Thigs to see and do with children on a family vacation in Sochi, Russia

We are going to tell you all about where crocodiles, hippos, and ligers live in Sochi; where the biggest Ferris wheel in Russia is; and where to go to escape the summer heat. After reading this review, you’ll find out about a dolphinarium, a zoo, a monkey nursery, attractions, water parks, and other things you can do to have fun with your family in Sochi. 

You can skip straight to the description of the objects you’re interested in by clicking one of the links below:

Sochi parks and places to take your kids on a stroll in Sochi

Attraction parks and kids entertainment

Water parks

Sochi zoo and monkey nursery

Dolphinarium in Sochi and oceanariums

Sochi Museums

 

 

Sochi parks and where to take your kids on a stroll in Sochi

You can go on a stroll around a bamboo meadow and check out rare plants from the subtropics at the Sochi Dolphinarium. Scattered throughout the lower section of the park is a rose garden, an alley of magnolias, and a pond with swans. In the upper part, on the other hand, is a Japanese garden called Chinese Yard and a meadow of sequoias. You’ll see a lot of sculptures and fountains while walking around and you can take the cable-railway up to the upper part of the park and get a beautiful view from up above on an observation deck. While in the cabin you can get an overview tour as well.   

You won’t grow tired very quickly walking around – the dolphinarium has a lot of benches and places to hang out around it. In the lower part of the park you can stop by the Butterfly Garden as well as a small aquarium and exotarium with snakes, crocodiles, and birds. For schoolchildren under 7 years old, admission into the dolphinarium and riding the cable-railway is free.

In the springtime, you can gaze at a flourishing sakuras in Southern Cultures Park in Adler. This park will be appreciated by anyone who enjoys the quiet outdoors; you can also have a walk around the rose garden there, a strip of palm trees, and along the paths of a pond; and you can cross over the chiseled bridges and stop by an artificial grotto and sit down for a chat below the sycamore trees. Also, a half-hour’s walk away from the park is a covered ice rink called Ice Club where you can skate year-round. 

Friendship Tree Garden Museum is located not far from the Sochi train station and stadium. There are tropical trees and hybrids growing there, such as a hybrid of a lemon and a grapefruit and they have done several graftages for the oldest hybrid tree of other plants from various countries. After walking down the paths, you can sit down on a bench or in a gazebo out of bamboo and roses.

 

 

On the main street of Sochi-Resort avenue, it’s best to go for a walk in the evening when the heat cools off. Then when it gets dark, a light and music show starts called the Singing Fountains at the pedestrian Platanovaya walkway.

 

Attraction parks and kids entertainment in Sochi

You can take the whole family for a walk in Riviera Park. There they have roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, kids swings, and prize games. You can play video games, shooting games, and racing games in Goodwin kids center. They organize real races on the open raceway and you can get a beautiful view of the city out of the cabin of a Ferris wheel. You can also take a simple walk around the park on the “healthy trail” sidewalk. 

 

 

Also in Riviera you can visit exhibitions of moving robot dinosaurs and wax figures, check out collections of retro automobiles and old outfits, make funny faces at the warped mirrors of a mirror maze, stop by the Live Butterfly Garden, and take pictures with figures of characters from the movie Avatar. In the summer on the open stage of the Green Theater, they do concerts and festivals and during hot weather you can hide out from the scorching sun in the dolphinarium or oceanarium.

The largest Ferris wheel in Russia is located in Lazarevskoe Village Culture and Recreation Park (70 km to the north of Sochi). The height of the Lazarevsky Ferris Wheel is 80 meters tall and it features 28 open and closed cabins that offer a beautiful view of the sea and coast, meanwhile in the evening you can watch the sunset from there. The Ferris wheel is open from 10 a.m. until midnight.

In Adler, you can take your kids to Madagascar Kids Center. There is a fun labyrinth with tunnels, suspension bridges, and dry pools suitable for preschoolers. As for a little bit older kids, they offer bowling, video game machines, karaoke, and a kids cafeteria. In the teens hall, you can play racing and dancing games as well as air hockey and basketball.

 

 

Indoor entertainment park Happylon Pirate's Park has opened in Sochi Moremall Center in the end of 2012. You can go for a ride any day of the week on the pirate’s entertainment island on Tsunami, Sea Flight, and Typhoon or win coupons testing your luck on the prize games (there are about 200 machines and games there) before sitting down for lunch at Tortuga eatery. Open for schoolchildren is a 5-tier labyrinth and Pirate Town as well. As for younger children, there is day care, kids swings, and merry-go-rounds. 

 

Waterparks in Sochi

On the riverbank across from Festivalny concert hall is a Mayak Water Park. You can ride down 7 different water slides and go for an outdoor swim, but only in the summer time. Kids can splash around and go down slides in kids town including a shallow pool or climb around in the fun zone portraying Scarlet Sails ship. You can sit down on the lounge next to the pool or on the little beach. Then, go ahead and grab some lunch at one of their numerous cafés.

Open in Adler Resort Town in the summer time is Amphibius Water Park. It has both family slides and extreme water slides, 15 total, and if you like you can swim around in one of three pools. For kids there is an open water complex with a pool, a fun town, and Little Octopus, Elephant, and Snake slides. There are also lounges with umbrellas there along with summer bars and cafés.

