Warsaw for Children
See for yourself that Warsaw is a tourist paradise for families with children. It’s not just traditional museums with additional attractions for kids, but also places created especially for them. Be sure to visit the fascinating Copernicus Science Centre or an interactive museum where education and fun can go hand in hand! It’s not just small children who will like the huge locomotives or military vehicles at the Station Museum and the Polish Army Museum. Everyone will enjoy the shows at the Multimedia Fountain Park or a visit to the Royal Garden of Light. Those with energy to burn will love the trampoline parks and playgrounds.
Discover the secrets of nature by experimenting at the Copernicus Science Centre. Have fun and learn. See how the human body is built, look at the world through the eyes of a dog or a fish, lie on a bed of nails or check your temperature with a thermal imaging camera. At the end, watch a show performed by robots.
Do you know what dolls your grandmother played with? What house did she dream of for them? You will find out at the Museum of Dollhouses, Games and Toys, where you can see over a hundred miniature houses from various countries and eras. Among the exhibits you will also see schools, a pharmacy, market stalls, a wedding dress shop, and even a puppet reconstruction of a church mass.
The world of finance does not have to be boring! Do you know how heavy a bar of gold is? Or what did our great grandparents used as payment? What does the interior of a cash-transport vehicle, an ATM or a bank safe look like? Can you spot a fake banknote? You will find the answers to these and many other questions in the multimedia NBP Money Centre.
Teddy bears, rag dolls with insurgent armbands, rocking horses and model aircraft from World War II. You will start your tour of the Warsaw Rising Museum in the Little Insurgent room. Write and stamp a letter at the scout field post office, see puppets from the insurgent puppet theatre and learn the counting song ‘The bomb fell into the basement…’
Huge passenger, military and coal-fired locomotives from a century ago. Visit the Station Museum at the former Warsaw Main Railway Station and look inside the carriages. The attractions include an authentic artillery wagon from World War II and President Bierut’s personal carriage. In the museum building, you can see uniforms, model railways, antique telephones, tickets from over a century ago and many, many other treasures.
Chocolate Factory
Do you know how your favorite chocolate is made? Where does the cocoa come from that it is made with? Find out at the E.Wedel Chocolate Factory. The interactive exhibition shows the chocolate-making process, from cocoa beans to bars. You can also try different types of chocolate and see a model of Kamionek (the neighbourhood of Praga where the factory is located) made entirely of chocolate. This is a place full of sweet adventures!
What did the Tarbosaurus, a relative of the famous T. Rex, look like? Who was Lucy? Where did life start? You will find the answers to these and many other questions in the Museum of Evolution. In addition to the skeletons of huge reptiles gracefully posing for selfies, you will also see the oldest known frog, a herd of amphibians from several hundred million years ago and numerous remains of primitive mammals and reptiles.
Dyzio, a faithful copy of a powerful lizard that lived 200 million years ago in the Polish mountains, and the skeleton of a huge mammoth can be seen at the Geological Museum. The skulls of our prehistoric ancestors and countless minerals, crystals and fossils are also on display. And all this in the beautiful interiors of a building from the early twentieth century.
Do you like military vehicles? Real cannons, planes, tanks and other military vehicles can be seen in the outdoor parks of the Polish Army Museum and the Museum of Polish Military Technology. Inside the Polish Army Museum, you can see real suits of armour, hussar wings, sabres, swords, as well as rifles from the 19th and 20th centuries and many, many other pieces of military equipment.
Did you know that when grandma or grandpa wanted to see photos from distant countries they couldn’t use the Internet? What did they do? They went to Photoplasticon. On the device that has been operating for over a century you can see three-dimensional photographs from years ago while listening to old hits, played from rare gramophone records.
Play ‘King Matt’. In the play room at the POLIN Museum, you can scribble, make music and play board games, discovering the world of Jewish tradition. Hundreds of books, Polish and foreign films about friendship, foam blocks, an interactive carpet and ‘hollows’ in the walls are waiting for you.
Changing of the guard
Soldiers are marching evenly across the square… it’s the changing of the guard. Do you want to see it? Go to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Sunday at noon. You will find it under the arcades of the demolished Saxon Palace. It was built to commemorate the nameless heroes who died fighting for Poland’s freedom.
Count the mermaids you see while exploring Warsaw. You can spot them on facades, lanterns and signboards. Do you know that this semi-human figure has been the coat of arms of Warsaw since the Middle Ages? Over the centuries, her image has changed from a figure with a human head, wings and a serpent-like dragon tail to today’s beautiful woman with a fish tail.
Do you want to see Warsaw from above? The viewing terrace on the 30th floor of the Palace of Culture and Science is the place to go. You can also go up the bell tower of St. Anna’s church or to Dung Hill in the Old Town. You will also see beautiful views from the roof garden of the University Library, from Szczęśliwicka Hill, from the tower at the Warsaw Rising Museum and from the Warsaw Rising Mound.
