As far as amazing tourist sites rate, ancient ruins from the Colosseum to Petra are right at the top of most people’s travel bucket list…

But what if you have toddlers?

What if you are the proud parents of dizzyingly energetic youngsters under five who run wild, have the attention span of goldfish and demand snacks every five minutes? Could you really attempt to visit some of the most famous, awe-inspiring sights in the world? Could you deal with a terrible tantrum in the temple at Tikal? Would a massive melt-down in Machhu Pichu ruin your holiday? Perhaps staggeringly slow stroll up stone staircases at ancient Sigiriya in Sri Lanka seems like a vacation nightmare to you?

Well, I’m going to try and convince you (sleep-deprived and neurotic parents of toddlers- just like myself) that yes, exploring ancient ruins can actually be a fun, enjoyable and educational day out for all the family! Feeling sceptical yet? Then keep reading…

Chichen Itza, the mother of all ancient ruins. A toddler’s heaven!

We LOVED Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Not far from the tourist resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Chichen Itza is one of the famous Mayan archaeological sites in the whole of Latin America. The current World Heritage site encompasses the remains of a vast Mayan city (first inhabited around 1400 years ago)  including the world famous Temple of Kukulcan (a giant central pyramid once used for human sacrifices!)

Our family spent hours gamely exploring the ruins with our then 2-year-old H and 8 month-old, Zizi.  Not only did we get to see our children running/rolling around in the vast,  manicured grounds of this incredible site, we even got 45 minutes to ourselves whilst they both slept in slings on our backs.  That was a memorable, sweaty date for the two of us!

How did we end up in Chichen Itza?

My other half and I were lucky enough to be able to share 4 months of shared parental leave in 2016 after the birth of our second child. When planning 3 months in the USA, we decided to also spend some time somewhere that felt more adventurous. Our decision to base ourselves for a month in Quintana Roo, Mexico was swayed by the proximity of many Mayan ruins.  Having travelled through Central America before, we knew that we love wandering through large ruins and we had also tasted that experience with H before and found that he loved it too.

More Mexican Ancient Ruins with a Toddler

We spent 3 nights in Valladolid – a gorgeous colonial town with its own charms like leafy plazas and a sunken cenote – for the purpose of visiting nearby Chichen Itza and another lesser known Mayan ruin site called Ek Balam. Chichen Itza is huge but worth it. Running around tired out our toddler H but his sleep rejuvenated him. He was at a lovely age and enjoyed both exploring and posing for lots of photos. One thing that he didn’t manage, however, was the evening sound and light show on the main Pyramid which he found too scary. For older (or braver) kids though, I highly recommend it- it was awesome!

H and the rest of us enjoyed our day out at Ek Balam even more. This ancient site is off the main tourist trail and the Mayan ruins are not all roped off like in Chichen Itza. This gave H the opportunity to climb and scramble – the surroundings became one giant playground for him.

We gave H a torch to explore the deepest, darkest areas of the ruins and he really got into the role play of pretending to be an intrepid explorer, making this one of my all-time favourite days out with my little man.  And Zizi too, who gave us many good excuses to take a break for a breastfeed amid the incredible views.

Another Mayan city Coba was even closer to our base in Playa del Carmen. Setting off in our hire car for the day, we found these Mayan ruins to be well shaded which was a relief after the unrelenting, blazing sun of the other two ancient sites. Even better, you could hire a driver on a tuk-tuk bicycle to take you around this huge and spread out site so this is a very easy experience for ancient ruins with a toddler. This definitely saved H’s energy allowing him the stamina to climb the hundreds of steps up the big pyramid that the ruins are famed for.

One of H’s favourite cartoons at the time was the BBC’s toddler-friendly show ‘Go-Jetters’.  The cartoon characters often go off to ancient ruins to try and save them from the baddie ‘Grandmaster Glitch’.  It’s easy to get H enthralled by ancient ruins by pretending Grandmaster Glitch has just visited and we need to save the day. If you want to visit ancient ruins with a toddler too, then a ‘Go Jetter’s’ cartoon may be just the right introduction! See the BBC Website for information on where each episode is based.

In chronological order, here are some other favourite ruins that H and Zizi (since she became a toddler) enjoyed.

Ancient ruins with a toddler: Athens, Greece

No trip to Athens would be complete without visiting the ancient Grecian monument of the Acropolis. Situated on a hill, it dominates the Athens skyline and involves an uphill walk to reach it.  Unless your toddler is a very keen and strong walker you will probably end up carrying them up. We easily carried H up (he was only 11 months old – does that count as a toddler?) and we were admiring the pillars and ornate carvings in no time.  Another of the great world sites he’s seen but will have to revisit to remember…

There are so many other Grecian ruins around Athens that are too numerous to list here. Rome is the same – you can’t help but discover new sites around each new corner. One of our favourites in Athens was the Temple of Zeus which was on our walk to and from the hotel. Stopping here allowed H space to get out of his stroller and stretch his legs. The temple catches the light differently throughout the day, meaning you get a new experience each time.

