Museums and parks in Europe – where to go during the autumn holidays. The most interesting places in Amsterdam, Paris, Krakow, Berlin, Budapest, Vienna, Athens and Billund.
What to do on holidays? You can go with your children to Athens to study the history of Ancient Greece, to Vienna – to the Houses of music, butterflies and the sea, to Barcelona to visit the aquarium and ride roller coasters at PortAventura, or to the famous Legoland in Denmark – the largest amusement park made of Lego bricks.
I recommend reading: Disneyland on your own – how to prepare, what you should know in advance
Billund (Denmark) – Legoland and Safari Park
To get to Danish Legoland, you need to go to the small Danish town of Billund. Here is a factory that produces the most popular children’s construction set, Lego. That is why more than 50 years ago the first and one of the largest children’s theme parks – Legoland – was opened here. An entire world built from Lego bricks.
Legoland
This park consists of several zones, each designed for children of a certain age. First of all, this is a real Lego-city “Lego City” – the park zone of Legoland, where there is its own fire station and factory made of Lego bricks. Built in the center is Miniature World – “Mini Land“, which features different corners of the globe. For little ones there is a playground – “Duplo Land“, where a children’s driving school operates, so kids can learn to drive and receive a driver’s license.
For schoolchildren in Knights Kingdom “Knights Kingdom“, there are shows with knights, princesses and brave vikings. And in “Pirate Land” – a real pirate bay with ships and pirates. For older children, there is Adventure World – “Adventure Land“. This part of Legoland is for thrill seekers: from fun water rides to roller coasters and a cable car. By visiting “Legoredo Town” you will find yourself in the Wild West, meet the sheriff and cowboys. And in Ninjago World you get into the world of Japanese ninjas. In the “Polar Land” zone live real penguins, while “Imagination zone” features a huge aquarium with live sharks, giant crabs and other sea creatures.
Tickets: Child ticket from 359 DKK (48 Euro) per day. It is convenient and better to buy in advance on the Legolend website.
Discounts: In Lidl stores, there are 50% coupons on bread packages (the coupon is valid for up to 5 people)
You can spend several days at Legoland, and to increase the experience, we recommend staying overnight at the Legoland Castle Hotel, which looks like a castle built from Lego bricks.
Safari Park Givskud Zootopia
Safari Park Givskud Zootopia is located 35 km from Billund. More than 120 species of animals and birds live here in the open: lions, elephants and giraffes, llamas, rhinos, buffaloes freely roam the territory. In the safari park, you can watch the zoo staff feed the animals. If you wish, you can participate in feeding safe animals, such as camels.
The park is thematically divided by animal type, but you can move everywhere by car or special safari buses to see the animals up close. The highlight of the safari park is the lions. Cars with tent tops are not allowed – only those with a metal roof. In addition, when entering, all windows and doors must be closed and locked. However, through the glass you can see the real king of beasts and get as close as possible to him. To give you the feeling of being in Africa, the Danes have equipped their northern park with a real waterfall and jungle.
Tickets: Adult – 230 DKK (31 Euro), child – 130 DKK (17.5 Euro), tickets can be booked on the Zootopia website
Book accommodation at Givskud Zoo Hostel ⋙
Teddy Bear Museum
Teddy Bear Art Museum – for lovers of soft toys. The exhibition displays hundreds of different Teddy bears made in different years. The museum is located in a mansion surrounded by a lovely park immersed in flowers.
Tickets: adults – 100 DKK (14.5 Euro), children up to 11 years – free, you can buy them on the Teddy Bear Art Museum website
Book a hotel in Billund ⋙
Vienna (Austria) – House of Music, House of Butterflies and House of the Sea
Vienna is the perfect city for children’s holidays and weekends. There are many parks and museums here, which you could barely visit all in a week. So we suggest three choices of Houses where butterflies, the sea, and music live. And for dessert, the carousels in Prater Park.
House of Music
Haus der Musik – a museum housed in a beautiful, almost fairytale-like castle. All exhibitions are dedicated to music and sounds in one way or another. The museum is completely interactive – you can touch, produce sounds in all sorts of ways, and play any musical instruments. Visit the “Forest of Consciousness” room, where every surface can sound in a different way – just touch it. And even become a real conductor of the Vienna Orchestra for a few minutes. You can’t think of a better lesson for kids interested in music!
