There is no shortage of family plans in the CDMX, and the Chapultepec Forest is home to many of them. If you’re looking for a place for healthy fun and a respite from the city, take note of these options.
Surely you already know more than one of these places located within the largest urban park in the city, but it doesn’t hurt to jot down a bucket list to visit them again and get to know all the spaces that Chapultepec Forest has for you and your family.
1. La Hormiga Children’s Park
Chapultepec Forest in general is an excellent place to take the little ones. However, there is a space located in the First Section of the forest that is dedicated especially for them.
Here you will find children’s games and free workshops and summer courses for the little ones.
We recommend you to keep an eye on their social networks to find out about the different activities that take place every month, or take a look at the list of free activities that take place every month in the Bosque de Chapultepec.
Children’s parties can be held in this park from Tuesday to Sunday, except on holidays, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
📍Official Residence of the Pines, Molino del Rey 1, San Miguel Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo
2. La Tapatía Children’s Park
There is another playground located in the Second Section of the forest. Here you will find 13 play areas for children from 2 to 12 years of age, including a swing made especially for wheelchairs.
The floors are made of rubber and the lighting is charged by solar energy. You can access it Monday through Sunday from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm.
📍Cto. Bosques de Chapultepec, Bosque de Chapultepec II Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11100 Mexico City, CDMX
3. The House of Mirrors
Located in the First Section of Chapultepec Forest, you will find La Casa de los Espejos and El Laberinto de Cristal ( The House of Mirrors and The Crystal Labyrinth), trailer boxes designed to entertain the whole family.
Here you can enjoy the magic of the mirrors, which deform the image of whoever stands in front of it, turning the reflections into comical images. Afterwards you can test your skills in the Crystal Maze, where you can also take interesting pictures.
📍Bosque de Chapultepec, between Av. H. Colegio Militar and del Rey, Heroico Colegio Militar I Av.
4. Dog Park
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgU7S9zvNS4/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CgU7S9zvNS4/
Chapultepec now has a dog park! Your lomitos now have another place dedicated especially for them where they can play and learn in a safe area full of games and obstacles.
This space is inside Gandhi Park, located north of Tamayo Park, between Rubén Darío and Gandhi avenues. Don’t forget to bring your furry friend on a leash and wear the right shoes and clothes to fill up with fur!
📍Polanco, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo
5. Carousel
https://www.instagram.com/p/CeF0sLMAjFi/
There is no more magical thing inside a child’s childhood than a carousel. Full of lights, elaborately crafted horses and music that transports you to another era.
Did you know that the one in the First Section is one of the most beautiful ever built? It has lived in Venice, in Chicago, in the Alameda Central and now it is in the Chapultepec Forest.
📍Bosque de Chapultepec, Between Av. H. Colegio Militar and del Rey, Av. Heroico Colegio Militar I
6. Trenecito
On June 2, 2022 this little train officially returned, which is now electric and comes from Italy. It has a capacity to carry up to 58 passengers and travels through 15 emblematic sites of the First Section of the forest such as the Canadian Totem, the Nezahualcóyotl Fountain, Chapultepec Zoo, Fountain of the Frogs, Audiorama, Calzada del Rey and the Museum of the Site.
It offers tours from Tuesday to Sunday, from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, as well as night tours on Wednesdays from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
📍Av. de los Compositores, Bosque de Chapultepec II Secc, Miguel Hidalgo
7. Chapultepec Zoo
This zoo, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, preserves and cares for different species of animals, being one of the largest in Mexico, after the Guadalajara Zoo, and the oldest in the country.
Today it has a population of 1930 animals of 250 different species, in addition to a Herpetarium and a Butterfly Farm, which has more than 40 tropical species of butterflies native to Mexico.
The Zoo occupies 17 hectares of the First Section of the Chapultepec Forest, and has 7 areas with special climatic and plant conditions to recreate the desert, grasslands, the coastal strip, the tundra, an aviary, the temperate forest and the tropical forest.
The Chapultepec Zoo has free admission for all visitors from Tuesday to Thursday, from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm.
📍Calz. Chivatito s/n, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo
8. Lanchas (boats)
One of the iconic activities for visitors to the forest is to go up to the pier and rent a boat to row.
