Rafael and Isabella Pizzato moved to Shanghai just a year ago with their twins Betina and Frederico (22 months). This fun-loving family has adapted to the Shanghai life quite easily as many aspects of the city remind them of their home in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They love how family-friendly the city is and enjoy watching their kids become trilingual – learning English, Portuguese and, of course, Mandarin. Here they tell us some of their favorite things that they have discovered in Shanghai so far.
Our Favorite…
Family Restaurants
We always go to Vapiano because they have both indoor and outdoor dining areas and they are super kids-friendly. The twins enjoy the items on the kids’ menu and we can also bring our dog when we sit outside. We also like going to Johnny Moo since they always have kids’ activities right outside of the restaurant. They always bring the food out really fast and they have small TVs that the kids can watch while waiting for food. We also love to go to Kerry Parkside when they have outdoor beer festivals where they combine activities for kids and good beer for adults.
Date Night
Rafael works with beer, so we love beer, and especially craft beer. We go a lot to Liquid Laundry and Kaiba because of the relaxed atmospheres and good beer selections. Food-wise, we think Mercato is the best. We have Italian roots and we find the food to be authentic and we love the ambiance because you don’t need to be too dressy.
Indoor Kids Zones for the Winter Months
Winter is not so bad here because there are many kid-friendly indoor play zones. One of our favorites is on the third floor of the Super Brand Mall. Like many other compounds in Shanghai, ours has a great play area too.
Places to be active
I go to Crossfit in Jinqiao and Rafael plays polo at the Oriental Sports Center. The swimming pool at the sports center is great too. While Rafael plays polo, I often take the kids to either the outdoor and indoor pools to play. The Little Gym is excellent too for the twins and caters to kids ages six months to eight years.
Places to travel inside China
We stayed at the Renaissance in Sanya and it was absolutely amazing, and very kids-friendly. They had a huge playroom with a lot activities and the swimming pool was giant and very clean. We went when the twins were just over one-year-old so we did not venture out of the hotel into the city, but our stay was very nice and it was a good break from the Shanghai winter.
Places to travel outside China
We went to Phuket recently without the kids and we really liked it. But as a family, our favorite was traveling to Boracay where we stayed at this little boutique hotel called the Coast Boracay. It was a great family experience and they tailored everything for the kids with lots of personalized treats for them. Usually we go for the big chain hotels, but this was an amazing experience. The island was really fun for snorkeling and was very safe with the guides’ supervision.
View of the city
We don’t think most people know this, but the IFC’s rooftop (go to the top floor and then take the stairs to the rooftop) offers the best view of the Pearl Tower. It is a great place for the kids to run around up there and it is absolutely beautiful.