Ancient ruins with a toddler: Cyprus

Having found out from our visit to Athens that visiting ancient ruins with a toddler work well both for us and our toddler H, we decided that our Easter holiday would be to Cyprus, home of many ancient sites.  We did a multi-destination holiday taking in a few ruins, and the Tomb of the Kings near Paphos got us off to an amazing start.  The approach was spectacular at that time of year. We walked through a field of yellow flowers up to H’s ears which had us all smiling.

Whilst not the most spectacular ruins, they are pretty unique and gave us a pleasant stroll in the sunshine. Before H fell asleep in his sling, he was off exploring everywhere. Here he is getting a bit macabre – those are ancient tombs he has decided to crawl into…  You need eyes in the back of your head when exploring ancient ruins with a toddler!

Our favourite ancient ruins in Cyprus were at Salamis. This is a huge, breathtaking site with well-preserved Grecian remains. Again H mastered his running / sling-sleeping combination to give us an amazing day out.

Ancient ruins with a toddler: Sicily, Italy.

Skipping forward 18 months, past Mexico and many other adventures: H is now 3 and Zizi 1.  Two toddlers on our hands!!  What kind of holiday did we decide was suitable?  Well, looking back fondly on our Cyprus trip we decided that a similar holiday with sun, beaches and ancient ruins would work best.  Armed with Zizi in a sling and H on his own two feet, we visited the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento in Sicily, Italy.

These ancient ruins allowed for more ‘go-jetting’, meandering through fallen columns and other rubble that ‘Grandmaster Glitch’ had left in his wake. H couldn’t get enough of running around, looking in every nook and cranny. At the end of our exploration came the most incredible Grecian temple, impressively mostly intact.  Zizi had a breastfeed in front of this magnificent temple and the moment was lovely – enjoying the view of the temple, the hills behind and watching H play in the foreground.  Ancient ruins with a toddler can be amazing on so many levels.

H did really well with all the walking and running, although we did carry him (and Zizi) up the hill to the ruins. On the way back, we kept him going a bit longer with the promise of an ice cream at the bottom.  This is a treat we’ve given both of our toddlers when they’ve worn themselves out being busy, intrepid explorers.

Even more incredible in my opinion are the ancient ruins at Selinunte. Not only are there a few different areas to explore, there were golf buggies to take you between them.  What more could toddlers want!  This was as much of an adventure as running around the ruins. We loved it and views offered by the temples in front of the ocean were very memorable indeed.

Ancient ruins with a toddler: Switzerland

For ‘ancient ruins’, read castles. Northern Switzerland (and indeed Southern Germany and much of Western Europe) is dotted with fairytale castles.  We took a day out of our recent summer holiday in Switzerland to visit first Habsburg Castle, in the canton of Aargau, which is free and then the more welcoming and nearby Lenzburg castle.

The latter is set-up with children and toddlers in mind.  Legend has it that that Lenzburg castle is built upon a cave where a knight fought with a dragon to rescue his friend. This tale was retold via shadow puppetry and in another room was a mechanical dragon hissing steam. Needless to say, H and Zizi were spellbound!

Lenzburg Castle also has one of the best play areas for role-playing we’ve been to. H and Zizi dressed up in medieval costumes and kept themselves entertained playing with knights, in kitchens and mock towers. All these toddler-friendly activities plus the castle’s grounds and rooms made this a fun-filled day for everyone, including their gran.

Ancient ruins with a toddler: Raglan Castle, Wales

Castles are a great day out for toddlers. We also visit them back in the UK. One memorable visit was to Raglan Castle in South Wales with H and Zizi’s Grandad. It’s an imposing medieval castle to wander round complete with a moat. Somewhat fortuitously, we visited on a day when a local medieval club was staying in the grounds in replicas of medieval tents. So we didn’t have to imagine what going back in time was like, we could see it – grubby looking people were skinning and cooking rabbits, whilst others were practising swordplay or archery. Imagine all of that through the eyes of our two toddlers!

Ancient ruins with a toddler: Crete

Cyprus and Sicily were amazing holidays – wonderful mixes of ancient ruins and beaches.  So we decided to embark on a similar Mediterranean holiday, in Crete.  And it was definitely worth it! The Palace of Knossos takes most plaudits but we preferred the quieter sites at Lato, Aptera and Polyrrinia, because they could be explored more freely.

Out of all the ancient ruins we visited, Lato was our favourite. It was one of those days when a toddler uses their abundance of energy to positive and highly memorable effect. H was a livewire! But only in a way that added to everyone’s experience.  He clambered over every rock in sight and his biggest achievement was climbing all the way to the top of the hill with Da. It was windy that day, but it won’t be the wind we remember…  Crete turned out to be a superb choice for a holiday including many ancient ruins with a toddler.

And we’re not finished with ancient ruins yet…

Our love of ancient ruins comes from our global trips before children. I’ve had awe-inspiring experiences at many ancient sites from the Great Wall of China to Petra in Jordan, from Trakai Island Castle in Lithuania to Macchu Pichu in Peru.  We plan to take H and Zizi back to many of these ancient sites in the future, as well as new ones on our list like in Myanmar or Mali. It is an incredible World for Toddlers after all!