Oaxaca · With kids

A levelled mountaintop of plazas and pyramids twenty minutes above the city — flat, open and easy to run around. Little shade. Ages 5+.

Mineral pools on a cliff edge above a petrified waterfall. The last road in is rough and the site sometimes closes in local disputes. Ages 6+.

A cypress with a trunk fourteen metres across in a churchyard ten minutes out of town; guides point out the shapes in the bark. Ages 4+.

Guided visits only, through a walled cactus garden behind Santo Domingo. An hour, and better for older children. Ages 8+.

At 1,550 metres nights are cold and afternoons wet from May to October. Stone streets and high kerbs make a carrier far easier than a stroller.