I recommend: Free Vienna – a big guide to the free locations of the Austrian capital
Tickets: on the House of Music museum website
House of Butterflies
Schmetterlinghaus appeared in Vienna in 1997, near the Hofburg Palace. Hundreds of species of winged beauties live in the Palm Pavilion of Burggarten Park. Under the glass roof of the pavilion there are small ponds, waterfalls, and bridges, surrounded by tropical trees. Cocoons hang among them, and butterflies flutter all around the visitors, landing on their hands and shoulders. This is a real tropical paradise where you can watch these delicate creatures for hours.
Tickets: adult ticket – 7 euros, information on the House of Butterflies website
House of the Sea
Haus des Meeres – Austria’s largest aquarium, home to 10,000 animals and fish. Here you can walk through a giant transparent tunnel: bright fish, stingrays and sharks swim past you. The dry part of the aquarium displays a rich tropical fauna: huge snakes, frogs, lizards, spiders, crocodiles and monkeys. The Viennese aquarium has an artificial stalactite cave with amazing millipedes and scorpions living in it. You can attend predator feedings (at designated times) and try feeding a shark. From the observation deck on the 11th floor of the House of the Sea, you get a wonderful view of Vienna.
Tickets: adults – 21.9 Euro, children – 9.8 Euro, information on the House of the Sea website
Prater Park
This is the oldest amusement park in Europe: both extreme rides and gentle ones for children and adults. If you go to Prater, be sure to buy a ticket to the old Ferris wheel Riesenrad. It lifts you to a height of 65 meters, from where you can see all of Vienna. For little ones, there are children’s cars and a kids’ railway that circles the entire park.
Entrance to the park is free – you only pay for rides
Barcelona (Spain) – aquarium, rides on Tibidabo mountain and Shambhala in PortAventura
Barcelona is interesting for both adults and children. There are lots of cool rides and one of the largest aquariums in Europe. Complement the active entertainment with walks in Park Güell, and visit the angle-free building of the Batlló Museum to get acquainted with the architecture of Antoni Gaudí.
Barcelona Aquarium
Barcelona Aquarium is one of the largest in Europe. By passing through the 80-meter glass tunnel, you can see how sharks, rays, moonfish, and hammerhead sharks swim overhead, and another 450 species of marine creatures. The most interesting zone for kids is the interactive aquarium area Explora!, where children learn why you need to dig in the mud, how to descend into an underwater cave and what a ray feels when it releases electrical discharges. The aquarium is also home to charming penguins – there is a special zone for them with slides and water tunnels.
Tickets: adults – 24 Euro, children – 17 Euro, information on the aquarium website
Tibidabo Park
The old Tibidabo Amusement Park, which is over 120 years old, is a nice place for small children and romantically inclined parents. The park is located on the mountain of the same name, which towers over Barcelona. There is a viewing platform with a wonderful view of the city, a Gothic Temple of the Sacred Heart with a huge statue of Christ. And of course, an amusement park with old carousels, a Ferris wheel, and the red airplane – an exact replica of the first aircraft that flew from Madrid to Barcelona. There are 25 rides in the park today for various ages: exotic “Vikings”, exciting “Hurricane”, magical “Mystery Castle”, as well as the automata museum, wizard’s shop, and 4D cinema.
Tickets: adult – 35 Euro, child – 14 Euro, details on the Tibidabo website
I recommend: Hotels in Barcelona – which neighborhood is better to rent accommodation in
Athens (Greece) – immersion in the history of Ancient Greece
So that history lessons aren’t boring, visit the excavations of ancient Greek temples and touch stones thousands of years old – it will be much more interesting to study the past in school lessons.
Acropolis and Parthenon
Be sure to see these ancient buildings you read about in textbooks. For 2,500 years, one of the most famous monuments of antiquity – the Parthenon Temple – has stood atop the Acropolis. It was built in honor of the goddess Athena Parthenos for patronage and the salvation of Athens during the Persian Wars. Walk among the ancient Greek columns, and the best time to admire the Acropolis in Athens is at sunset, as at this time the ruins of the former great city come alive and appear rebuilt anew.
Tickets: only at the Acropolis ticket office – 20 Euro.
Children’s Greek Museum
It will be interesting here for little ones just starting to get acquainted with the history of Ancient Greece. This is not just a museum, but a large play area, where one of the rooms recreates a children’s playroom from ancient Hellas. In another room, restless kids can try on children’s clothes from different eras. In the third, the guide will tell you all about the games that boys and girls found interesting thousands of years ago, and even show you how to play some of them.
Tickets: Entry to the museum is free, the museum is intended for children up to age 12.
Budapest (Hungary) – Underground Museum and Wildlife Park
Traveling to Budapest with children is made easier by direct trains from Ukraine and the low cost of admission to attractions.
