Ideas of things to do and places to see with children in Tyumen, Russia

What’s the best place to spend the weekend in Tyumen with your kids? A fun house, star shows in an inflatable dome, a map out of gems, puppet shows under a magical oak tree, a 250-meter zip line, a water park, petting zoos, and rides – we’ve got all the activities laid out for you in Tyumen to help you and your family to have a wonderful time. 

 

 

Tyumen Museums for Kids 

You can touch each exhibit and conduct your own personal experiments at Eureka Interactive Miracles Park. In Ames Room, children grow up almost all the way to the ceiling and adults are shrunk to several times less than their normal height. You also get to traverse two mazes – one of mirrors and one with lights, visit a room with distorted gravity, have a seat on a yoga chair consisting of nails, check out optical illusions, and send a voice message through the “Communication Pipe”. 

 

 

They tell you various facts about starts, planets, and galaxies at the Tyumen Mobile Planetarium. They do shows on the weekends at Sovremmenik Culture and Playing Center where small children are shown cartoons and schoolchildren are shown movies about space with special visual effects and in-depth explanations. The planetarium sets up field trips for large groups (starting at 50 viewers): the inflatable dome is easy to move and set up anywhere. And in the summer time they even do it on the open air. 

At the Geology, Oil, and Gas Museum, kids will find out how scientists and geological explorers studied various Siberian lands in the 20^th century. Presented at the permanent exhibition is a large collection of formations and minerals extracting in the Tyumen Region. In the same location, you will be able to take a look at the traditional clothing, residence, and everyday possessions of native inhabitants of Siberia – Nenets, Khanty, and Mansi. The most valuable of the museum’s exhibits is the map of the Tyumen Region assembled out of gems.   

You should consider taking your children to visit the museums at Tyumen University. For example, presented at the Archeology and Ethnography Museum are various findings from excavations, old decorations and silverware, the armor of an ancient Russian warrior, and the setting of a Russian hut. At the Zoological Museum, you get to check out effigies of birds from the green violet to the large pelican as well as animals, such as foxes, moose, tigers, boards, bears, lynxes, and seals. 

 

 

They will tell you about the History of the Tyumen Region from ancient times leading all the way up until the 20^th century in a museum complex bearing that exact name. Open at the Gorodskaya Duma Natural History Museum is the “Window to Nature” – an exhibition with effigies of animals and the skeletons of a buffalo fossil, a mammoth, a wooly rhinoceros, and a cave bear. A nomads camp of Siberian peoples, ancient Mansi settlements, and thousand-year-old sanctuaries can be seen at the Archeology Museum at Andreevskoye Lake. 

A merchants hall of the 19^th century with shoes, watch, grocery, and hat shops is open in the Kolokolnikov Museum Estate. And in the Masharov House, you can check out how a family used to live in the city in the end of the 19^th century and even visit a musical living room for a classic-style concert. 

Assembled at the Figurative Arts Museum is a collection of pictures and sculptures by Russian and European craftsmen. You can also see old toys out of clay there, porcelain dishes, and figures made out of bone using Tobolsk carvers.

 

 

Kids Theaters in Tyumen 

A magical oak tree with a “golden chain” is the first thing that visitors see in the crush room of the Puppet and Mask Theater. In the theater’s repertoire are shows for children 3 years and up like Dr. Doolittle, Repka, and Uncle Styopa in the Land of a Photograph. Suited for a little bit older kids would be Eastern and European fairy tales like the Indian “Kanakapuri”, the Japanese “Monkey’s Bride”, Hercules according to the ancient Greek myth, and Cold Heart based on the story by Gauff. If you have young schoolchildren, you should consider watching a show like The Little Prince, Baryshnya-Krestyanka, and Two Steps Away. 

 

 

The do kids shows at Angagement Youth Theater as well. Young children are invited to come watch the Little Magic Pot and the Golden Chick, while schoolchildren are invited to watch Morozko or the Boogie Man in the Sky. Also within their repertoire are several school-program performances, such as Nights on the Farm near Dikanka and the Twelfth Night. Suitable for the whole family is the modern play A Very Simple Story.  

