5 Fun Things to do in La Paz with Kids (Bolivia)

La Paz, Bolivia is an amazing & beautiful city, yet it’s not a key figure in the South America travel scene. Many families visit La Paz with their kids on their way to somewhere else, like the Uyuni Salt Flats or Cusco, Peru, etc.

For instance, we traveled from Cusco, Peru to La Paz on our way to spend 3 days in the Uyuni Salt Flats with our kids. We also returned to La Paz for one day on our way back to Cusco.

Despite it only being a layover on our family trip to Bolivia, we really enjoyed our time in La Paz with kids. Like all big cities, it’s a bit crazy and noisy, but it’s also a really cool city. The vertical setting in a mountain valley is truly amazing and unique. I love looking at all the lights on the surrounding hills at night!

If you have some time on your family vacation to Bolivia, we’d like to recommend some of the fun things we did in La Paz with our kids.

This post contains compensated links.

5 Fun Things to do with Kids in La Paz

1. Cable Cars

The best thing to do with your kids in La Paz is to go for a ride on their iconic cable cars. La Paz has an extensive network of cable cars which run to all corners of the city. For families visiting La Paz, this means long sightseeing rides over La Paz. It’s a safe and very affordable way to see lots of different areas of La Paz. And the views are incredible too!

Suggested La Paz Cable Car Route for Tourists #1

We began our journey on the La Paz cable cars by walking to the Estacion Central to catch the Red (rojo) cable car, which takes you from the valley bottom to the top of the rim. Along the way, you’ll enjoy some amazing views of the incredible setting that La Paz is in. In addition, you’ll pass over the historic General Cemetery and the Chualluma neighborhood, which is home to many very colorful buildings.

At the 16 de Julio Station, we got off the Red line and transferred to the Silver line (Línea Plateada), which we rode two stations to the Mirador station. The Silver line was a ton of fun as it follows the top of the ridge.

On one side of the Silver line, you enjoy panoramic views of La Paz and the snow capped mountains in the distance. On the other side, you’ll enjoy an up-close look at some vibrant city life. We passed over soccer fields, playgrounds, and colorful street markets which seemed to go on forever.

There’s a giant wall of glass at the Mirador station which gives an incredible view of La Paz. Although this is billed as a big attraction on the cable cars, we thought it was a little redundant as we were enjoying the same view the entire time on the Silver Line!

After soaking in the views, we went outside of the station for a bit, so the kids could play at the nearby playground. We noticed a lot of dogs at the station which were wearing blue jackets. As it turns out, these are elderly dogs which have been adopted by station staff and locals. The blue jackets identify the dogs and show they are being well-cared for. Love it!

We returned to central La Paz by taking the Silver line back one station to Estación Faro Murillo. We then hopped on the Purple line (Morada) and rode back to the valley floor to the Obelisco Station (Estación San José) , which is only a few blocks away from the Witches Market.

All of this scenery and fun for only 40 BOB (~ $5.80 USD) for the four of us!

Suggested La Paz Cable Car Route for Tourists #2

When we returned to La Paz after a 3-day tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats we had a some time to kill. We had enjoyed our first trip on the La Paz cable car, so we decided to go for another ride. This time we flew on the Sky Blue (Lina Celeste) line and the Green (Lina Verte) line.

Starting at Estación Prado, just outside downtown La Paz, the cable car ride is immediately interesting. As the cable car rises, so do the surrounding buildings, allowing you to admire the many tall and interesting buildings as you head south-east. Beyond the high-rise buildings, it’s amazing to see how every inch of livable land in this valley has been taken.

As you near Libertador station at the end of the Sky Blue line, the neighborhoods become greener and quieter, and you get a peek into some of La Paz’s newer and nicer residential areas!

We transferred to the Green line and it felt like we had entered a completely different city. You leave behind the dramatic valley of central La Paz, and enter a greener, more spread-out part of the city. The Green line heads towards the Zona Sur, which is a more modern, laid-back part of the city.

This second tourist trip on the La Paz cable car system revealed a much newer, more modern side of the city. It was a really nice contrast to the more historical, cultural cable car trip we took our first day.

If we are being honest, the best part about riding the La Paz cable car system with kids is playing an epic game of Punch Buggy. La Paz has tons of Volkswagen Beetle cars, and spotting them from above is a ton of fun!

2. Witches Market

One of the most fun things to in La Paz with kids is to visit the famous Witches Market. Dating back centuries, the Witches Market was a gathering place for traditional healers who sold spiritual items (medicinal herbs, protective amulets, llama fetuses, etc.) for use in Andean rituals.