Wildlife Park
Budakezsi Vadashpark is a wonderful place for walks with small children. On a huge area of 350 hectares, animals live in conditions as close as possible to their natural environment. Here you can see bears, lynx, wolves, deer and buffaloes, raccoons, eagles and others. If you come to the park in the morning, you can see animals being fed and trained. Many of the animals can be fed by children – special signs are installed on enclosures and special food is sold.
I recommend: Free Budapest
Tickets: adult – 3000 HUF (7 €), child – 1400 HUF (3.3 €), children under 2 years – 100 HUF (0.3 €), information on the park website.
Metro Museum
Földalatti Vasúti Múzeum is located underground – at the Deak Ferenc metro station. At the entrance, visitors are met by a wax inspector, which attracts children’s attention with its realism – face, hands, and clothes are made so you can’t tell them apart from a real person. After showing him a ticket, we enter the station, with display racks on one side and old carriages from different eras on the other, where passengers sit. Here you can also see a cutaway of the Budapest metro – the intersections of lines and the depth of metro stations.
Tickets: adult – 350 HUF (1€), child – 280 HUF (0.7€), details on the museum’s website.
Krakow (Poland) – underground museum and salt mine
One of the most affordable Polish cities in terms of price, distance and logistics offers many opportunities for trips with children. The city is packed with interesting museums and entertainment centers.
Krakow Underground Museum
This is one of the new and interesting museums located right in the city center – under the Market Square. The underground archaeological exhibition is made using the latest technology. Here you can touch everything, try it, feel it – it’s an interactive exhibition with an archaeological and historical focus. Throughout all the halls, visitors are accompanied by a musical-sound background that immerses them in the depths of time. For kids there is a separate hall with a puppet show–a legend about the foundation of Krakow.
Tickets: free, details on the Underground Museum website
Wieliczka Salt Mine
Wieliczka – an underground museum, a monumental salt mine that has been around for about 700 years. Wieliczka is an entire underground city with lakes, cafes and even its own underground chapel. Adults are amazed by the size of the mine, and for children there is a fairytale land – Solilandia. Walking through the underground corridors, children listen to stories and legends, solve puzzles and riddles, and meet fantasy characters along the way – the dragon Solon, the gnome Solilyudek with pockets full of candy, and the underground Treasurer.
Everyone will be interested to learn about how salt is mined, see a multimedia show about the salt mine, which is projected on the walls of caves. There are several underground routes you can take all day if you like: the tourist route is 3 km long and includes 800 steps; the miner’s route lets you learn and try the challenges of miners who extracted salt in Wieliczka; and there is also a pilgrimage route accompanied by a priest. It is cool in the caves – bring warm clothing. The underground temperature varies from 14 to 16°C.
I recommend: Free Krakow
Tickets: adult – 77 PLN (16 Euro), child – 59 PLN (12 Euro), additional excursion prices on the Wieliczka mine website.
Energylandia
The theme park Energylandia is located 50 km from Krakow in the town of Zator. The huge park covers an area of almost 30 ha, where you can ride carousels and roller coasters, watch movies in a 7D cinema and take part in a circus show. Adrenaline fans can try the Space Booster – a structure resembling a rocket, with seats for visitors at the ends. The park has entertainment for children and adults of any age: tubing down an icy slope, horses on the Vienna retro carousel, and a crazy flying bus. The family zone includes a planetarium and Swiss village, you can feel like a Viking in a boat, and take part in military battles. In summer, Energylandia has a water park with various pools, slides, and centrifuges.
Tickets: adult 179 PLN (37€), children up to age 3 and birthday children – 1 PLN, children not taller than 140 cm – 129 PLN (27€). Bus schedule at energylandia.pl.
Berlin (Germany) – natural history museums and Lego
In 2014 Berlin was awarded the title of best city for holidays with children. In addition to lots of interesting museums and entertainment centers, Berlin has a huge number of playgrounds.
MACHmit Museum
MACHmit Museum – one of the best children’s museums in Berlin, unlike any other museum. Here the whole family can study crafts and playing musical instruments. You can try on different professions: be a pharmacist, a farmer, or print your own book in the printing shop. The museum has a huge labyrinth where you can climb and go wild together with your parents. There is an old pipe organ where you can press the keys, a library where you can read books while lying on carpets. In the mirror room with light refraction effects, you can conduct optical experiments. There is a café on the second floor where you can have tea or cappuccino and tasty homemade desserts.
Tickets: children above 3 years – 7€, children from 2 to 3 years – 3.5€, family ticket – 25€ (2 adults + max. 3 children). Museum website.
