
In addition to ubiquitous street food, there are restaurants everywhere with outdoor tables that make pulling up a stroller for a casual meal easy to do. There are usually highchairs, too. The people watching is great, and our child loves being outside.
4) Lunch
Lunch is the most important meal of the day, so we don’t have to miss out on the best food offered in Mexico City – of which there is a ton.
5) Climate
Mexico City sits at about 7,000 feet. It doesn’t get too hot and it cools down at night all year round. We haven’t seen a mosquito yet and even if we did, the mosquitoes that carry Dengue and Zika can’t survive at this altitude.
6) People!
Hola Princesa. Hermosa. Preciosa! We get smiles everywhere and from almost everyone because of our little one. They love kids here. Waiters entertain; people wave, smile, compliment. It’s very sweet.
Unsurprisingly, there are some downsides to Mexico city with a child. Here’s one:
1) Food
Alice wants to grab everything and put it into her mouth and normally we indulge her. That’s not a very good idea for her stomach here though so we have to be pretty careful watching her. We can usually keep her entertained with fresh avocados and bananas though. If we get desperate, Gerber baby food is available at every pharmacy and convenience store. We’ve made a few stops at 7-11 to pick up a jar of food for her while on the go!
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