While many of these traditions still persist, today the Witches Market is mostly a tourist shopping street, similar to what you’ll find in any tourist destination anywhere. Don’t get me wrong, the Witches Market is still a lot of fun, but there are only a handful of shops here who sell anything related to witchcraft.

For example, at the La Paz Witches Market, there are a few shops who have tiny llama and pig fetuses hanging on display, but if you don’t point them out to your kids, chances are they won’t even notice. They just look like small llamas or pigs – nothing grotesque or scary. Kids are too busy looking for fun souvenirs to spot stuff like that!

If you are looking for some souvenirs from your family holiday to Bolivia, the Witches Market is the best place to go with your kids.

3. Hike to Charquini

As fun as it is, La Paz is a crazy busy place, so it didn’t take long for us to start itching to get out in nature. One of the most popular hiking tours in La Paz is a day trip to Charquini.

Our bus left La Paz at 8 am, and for the next 80 minutes we enjoyed a wide variety of interesting scenery, including a fun glimpse of the residential suburbs of La Paz. Our next stop was a viewpoint where we could see the sprawling city of El Alto in one direction and towering snow-capped mountains in the other.

With a quick stop at a rural store for snacks, we were at the Charquini trailhead by 10:15, with an elevation of 4,650 m / 15,250 feet. From the parking lot you can soak in the splendor of the glacier atop the rocky peak of Charquini.

The hike to Charquini is a slow, but steady uphill walk along a gravel path. With no trees, we were able to soak in the amazing Bolivian Andes scenery. The mountains closest to us were a pale green, but the two closest to Charquini were a beautiful reddish black.

Due to the increasingly high altitude, we all stopped for several breaks along the way to catch our breath and let our rapidly beating hearts slow down.

Once at the end of the Charquini hiking trail, we were treated to a truly beautiful mountain scene. Laguna Emerald is a small lake with incredible emerald colored water. It sits at the bottom of a waterfall, with the massive Charquini glacier and mountaintop just overhead.

When we arrived at the beginning of winter in early July, the lake was half-frozen as was the waterfall which, in my opinion, added to the beauty. We spent a lot of time eating lunch and soaking in the amazing views around Charquini and Laguna Emerald.

We signed up for a combo tour which included transportation and tickets for the Sunday evening Cholitas wrestling matches. We arrived at 5 pm and the first match was already underway. There were five matches altogether, with two of the matches having male wrestlers and the remaining three with the female Cholitas wrestlers.

Not knowing any better, I had expected a rather wholesome affair, but it was more of a PG-13 experience. These wrestlers are giving it their all! Over the course of the evening, we watched a ladder match as well as a match with the Cholitas wrestlers chained to each other.

The Cholitas wrestlers love the use of props in their matches. We saw countless wrestlers get smashed through car windshields, body slammed onto wooden crates, chairs and brooms being used as weapons, and more!

The action spilled out of the ring a lot, which created a lot of excitement when the wrestling was just feet away from our seats! The highlight of the night was when a Cholita set a wooden plank on fire and suplexed another wrestler onto it! These girls are not messing around!

My kids were 9 & 11 when we went. My daughter was a little uncomfortable with the violence, especially when some of the wrestlers had blood on their faces. It’s all fake blood though… from our ringside seats we could clearly see them rubbing the fake blood onto their faces as they lay on the ground in front of us.

The Cholitas Wrestling matches are about 30 minutes outside downtown La Paz in a suburb called El Alto. Unless you want to deal with the hassle of taxis, tickets, etc., the easiest way to go see the Cholitas Wresting matches is with an organized tour. Our tour left from downtown La Paz and included return bus transportation, tickets to the show, popcorn and a drink and a souvenir.

We enjoyed a 20-minute walk from our downtown hotel to the children’s museum. It took a while to figure out how to get in, as Google Maps was completely wrong. You need to go here, and take a funicular up.

The La Paz children’s museum starts with an outdoor play area which has some fun activities for kids. Our kids had fun in the sand pits, as well as playing with hoola hoops, and having tug-of-war games.

The Pipiripi children’s museum itself is in a large 6 story building, each floor housing different activities for kids. It’s all in Spanish, of course, but most of the activities don’t require any reading. Our kids’ favorite activities at Pipiripi were playing with giant bubbles, balancing games and the large chess board.

The La Paz children’s museum is not up to the typical North American or European standards, but it’s nearly free (17 bolivianos for the four of us – roughly $2.50 USD). So we thought we got fair value for the hour we spent at the La Paz children’s museum.