Natural History Museum
Naturkundemuseum. This interactive museum contains a huge collection of 30 million objects, including unique dinosaurs, including the skeleton of the Giraffatitan – the tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton. There is a very interesting insect hall with half-meter models of prehistoric flies and butterflies. Among the mineral collection you can find the largest piece of amber. Kids enjoy looking at ancient skeletons, there are also various multimedia platforms with 3D glasses allowing you to plunge into the world of ancient dinosaurs. Audio guides are offered in different languages.
Tickets: adult ticket – 8€, child – 5€, family (two adults and up to three children up to 14 years) – €15, museum website.
Legoland, Berlin
Legoland Berlin is a favorite place for Lego construction set fans. On its 3500 sq. m, there are 15 themed creative zones, each of which you can play, build and assemble a wide variety of projects. In the Miniland section, you can see Berlin’s landmarks built from Lego construction sets. In the Pirate pool Lego-built ships swim via remote control. Kids shoot from ship cannons at a volcano crater and islands to launch fountains and special effects. In the Lego Factory they show the process of making children’s construction set details. Legoland is not just for boys. Girls have a separate Construction Bureau and a Princess Palace. Besides that, there is a rope maze in the building, a climbing wall to the ceiling, and a ball pit for little ones.
Tickets: prices start from 19€ and vary depending on the number of halls and attractions visited (details at www.legolanddiscoverycentre.de)
Gleisdreieck Park
Gleisdreieck Park is a relatively new park with a wonderful playground made from environmentally friendly materials, suitable for all ages: from toddlers to older children. The skate park and basketball court are especially popular with teenagers. Next to the park is the German Museum of Technology, which has a large locomotive and wagon exhibition. In fact, one railroad line still exists and passes through the park. There are several cafes in the park, hosting various children’s events. Gleisdreieck Park combines the opportunity to come for a picnic, do sports, or for adults to lie on the grass, while kids participate in workshops and play on the playgrounds.
I recommend: Berlin in three days – what to see in the German capital
Tickets: entry is free, park website
Berlin Zoo
Zoologischer Garten Berlin is worth spending a whole day. This is the largest and probably the best zoo in Europe, featuring over 1,500 species of animals, fish, reptiles and insects. Especially many people want to see how pandas live in the zoo – you can watch them for hours with affection. Next to the zoo is a three-storey aquarium, which displays not only fish but also reptiles, amphibians, insects and invertebrates. In addition, there is a huge playground with swings, trampolines, caves and slides on the zoo grounds – both kids and adults will love it here.
Tickets: adult ticket to the zoo and aquarium – €21, child – €10.5, family – €35. zoo website.
Paris, France
Paris is known for its children’s theme parks – Disneyland and Asterix. But besides these top attractions, Paris has many places to visit with children that are just as interesting.
Museum of Magic
Musée de la Magie will appeal to anyone who loves tricks and magic. It will immerse you in the wonderful world and history of illusionists, from the 18th century to the present day. Here you will find stories about all kinds of tricks, a hall of illusions and interactive performances. During the tour, magicians comment on what is happening. The museum preserves a collection of automata that were exhibited at fairs and were very popular in the 19th-20th centuries. If you think of yourself as a witch or wizard, you can take a special magic test in the museum and get a certificate. Special magic courses are organized for children.
Tickets: adult tickets – 13€, child tickets – 10€ (ages 3 to 12), museum website
La Villette Science City
La Villette Science City is an educational museum for adults and children. The huge building looks like a fortress with big transparent glass walls under blue steel grating. There is nothing like this building in the world: glass and steel, cantilevered platforms, bridges and overpasses, different levels joined by lifts and escalators. And all of this is spread around a huge open space under a 40-metre-high ceiling. For the curious, there are lots of fascinating exhibitions and interactive halls, divided by age: for children 4-8 and 9-12 years old. On the huge territory you can get lost in the variety of entertainment and learn about DNA, curved space and rocket launches.
The main exhibition space of the town is Explora, located on the top two floors. There are both temporary exhibitions and a permanent exhibition dedicated to various topics: space, water, oceans, cars, aeronautics, energy, images, genes, sound, mathematics, light, stars and galaxies, mountains and volcanoes. There is also a planetarium and the Géode 3D cinema. Add to this a huge park, and you get an amazing family adventure that will take at least two days.
Tickets: free entry to the building, as well as to view documentaries in the Jean-Bertin and Jean-Painlevé Halls. Full information on the town’s website.