Feel like you’re a football star at the famous PGE Narodowy Stadium – the largest sports stadium in Poland, where Cristiano Ronaldo has played. Walk through the corridors leading to the changing rooms of the Polish national team, see the spa that players use after a match, sit on the bench and finally walk out onto the pitch. You can see the stadium in its full splendour from the vantage point on the upper stand.
Cool down in the Multimedia Fountain Park, jump in the spray and watch the magic show of light, sound and water on a weekend evening. Shows take place from May to September at 20.30, 21.00 or 21.30. In winter, streams of light do the dancing instead of water – at the weekends the main fountain changes into a multicolour animated sculpture.
Take a free, summer ferry to the ‘wild’ side of the Vistula, or take a short cruise on a ship, boat or motorboat. Relax and see how Warsaw looks from the river.
Are you looking for a good place to have fun on a hot day? Go to the Vistula Boulevards. You will love the playground with fountains and crocodile, dolphin, shark and whale sculptures. You can jump on trampolines, run through big tree trunks, go down to the river itself or climb a tower with a view to the other side of the Vistula. Finally, take a picture with the Mermaid.
Meet the exotic inhabitants of Warsaw Zoo and learn more about their habits. Watch seal and hippo feeding, look at giraffes and see chimpanzees chasing each other. Go to the terrarium or the shark pool. See beautifully feathered birds and tropical fish.
Bródno Farm
Go to the countryside without leaving Warsaw. At Bródno Farm you can meet Basia the cow, Matylda, Klementyna and Tycia the goats, hens, geese, ducks, bunnies and many other farm animals. Some of them you can stroke and even feed. In the botanical garden you will see how vegetables grow, and agricultural machinery at an outdoor exhibition.
Marvel at the beauty of nature in the University of Warsaw’s Botanical Garden. Depending on the season of the year, see how beautifully different types of flowers bloom, including magnolias, roses, fuchsias and dahlias. You can also escape the heat or bustle of the city by resting on a bench under one of the city’s majestic, ancient trees.
Enjoy unforgettable adventures at Smart Kids Planet, located in the Norblin Factory. While having fun, you will train your imagination, experiment and learn a lot. In 9 themed areas you will play with other children as couriers delivering parcels or become either an cashier or a customer of a grocery store. You can also work on the construction site or play football on the pitch with dribbling obstacles and a movable goalkeeper. And a lot more.
Escape rooms
Riddles? Games? Active play? If that’s what you like, then you’ll take to mystery rooms like a duck to water. Visit them with your mum, dad or a pack of friends and choose one of the children’s rooms, such as the Dom Zagadek. Each room is a different adventure, a challenge and a different mystery to discover. You will find your way out if you work together to solve the specially prepared riddles within 60 minutes. You will have to show cleverness, perceptiveness and imagination. But there will be so much fun waiting for you when you reach your goal.
Play centres
Warsaw’s play centres are packed with monkey groves, slides, obstacle courses, mazes, trampolines and many other attractions. You will find them in shopping centres and elsewhere. Some of them also organise music and art classes, theatre shows and educational programs.
Rope parks
Hanging bridges, obstacle courses in the trees, zip lines and… a Tarzan jump. These are just some of the attractions in Warsaw’s rope parks. Choose a route that suits your skill level and see if you can meet the challenge. You will enjoy a beautiful view of the city at the rope park by the Vistula.
Trampoline parks
Jump like a kangaroo! Free yourself from gravity in Warsaw’s trampoline parks (like Hangar 646 and Gravity Station) You can jump on classic trampolines, practice landing on a stunt cushion, or work out with gym equipment. Have fun while you have enough strength. Professional instructors are there to look after your safety.
Playground
Bored of sightseeing? Go crazy at a playground. Swings, slides, climbing frames, carousels and much, much more. Only your imagination and energy will limit you. The most popular playgrounds in the city are at Wilson Square and the Radosław Roundabout. Go there and see if you like them.
Do you want to be bigger than your mum? Or make yourself tiny or make a thousand copies of yourself? Visit the World of Illusions and see for yourself how amazing our senses are. A lot of fun is waiting for you here, as well as a smaller portion of knowledge about the optical phenomena that we undergo.
See how colourful sweets are made and create your own lollipop. Of course you can take them away with you. All of this can be found at the Candy Factory. All sweets are made in the old fashioned way in 80 flavours and dozens of different shapes, such as smiling faces, fruit and fairy-tale characters.
Does the winter gloom get you down? So, go to the Royal Garden of Light. Hundreds of thousands of colourful lights will enchant you. Stroll among the luminous flowers and shrubs and see how beautiful they shimmer with colour to the rhythm of music. On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays you find yourself in the court of King Jan III Sobieski thanks to the three-dimensional displays of light, image and sound displayed on the facade of the palace.