At the Tyumen Drama Theater, they perform several different kids shows: The Cat in Boots and Flying Ship for the smallest of children, Nutcracker and All Boys are Fools for children 6 years and up. Schoolchildren are invited to come watch comedies and dramas based on the motifs of stories by Gogol, Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Kuprin, and Shakespeare along with plays by contemporary authors as well. 

 

 

You can pick out thematic programs for parents with children and schoolchildren of various ages at the Tyumen Philharmonia. They do literature and musical events with stories about old instruments, a military song, and Pushkin and Akhmatov poems about music. You can take your whole family to a classical, ethic, or organ concerts or one of the Traditional World Dance cycle’s concerts. 

 

 

Tyumen Zoo

The first zoo in Tyumen opened in the fall of 2013 for the Pine Woods resort. There you can see around 40 different types of animals and birds: lions, an Amur Bay tiger, a puma, a leopard, a camel, eagles, owls, peacocks, and ostriches. In the spring of 2014, a monkey cage opened there along with a reptile house with snakes, a cayman, and turtles. They also let you feed and pet rabbits, donkeys, and other animals (the animal feed is sold at the entrance to the zoo).  

At Sunny Ranch in Privoz Mall, there are several cages for animals and birds. There you will get to see piglets, ponies, geese, chickens, hedgehogs, chipmunks, ferrets from the forest, peacocks, domesticated rabbits, and Guinea pigs. They sell animal food near the entrance to the petting zoo. 

A miniature zoo with a lynx, bears, wolves, a fox, a boar, and rabbits is open in the pistol sports club Stalnoy Azart. There’s also a miniature zoo with raccoon dogs, yaks, a peacock, and a little donkey on the base of the Verhniy Bor resort. On top of that, Aquamir Oceanarium has been in operation since 2013 at Pa-Na-Ma Entertainment Center with tropical fish, a reef shark, and sea corrals. 

 

 

Rides and Good Parks to Take Your Kids for a Walk in Tyumen 

You can go for some rides in Tyumen if you are so inclined at the Culture and Recreation Park on Tsvetnoy Boulevard near Tyumensky Circus. Operating there in the summer time are roller coasters, a Ferris wheel, carousels, water and extreme rides, and kids play stations. In the same location is also the largest fountain in the city and in the summer, they pave an ice ink there. 

On Kosmopolsky Garden there are kids play stations and fountains, in the summer people ride horses and electric cars there, and in the winter they pave ice slides there. You will also be able to go for a walk down the sidewalks and kick back next to a fountain at Aleksandrovsky Garden.

The Tyumen Kids Railroad is located 25 km out of the city in the village of Borovsky. You can go for a ride on the trains, which are completely operated by schoolchildren over 12 years old starting in the beginning of June until the end of August. The 4-kilometer track travels along Andreevskoye Lake between the Yunost station and Priozernaya station and the trip takes about 45 minutes. 

 

 

In the summer time in Kuliga Park located outside the city, a rope village opens up with two courses: children at least 120 cm tall are allowed to go on the lower course, meanwhile only kids taller than 160 cm are allowed on the higher one. Also during the warm season, a water park is open there with three family slides and one extreme slide for teenagers who are at least 15 years old and adults. In the winter time, people go tubing and mountain skiing in Kuliga Park and year-round a 250-meter zip line is open as well. 

 

Kids Entertainment Centers in Tyumen 

Open year-round in Tyumen are kids entertainment centers around the city. For example, at Asteroid Bowling, they have 12 bowling lanes to place one where you can also have bumpers raised for children as well as an arcade room where you can go play video games. At 5^th Element Kids Center, you can leave your kids under the supervision of the Cabin Company or in a soft play room with suspension bridges, hills, and a large dry pool. 

They invite you to a roller skating course, an inflatable trampoline with an obstacle course, and a maze with a dry pool at Treasure Island Entertainment Complex. Open at Columb Entertainment Center for children as well is Dinoplanet with a racing course, carousels, video games, racing games, and air hockey

 

 

For more information, consult our daily events guide for a list of kids events in Tyumen.

 

Photos: vk.com/club50530609, park-evrika.ru, facebook.com/MUSEUM72, vk.com/vbor72, vk.com/club4278282, vk.com/dinoplaneta_tumen, wikipedia.org