The Best Family Friendly Things To Do In Lima With Kids

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Where Is Lima?

Lima is the capital of Peru, a country on the Pacific coast of South America. Peru is known for its many different ecological regions. Including deserts, mountains and rainforest! Peru is also the home to Inca ruins such as Machu Picchu and Sascayhuaman. It’s the source of the Amazon river and a good chunk of the Amazon rainforest. There are giant sand dunes in the Atacama desert and a LOT of wildlife. And Lima with kids is a great idea to start your Peru journey.

However, as you are likely to land in Lima on your way to visit the rest of the country, it’s worth spending a couple of days here. Before you head off to Lake Titicaca, Colca Canyon or the Sacred Valley, explore the city of Lima. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much there is to do on your Peru family vacation.

How To Get To Lima?

Peru’s capital is easy to travel to. It’s the perfect place for a family trip, with flights regularly landing from both North America and European countries. We flew with some cheaper flights that I found online, using the Colombian airline, Avianca. The flights stopped in Bogotá from London, with a short hop across to Lima from Bogotá. You can also get direct flights from the UK, however these tend to increase in price the longer you leave it. I recommend buying your air tickets as soon as they are released!

Is Lima Safe For Families?

Yes!! Lima is incredibly safe, providing you stay in certain areas of the city. Places to avoid tend to be Callao and Chorillos in Central Lima. Most of the tourist areas of Miraflores, San Isidro and Barranco are very safe. Please do keep an eye on your belongings wherever you are in the city. Pickpocketing can happen wherever you are in the world!

Getting Around Lima With Kids

We found the easiest way to get around Lima is by Uber. Download to your phone if you don’t already have it and then use it for transport to wherever you need to go. There are also buses and you can hire a car yourself, however, it’s not the easiest city to navigate on your own!

Best Things To Do For Kids In Lima

Lima is a great place for a family holiday, with plenty to do for the entire family. From great restaurants to fun activities for visitors of all ages, you will definitely have a good time in the city. Here are just a few of the things we would recommend when visiting Lima.

Magic Water Circuit

One of the best things to do in Lima is visit the Circuito Mágico del Agua in the evening. Every evening the Parque de la Reserva is lit up by multicoloured water light shows. The park opens at 3pm until 10pm, with a dozen beautiful fountains in array of colours. The main feature is the Fantasia Fountain, which shows a music and light show of Peru’s history. There are lots of interactive fountains such as a labyrinth and tunnel, so it’s great for kids! This is the largest public water fountain complex in the world, so it’s a great way to spend an evening. At only 4 Sol per person it’s worth a trip one evening.

Parque de las Leyendas

The zoo and botanical garden of Parque de las Leyendas was conceived to protect an archaeological site that could potentially be lost. There are a variety of Huaca structures (ancient adobe/mud buildings) around the park to visit, along with a pretty botanic garden and plenty of zoo animals. The animals are mostly Peruvian, covering the regions of mountain, coast and jungle. It’s a good way to see the wildlife of Peru if you’re short on time for visiting the jungle or mountains.

Huaca Pucllana

The adobe (mud) pyramid of Huaca Pucllana was built in around 500CE by the ancient Lima culture. Several mummies have been found in the tomb, alongside Wari culture items. It’s believed that it was originally used by the Lima Culture as both a town and religious centre, then when they left the Wari culture took over and used it for religious purposes. The structure is now damaged through weather and much of the site has been lost to rapid urban expansion. However there is enough still there to see what an impressive site it would originally have been.

The whole family will enjoy visiting this awesome archaeological site and there is also a restaurant next door too!

Chocolate Museum in Lima With Kids

There are several chocolate museums to visit in Peru. We went to the one in Cusco, which was one of the kids highlights of their trip! The Lima Choco Museo is in Central Lima next to the Plaza Mayor de Lima. Here you can buy chocolate and cacao and tour the free museum. However there is a second Choco Museo in Miraflores district, where you can take a Bean to bar workshop. You get to create your own chocolate from cocoa beans! This includes roasting the beans, grinding them and mixing with different ingredients to make chocolate. In the end you get your own chocolates to take home with you!

Swimming With Sea Lions

This was one the most fun, but scariest things we did with the kids! I’d only recommend it for older children and those that can swim well/cope with cold water temperatures. The boat ride across the Pacific Ocean to some small rocky islets was exhilarating. The waves when we went were quite large and I recommend avoiding this trip if you get seasick and taking travel sickness tablets if you do go (even if you’re not usually travel sick!). We opted not to take the travel sickness tablets and were fine until we had to get changed out of our wetsuits back into our clothes inside the boat. Two of our group threw up both inside the boat and over the sides, despite not normally being travel sick!

But the experience of seeing and hearing the sea lions up close was amazing! They are very noisy and very smelly, but so much fun to see swimming around you in the water.

Plaza de Armas

Plaza Mayor de Lima is also known as Plaza de Armas and serves as the centre of the old city of Lima (and serves as the old city center). It’s a lovely place to spend sunny days people watching and let little kids run around a bit. There are several impressive buildings surrounding the plaza, including the Archbishop’s palace, the Government’s Palace, the cathedral and the municipal palace of Lima. It’s just a great place to sit on the steps of the Archbishop’s Palace and stare around at the beautiful buildings surrounding you.

There are also plenty of restaurants and cafes nearby, or head across to the nearby Museum and Convent of San Francisco to explore the catacombs!

Larco Museum

The Larco Museum is always one of the top things to do in the capital city of Lima. It’s definitely one of the best places to visit on a family holiday with older children (8+ years old, little ones may get bored). You can wander around the exhibitions at your own pace, exploring the pre-Colombian art and culture, over 5000 years of items! The favourite bit for the kids was of course the gold and silver section. There are some stunning pieces of work, with the most amazing looking jewellery, masks and other items. Certainly a great place to show children the amazing skill and craftsmanship of the people who lived here long before the Inca empire was a thing.

Try Out Surfing In Lima With Kids

As Peru’s Capital City is on the Pacific coast of Latin America, it has fantastic waves for surfing. We visited in September when the weather was a little cooler, but there were still plenty of people surfing off the coast. If you are interested in some surf lesson you just need to check out the many surf lesson companies along the Playa Miraflores. They can be booked online at Get Your Guide, suitable for all different skill level.

Visit The Catacombs

The catacombs under the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco is now a museum. However, it was used as a cemetery throughout the Spanish occupation of Peru, with over 25,000 bodies being placed here. Aside from the prettily arranged human bones, there is a huge complex of tunnels that travel underground around the old city of Lima, including to the palaces in Plaza de Armas and even under the river. The entire extent of the tunnels is still unknown, they was an attempt to map the tunnels in 1981, but it was never completed. Definitely one of Lima’s museums most interesting places to explore.

Explore Miraflores in Lima With Kids

The neighbourhood of Miraflores is considered to be the upmarket area of Lima and is where all the most expensive hotels are located. Originally Miraflores was a Spanish town, but it is now part of the larger city of Lima due to expansion of the cities boundaries. It’s a great place to wander around and enjoy the scenery. You can also try out some fun tours here, including Lima bike tours and even paragliding! Spend some time at Larcomar to have lunch and watch the surfers in the sea behind. Then walk along through the Parque de Amor, admiring the sculptures and enjoying the scenery from the cliff top. This definitely feels like one of the most kid-friendly city activities, especially as there is plenty of space for little ones to run around and gym equipment for bigger kids wanting to test their strength.

The Best Family Friendly Things To Do In Lima With Kids

Where Is Lima?

How To Get To Lima?

Is Lima Safe For Families?

Getting Around Lima With Kids