Jardin d’Acclimatation Amusement Park
Acclimatation is a very cool alternative to Disneyland with impressive attractions. You can enter the park on a little train that runs on a children’s railway. Then set sail on boats along the Enchanted River, covered with shrubs, weeping willows and magnolias, whose branches form a green tunnel overhead. For children aged 6 to 12, there is an attraction of rope ladders and wooden bridges, where they can feel like inhabitants of exotic thickets.
In the carousel village you can fly on chain swings, roller coasters and race cars. Real deer live on the deer cliff – children love interacting with animals. The park has a wide variety of trees and pavilions, and a puppet theater operates. In the Jardin d’Acclimatation Theater, performances and shows are staged. Children over 3 years old can learn about science, art and nature, and develop their creativity in cooking, theater, perfume, gardening, painting and sculpture workshops.
Tickets: Adult – 5€, child – 2.5€. Attraction prices on the Jardin d’Acclimatation park website.
Asterix Theme Park
Asterix Theme Park (Le Parc Astérix) is dedicated to the famous cartoons and comics about the brave Gauls Asterix and Obelix. It is located about 30 km from Paris in the direction of the Lille motorway. The area is divided into several historical zones related to the Asterix world: “Roman Empire”, “Greece” and “Vikings”, “Gauls”, and also the world “Journey through Time”. In the Roman Empire, all the rides are like trials invented by Julius Caesar for his brave warriors of the Roman army. The “Greece” zone – here all attractions are connected to Greek mythology. In the Gaulish village you can take photos with the main characters and taste the magic potion. In the “Vikings” zone, thrill seekers can ride the roller coasters with seven loops and lots of sharp turns and sections where passengers go upside down.
Tickets: Adult ticket – 55€, child (from 3 to 11 years) – 47€.
How to get there: A special bus from the Louvre in Paris (metro Palais-Royal) – departs daily at 9:00. Return at 18:30. Asterix park website.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam is considered a city for adults. But in fact, it is a great place to relax with children: ride boats and ferries, go to museums and parks. What interesting places are there for holidays with children?
I recommend reading: Halloween – 7 best places to celebrate
Boat tour along the canals
Children are especially interested in seeing the city from the water. To cruise the canals all day, it’s best to immediately buy a day pass on a Hop on-Hop off boat. This allows you to travel freely by water, getting off at stops and boarding the next boat anywhere along the route.
Tickets: for 24 hours: adults – 35.5€, child – 18.5€. Buy tickets on the website in advance – you have to choose a time and day, and you can also get significant discounts.
Nemo Science Museum
This is a five-story experimentarium with various interactive zones, which is the largest science and technology center for children and teenagers in the Netherlands. The interactive museum invites visitors to study the modern world of science and technology. You can touch all the exhibits. And also conduct experiments: build dams, explore the human body, learn what happens during puberty. In an exciting, playful way, children learn the basics of chemistry, physics, biology and information technology. On the top floor, there is a nice restaurant and an observation deck. You can expect to spend the whole day with your children here.
Tickets: Adult and child ticket 17.5 €, children under 3 years – free. Nemo Museum website.
Micropia Microbe Museum
The museum of microbes, viruses and bacteria Micropia. It recently opened on the grounds of Artis Zoo, one of the oldest zoos in the Netherlands. There is currently no other museum like it in the world. This museum will appeal to curious children interested in microbiology, chemistry and medicine. Here you can see friendly (and not so friendly) viruses with your own eyes, discover how fungi affect our future, learn how microbes affect health and ecology, and learn everything about living creatures on Earth.
Tickets: Children 3–9 years – 10 €, children older than 10 and adults – 17.5 €, museum website.
Houseboat Museum Hendrika-Maria
To learn how people live on the water, you can go to the museum located on one of Amsterdam’s most picturesque canals – Prinsengracht. This ship, converted into housing, was built in 1914. Until the 1960s, it transported cargo, sand and gravel. Later, the boat was converted into a house. Everything on it looks as if people still live there. Once, houseboats in Amsterdam were a refuge for the poor – today, they are expensive and prestigious housing in the city center. There are 2,500 floating houses in Amsterdam: old barges, small boats, and two-story comfortable houses.
Tickets: Adult ticket – 4.5 €, child – 3.5 € (5 to 15 years). Museum website.
Useful articles and links:
- 10 must-see cities in Europe in the fall of 2026 and why you should go there
- European safari parks – where to see wild animals up close without going to Africa
- Air travel – how to fly with children
Bus schedules and tickets for buses – at Omio.com
Travel insurance – HotlineFinance
Hotel and apartment bookings – Booking.com
