What to do with Children in Tow

Caracas loves children!
Apart from the many family-oriented public parks, like the Parque del Este and the Parque Los Caobos, which offer countless hours of fun with the lush landscaping, the serene water bodies, the alluring all-year-round floral displays, and the regularly organized family activities, the city contains two large public zoos that are also a big hit with Caraqueño children.

El Pinar Zoo contains a variety of local crawling and creeping creatures, and a delightful collection of tropical birds. Most of the tamed animals are free to roam around within the zoo’s premises, making the place very child-friendly and full of hours of interactive fun.

The Caricuao Zoological Garden, the main zoo within the city, covers a very large land area, and contains a much larger variety of local and international species of flora and fauna. Animals roam, run, hop, scurry about, fly, and generally frolic around as kids squeal in delight – a treat for any youngster accompanying you.

If kids pester you for shopping, you can always head to Kidsmania located within the El Sambil shopping center in the Chacao district. This is a wonderful store for kids of all ages, and contains everything from casual and formal garments to educational and not-so-educational toys and games, to party and birthday stuff, to dress-up costumes, to action figures and movie posters.

A different, more educational activity for kids is to take them out to the Museum for Children (Museo de los Niños), located inside the Parque Central Complex. This place contains a variety of interactive learning games for the whole family that teach the basics of mathematics and science to kids in a friendly, easy-to-learn way using music, colors, and decision-making exercises.

For the more serious-minded kid, the Museum of Natural Science (Museo de Ciencias Naturals) will prove to be a tropical delight. Your little scientist-to-be can discover all about how the world came to be, about the animals that roamed the planet millions of years ago, about the humans who hunted those animals, and how modern civilization came to be what it is today.

Then there is always El Avila National Park for the kid who keeps insisting on more adventure – a fearful ride in the cable cars up to the mountain top is sure to shut a pestering kid up for the rest of your stay in Caracas!