 

 

Open year-round in Loo village is Aqualoo Water Park, 23 km to the north of Sochi. It features 8 water slides and a kids town with three slides as well as an outdoor wave pool. In the winter, you can even ride down the Black Hole, Pigtail, and Free Fall there. As for small children, they have a fun complex under a roof.

In Lazarevsky, there are two water parks open. In Sea Star there are 7 water slides and two pools and in Nautilius there are 10 slides, three pools, and a separate paddling pool with a fun complex. There is also one more small pool with 5 slides and a kids complex open in Breeze complex in Khosta between Sochi and Adler.

 

The Sochi zoo and the monkey nursery in Sochi

The Sochi Zoo is located on the territory of Oktyabrsky spa. Despite that the zoo isn’t very big, you get to see a peacock, a kangaroo, a camel, lamas, a porcupine, a lynx, Ussuriiski tigers, and even Marusya the female liger – a cross-breed of a lion and a tiger. Also, in the end of June 2013, they brought in two cheetahs from Tanzania.

 

 

Happy Village features a monkey nursery open to visitors in the Primatology Institute. You can get there by taking bus No. 133 from the Central Market in Adler or on a tour bus. Inhabiting the cages are several thousand monkeys: macaques, hamadryas, marmosets, and baboons. There they even prepare space monkeys for flights into space and also have the capsule the first monkeys flew to the stars in. You can also have a look at two chimps named Tisha and Dasha who lifted off to space in 1998. If you have any questions you can call them at +7 (862) 241-62-39.

 

Dolphinariums and oceanariums in Sochi

The largest dolphinarium in Russia (housing 1300 spectators) opened in Riviera Park in September 2012. The put on indoor shows with stingrays, dolphins, and sea lions and you can come watch them year-round. Kids under five years old are not required to buy a separate ticket for the show, but you must be able to provide proof of their age. You can find out whatever shows are going on for the day by calling +7 (862) 255-55-66.

 

 

Open next to the dolphinarium in Riviera Park is the Sochi dolphinarium. While walking through the halls, which resemble grottos inside a cliff, you can see a variety of bright tropical fish, manta rays, eels, sharks, and even underwater coral reefs with their inhabitants. For children under 4 years old, admission to the oceanarium is free.

You can get to Aquatoria Dolphinarium, which is located in Adler Resort Town, from downtown Sochi by car or on a bus in about a half hour. They do water shows involving dolphins, white wales, sea lions, and stingrays. Also living in the dolphinarium is a “girl” named Nafanya that was found on Sakhalin Island – a rare red-colored albino stingray and a colorful seal named Busya for whom they’re already making a separate pool.  

 

 

You can come see Nafanya, Busya, and the dolphinarium “artists” year round and you can find out the schedule for the day by calling +7 (862) 246-33-03 or +7 (862) 246-33-02. Kids under 3 years old can sit on their parents lap for free, but you must have proof for their age at the entrance. 

And also open in Adler Resort Town is the big oceanarium, Sochi Discovery World Aquarium. “Settled in” on the first floor are sea inhabitants: jellyfish, horse fish, sharks, manta rays, poisonous tropical fish, and “cartoon” clown fish, which hide from sea anemone palp. You can check out freshwater inhabitants on the second floor where turtles, catfish, sturgeons, regular aquarium fish, and sharp-tooth piranhas. 

 

 

Every day at the oceanarium they do a show called The Underwater World of Mermaids and feed sharks. You can watch all of the shows right from the underwater tunnel or through the main observation window. In the open ponds on the second floor, they let visitors feed the carp (carp feed is sold at a machine next to the reservoir). For children under for years old, entrance to the oceanarium is free.

Sochi even has penguins, crocodiles, and hippos and they live in the aquarium and sea zoo at Macesta. Inhabiting the aquariums are Amazon piranhas, reef sharks, Black Sea fish and crabs, seals and walruses from the north seas, and Cayman and Nile crocodiles. Each day they put on a show where they feed a hippo, walruses, penguins, and otters and then on Sunday you can watch them feed sharks and crocodiles. Kids under six years old are admitted free of charge.

 

Sochi Kids Museums

An exhibition opened up at Sochi Art Museum in June 2013 called The Wonders of Multimedia. In this interactive hall, you can see yourself inside a famous picture on the big screen. For example, you can find yourself in a forest surrounded by bears or in an old mansion next to a sophisticated woman. At the interactive table you “draw”, or compose rather, your own pictures out of fragments and in the planet-like sphere-shaped screen, you will be taught interesting facts about the 2014 Olympics and the global Olympic movement.

 

 

Presented in the Art Museum is a collection of ancient weapons and treasures found on the Mzymta River as well as the works of Russian artists from the 19^th to the 21^st century. You can also check out pictures there from the Russian Museum at the permanent virtual exhibition.

You can check out our kids events guide for the Krasnodarsky Region here.

 

Photos: kidsreview.ru, wikipedia.org, vniisubtrop.ru, vk.com/parkriviera