Budapest is not only child-friendly but child-focused. As well as the attractions around town, from trampoline parks to a shark-filled tropicarium, so much of the city can be enjoyed as a family. If you’re with a pram, all stations on metro lines 3 and 4 have lifts, and main tramlines 4 and 6 are served by low-floor vehicles. Here is our selection of the ten best things to do with little ones and not-so-little ones.
Playground in the City Park
A stroll under the shady trees of the City Park is always fun, but you can up the game if you enter the main playground. The place – unmissable thanks to the huge balloon centrepiece – is a proper kids' paradise, with 6 different slides, 10 types of swings, carousels, trampolines, rope courses, spinning games, sandboxes, and water games for every age group. It also has child-friendly public toilets, including separate spaces for changing nappies and breastfeeding. If the kids are over 6 and/or 120 centimetres, you can also try the real-life balloon that offers stunning views of the park.
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2/10
Budapest Zoo & Botanical Gardens
Dating back to the 19th century, Budapest Zoo has long been a major attraction for families by City Park. Featuring hundreds of different animal species, exotic and domestic, this historic menagerie is a fully-fledged educational site, with lots of activities for parents and kids. Besides the zebras, elephants, giraffes and tigers, developments have turned the zoo into a more interactive playground that now incorporates playful elements of the former amusement park next door. A fairy-tale carousel and an animated castle with Hungarian cartoon characters ensure a fun-filled day out at the park.
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3/10
Centre of Scientific Wonders
In Budapest's 3rd district, a wonderful world of scientific sensations tickles curiosity. Those who are young at heart can be part of exciting experiments, visit a 9D cinema or try thematic escape rooms across 5,000 square metres. Kids can immerse themselves in Newton’s earthshaking findings in physics or allow illusions trick their mind. In one hall, covered by densely patterned wallpapers and mirrors, visitors feel as if they were floating in an infinite elevator shaft. Then at the World of Birth exhibition hall, anyone can experience what an unborn baby perceives from the world outside.
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4/10
Children’s Railway
Chugging past some of the most popular places for excursion in the Buda Hills, the Children's Railway is operated almost entirely by kids aged 10-14. Uniformed youngsters fill all positions from conductors to signalmen. While a little adult supervision keeps things on track, this living Communist-era memento is considered a unique attraction and the longest of such narrow-gauge railway lines in the world. Along its route, the train pushes past Hűvösvölgy and Széchenyi Hill, taking in forested Normafa on the way. The Children’s Railway runs year-round, and a seasonal schedule is available here.
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5/10
Cyberjump
The largest trampoline park in Central and Eastern Europe is not only a huge indoor space set out, especially for bouncing but a place where kids can also lose themselves in battle beams, slamball and a climbing wall. The attraction in south Buda also features a slackline, dodgeball and, perhaps best of all, a Ninja Warrior course. Admission is structured into one- and two-hour time slots, and parents must first register online and sign a minor’s waiver. Good to know: Children need to be over 4 years of age to use the facilities, and anyone under 5 needs adult supervision. You also need to wear special trampoline socks, which can be bought on the site.
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6/10
Gellért Hill playground
The playground on the nearest slope of Gellért Hill to the baths with the same name is brimming with slides, a climbing fort and a jungle gym. First opened in 1967, the playpark fell into disrepair before being renovated and reopened 50 years later. Signposted through greenery – you can also follow the excited screams of the children already happily gliding and twisting – the park also contains a trampoline for older ones, a jungle gym with a rope bridge and a tunnel beneath a little mound. There are five long slides in all, so no one needs to queue too long.
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MiniPolisz
Many might not know that there is a whole small town on Király utca, a magical children’s paradise in the middle of the city, where the world is turned upside-down for a while. Young children can be real adults and only the imagination limits what they can try. What is more, they can handle everyday tasks such as shopping, checking into a hotel room and, more recently, getting to know the exciting world of airports.
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Aquaworld
Open all year round, this enormous water complex is a children's paradise. With a design that evokes the tropics and the temple ruins of Angkor Wat, it comes with all kinds of pools and slides of varying depths and degrees of difficulty. There is also a children's pool, one for the smallest ones with fun water features including a mini slide, an adventure pool, a wave pool, and a plunge pool. But the star of the show is the slide-filled waterpark, where the Mountain River, the Onion Slide, the UFO, the Kamikaze and the Flying Carpet can be used according to strict height restrictions, some by those over 130 cm or 140 cm. On the weekends and during school breaks, animators await the little ones with exciting activities such as family quizzes, craft challenges, or water gym.
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IKONO
If sliding into a pool of balls, walking among endless lanterns, or creating a light painting sounds like your kind of weekend, then IKONO is the place to be! The gallery boasts quite a mind-blowing exhibition, offering you the chance to immerse yourself in art – literally. The spaces invite you into 10 fantasy worlds, where you can playfully experience the magic of light. All ages are welcome.
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10/10
Tropicarium
Located a fair distance from town, 30 minutes by bus from Bikás Park or Kelenföld, the Tropicarium at the Campona centre may be a trek but it’s not every day that you get to see sharks being fed. Here you can stroke rays, stand in tropical rain, monitor lizards and admire alligators. There are exotic birds, snakes, and always popular piranhas too. Other sea creatures include azure damselfish, pinktrail triggerfish and, inevitably, clownfish. Shark feeding time is 2:30 pm on Thursdays, and snakes are half an hour before.
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(Cover photo: Sándor Csudai - We Love Budapest)
