Mexico is one of the best places in the world for a family vacation. Mexicans revere children and shower them with special attention in restaurants, at dances and even in bars. And children's natural curiosity will lead parents into more impromptu encounters with local people than all their other efforts combined.

Beaches and kids are also a natural fit, and Mexico has more than 6,000 miles of sand, ranging from mega-resorts with nonstop activities to secluded coastal retreats ripe for exploring. But don't overlook the less obvious attractions of Mexico's colonial cities, villages and ruins, which are often exotic and fascinating to kids. Here are our top picks for family vacations that mix fun and culture:

1. Mexico City
There's no better place to learn what Mexico is all about — and have fun doing it. Chapultapec Park alone could keep a family occupied for days, with its large zoo, pony rides, rowboat and bicycle rentals, amusement and water parks, Segway tours, weekend concerts and schedule of free performances (Aztec pole dancers, ballets, costumed acrobats). At the park's El Museo del Niño (The Museum of the Child), kids learn by playing, whether that means lying on a bed of nails or producing their own radio program. Equally exciting: The National History Museum here is a real castle, where the Emperor Maximilian once lived.

Surrounding the city's zócalo — the third-largest public square in the world (after Tiananmen Square in Beijing and Moscow's Red Square) — are Latin America's largest cathedral; an excavated ceremonial Aztec temple and museum; and the Palacio Nacional with its famous Diego Rivera murals. The Santa Fe shopping mall in the southwest part of the city offers the innovative Ciudad de los Niños (City of Children), a miniature city where kids work — as firefighters, bakers, hairdressers, etc. — to earn money for purchases. In suburban Xochimilco, you can join Mexican families on outings to the last remains of the Aztecs' floating gardens, boating miles of canals among vendors selling flowers, fruit, tortillas and even serenades.

Note: The double-decker Turibus makes a continuous circuit of the city's most popular attractions, with English narration; you can hop on and off wherever you like.

2. Cancún
This resort's quintessential Caribbean beaches abound with opportunities for kids to learn snorkeling, kayaking, sailing and diving, get some thrills on a parasail or Jet Ski, view the underwater world from a glass-bottom boat or take a pirate cruise. Many beachfront hotels have turtle rescue programs during nesting season, and kids can even adopt their own baby turtle.

Parque Nizuc, at the south end of the island, encompasses the Wet 'N Wild water park and a dolphin swim program, among other attractions. Las Islas, the Hotel Zone's newest shopping center, has plenty of shops and restaurants but also boat rides through manmade canals, a rock-climbing wall and the Interactive Aquarium, where visitors can pet rays and sea turtles, swim with dolphins and feed sharks. Cancún even has some painless culture: The small El Rey archaeological zone is well-suited to kids' attention spans and full of lazy iguanas to chase. The folk art museum, La Casa del Arte Popular, is entrancing, with life-size scenes from a market, a traditional home, a chapel populated with wax figures modeled on real people and a stunning toy room.

3. Riviera Maya
The Caribbean shores south of Cancún offer a world of wonder. At Puerto Morelos in the north, families can hold baby crocodiles, feed spider monkeys and wind boas around their necks at Croco Cun, a preserve for native species. Dolphin Discovery's top-notch Puerto Aventuras site has manatees, as well as dolphins, to swim with.

A short list of activities at Xcaret, biggest and best-known of several popular eco-parks in the area, includes walking through a bat cave; seeing sea turtles, jaguars, flamingos and toucans; floating down a river; and watching cultural performances. Younger children will probably be happier at Xel-Ha, a smaller, less crowded park with everything from snorkeling and inner tubing to climbing ropes and jumping off cliffs; it also offers dolphin swims and a turtle camp. At Hidden Worlds Cenotes park, the whole family can float, snorkel or (if you're qualified) dive in the cold, crystalline waters of sinkholes formed by underground rivers — or view them from above on a "Skycycle." Near Akumal, the Centro Ecológico Akumal has exhibits on efforts to protect the Mezoamerican Reef system; visitors also can join turtle walks from May through September.

4. Mérida
Kids interested in the "lost" Maya civilization will be delighted to find the culture thriving in a modern city. The zócalo is always a hive of family activity, and the city sponsors nightly cultural events around the historic center, from traditional Yucatecan dancing to guitar trovas (trios) to folkloric ballet to serenades; every Sunday, downtown streets close for a full day of concerts, feasts, puppet shows and dancing. The anthropology museum, in the ornate Palacio Cantón, is small enough to keep kids engaged with its displays of limestone jaguars, skulls with jade-encrusted teeth, stelae and sacrificial instruments, all surrounded by formal Italianate cornice moldings and chandeliers.

Clip-clopping around the city in a calesa (horse-drawn carriage) is not only fun but actually more efficient than battling traffic on the old city's narrow streets. And families flock to Parque Centenario for its miniature train, pony rides, a pond with rowboats, playgrounds, a skateboarding rink and a free zoo with jaguars, toucans, monkeys and tropical birds. Within day-trip range are numerous Maya ruins, including Chichén Itzá, as well as working haciendas, the beach at Progreso and the flamingo sanctuary at Celstún.

5. Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo
This two-for-one Pacific Coast destination has an upscale tourist resort area and a traditional fishing village sitting cheek-by-jowl. Both offer good restaurants and shopping and are full of vacationing Mexican families (and generally overlooked by rowdy spring breakers). Ixtapa, the resort area, sits on a pristine crescent of beach, offering several miles of bike paths, kayaking, snorkeling and a dolphin encounter program for kids as young as 3. The shops and villages lining the village of Zihuatanejo's central plaza are juxtaposed with miles of beach. Families can watch fishermen launch their boats and sell their catch right downtown or hop a water taxi to Las Gatas Beach, where even the littlest kids can snorkel in the calm water. You can also take a boat to Ixtapa Island and hang out on one of the popular beaches buzzing with water sports. Ten miles south of town, the nature sanctuary at Barra de Potosí offers kayak or motorboat tours through a tranquil lagoon filled with pelicans, roseate spoonbills and herons.

6. Oaxaca
Kids will be too fascinated by Oaxaca's colors and sounds to realize they're getting a history lesson. The lively zócalo is ground zero, surrounded by colonial buildings, some recently developed into restaurants, galleries and shops. They will be mesmerized by the masks at the Rufino Tamayo Prehispanic Art Museum, which houses the artist's collection of pre-Columbian and early Mexican ceramics and folk art in a typical home built around a spacious courtyard just made for frolicking. And if you're lucky enough to visit in December, Oaxaca's Noche de Rábanos — "Night of the Radishes" — is Mexico's most unusual Christmas celebration.

Easy day trips from Oaxaca include the ruins of Monte Albán, a free-form archaeological site where kids can scramble over the pyramids, gawk at bones and tomb offerings through glass-covered floor panels in the on-site museum and browse art, archaeology and history books written just for them. In the village of Teotitlán del Valle, men women and children invite visitors into their homes to watch them weave their brightly colored rugs.

7. Puerto Vallarta
Sitting on Mexico's largest natural bay (the Bahía de Banderas), the capital of the Mexican Riviera dispenses equal parts history, tourist thrills and eco-adventure. The old downtown offers a lively main square, a traditional market, a beachfront promenade and whitewashed houses lining cobblestone streets. Not far away in the so-called Gringo Gulch is Casa Kimberly, where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton stayed during filming of "The Night of the Iguana." Las Caletas, director John Huston's secluded former home, now offers a petting zoo, snorkeling and kayaking, restaurants and folkloric shows staged on a small Aztec pyramid. The protected bay features all the obligatory beach activities and offers calm, shallow waters where little ones can play. The new Splash water park has slides and pools suitable for small children, along with dolphin and sea lion shows. The Vallarta Adventure Center offers an easy way to participate in once-in-a-lifetime experiences, from becoming a dolphin trainer for a day to whale-watching to zip line tours over the tropical forest.

8. Tulúm
The compact size, seaside beauty and abundance of iguanas make Tulúm one of the best archaeological sites for a kid's attention span. Nearby Aktun-Chen, an eco-park in a rainforest inhabited by spider monkeys and wild turkeys, offers walks through caves riddled with stalactites, stalagmites and cenotes. At the end of Tulúm's beach road is the vast and magnificent Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, where visitors can take canal tours through the home of rare jaguars, ocelots, tapirs, manatees and sea turtles, as well as hundreds of species of birds; the reserve also rents comfortable tent cabins.

9. Puerto Peñasco (also called Rocky Point)
In the past few years, this unassuming fishing village on Mexico's far northern Pacific Coast has acquired a brisk, condo-fueled tourist industry. Right now, it's a perfect balance of rustic appeal and tourist comforts. Miles of beach offer sandy stretches, rocky coves, salt marshes, estuaries and tide pools, all crowd-free and ideal for beachcombers. But the main streets are paved, and in the tourist corridor that has grown up around the fishing port every shop has a view of the sea. Families can visit Las Ostioneras ("the oyster farms"), outside the community of Las Conchas, for an afternoon snack (bring your own hot sauce). CEDO, the nonprofit Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans, is part natural history museum, part research field station and part educational center, where programs for visitors include tidal walks, kayaking in remote estuaries, hikes to ancient volcano beds and tours of the dome-shaped Earthship, constructed entirely from recycled materials.

10. Los Cabos
Los Cabos was born of the same resort-seeking computer that created Cancún, and its postcard-perfect beaches host many of the same outdoor activities. But the less-developed town of San José del Cabo also offers a wealth of cultural activities, many of them emanating from the graceful, shady plaza where locals and travelers mingle. Kids will enjoy boating to — and snorkeling and swimming under — Los Arcos, the famous rock where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortés. A horse or a four-wheel-drive vehicle will get you to the 19th century El Faro lighthouse, surrounded by a sea of sand dunes. The Estero de San José del Cabo, where the freshwater Río San José flows into the sea, is closed to boats to protect more than 200 species of bird; exhibits at the nature center illustrate Baja's indigenous culture. The beautiful Playa Hotelera is, unfortunately, unsafe for swimming, but at its east end is a freshwater lagoon burgeoning with tropical birds and plants (and the insects that attract them — bring bug spray). The best swimming beach is Playa Palmilla, just south of San José, protected by a rocky point and filled with boats and shacks.