The Bosque de Chapultepec has two piers, Puerto Chico and Puerto Grande, and you can rent rowboats for 2 and 4 people, pedal boats for 2 and 4 people, and kayaks for 1 and 2 people.
📍First and Second Section Bosque de Chapultepec, Miguel Hidalgo
9. Librobús
https://www.instagram.com/p/CdZiG0gO6Fm/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CdZiG0gO6Fm/
If you’re walking through reforma, you’ve surely seen the famous librobús, but did you know it’s a truck that transforms into a bookstore with a collection of up to 4,000 copies?
It is a 6.5 ton expandable truck that transforms into a real bookstore with a varied collection and the capacity to receive 10 people at a time.
This is just one of the fleet belonging to the group that reaches hundreds of communities and is present in different cultural events around the country.
You can find one at Puerta de Leones every day from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 17:00 hours and choose from all the options your new favorite book.
10. Museums
According to the Sistema de Información Cultural de Secretaría de Cultura, in total there are 1,432 museums in Mexico, being the CDMX the place where most of them are concentrated with 168 museums. However, did you know that there are 8 museums in the Chapultepec Forest?
Don’t you know what they are? We’ll tell you and we suggest you to visit them all. Most of them are totally free on Sundays! Check the list here.
📍Different venues
11. Environmental Culture Center
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnFmECwLQCP/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CnFmECwLQCP/
The new Environmental Culture Center is ready and open! Find it in the Second Section of Chapultepec Forest, in what used to be a deforested parking lot.
This space is now a forum and exhibition space for environmental culture and climate change. The Environmental Culture Center consists of a set of themed gardens that reinterpret the landscapes of the most representative ecosystems of the Mexico Valley Basin.
In this space you will find vertical wetlands, five types of ethnobotanical gardens, an exhibition pavilion and eco-technical exhibits; visitors can enjoy multiple landscape, cultural and environmental experiences.
📍Av. de los Compositores, Bosque de Chapultepec II Secc, Miguel Hidalgo
12. Amphibium: Museum of the Axolotl
Inside the Chapultepec Zoo there is a space where you can learn more about salamanders, amphibians and other animals, as well as the importance they have for the environment.
This space is called Anfibium: Museo del Axolote y Centro de Conservación de Anfibios and its objective is to protect salamanders, as well as to promote amphibian research.
This place is located right in the area where the elephants used to be. It is an interactive space composed of different areas. It has an artificial wetland where you will learn more about this ecosystem and the animals that live in it.
📍Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo
13. Parcur
The Second Section of Bosque de Chapultepec was remodeled a few years ago, and among the novelties it boasts since then is the Skatepark Constituyentes, a space with more than 4 thousand square meters with capacity for 600 skaters.
Besides having ramps, bowls and stairs suitable for all levels, we like this skatepark because of its design that blends in with the wooded surroundings of Chapultepec and from here you get a nice view of the buildings of Reforma.
📍Av. de los Compositores 1505, Bosque de Chapultepec Second Section, Miguel Hidalgo
14. Botanical Garden
In the times of Nezahualcoyotl, the Bosque de Chapultepec housed the first Botanical Garden in the country, formed through collections of exotic plants brought from other states of Mexico.
It was inaugurated in 2006, built in a space of 5.3 hectares and offers visitors a magnificent landscape and a valuable collection of native and introduced plants. It also has an orchid garden.
As of 2016, the botanical garden has been rehabilitated by Plantando con Causa A.C. With the help of landscapers, botanists, horticulturists and biologists, it has restored 22 spaces that can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.
Since 2017, the garden has more than 300 varieties of plants, distributed as follows: plants for pollinators, edible plants, succulents, wetland plants, 14 species of wild dahlias, agaves, cacti and arboretum, among others.
📍Av. P.º de la Reforma 126, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo
15. Aztlan Urban Park
Aztlán Urban Park is being built in what used to be the Chapultepec Fairgrounds. The works to transform this space began on July 19, 2021 and the first stage of this site is expected to be inaugurated on August 30. It will have attractions for all ages and will be free of charge.
The first thing you should know is that all of Aztlán’s attractions will have the pre-Hispanic era and Mexican culture as their main theme. There will be mechanical games, a house of terror, immersive experiences, a forum for shows and even a venue for the Dolores Olmedo Museum.
📍Ampliación Daniel Garza, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc.