What to See in Kaliningrad with Kids: A Guide for a Family Vacation, Russia
Where should I take my kids in Kaliningrad and what sites are there to see? Ruins of castles, a zoo, travelling on a retro street train, a kids theater in an old church, the largest organ in Europe, cobblestone bridges, and small houses wallowing in green with brick roofs – we’ve got it all in this guide we’ve prepared for you on the most interesting places to take your family in Kaliningrad whether you’re a tourist or a resident. As for smaller cities located across the seashore around Kaliningrad, we have written a separate review.
Sites and monuments of Kaliningrad architecture
Where to take your kids for a walk in Kaliningrad: gardens and parks for kids in Kaliningrad
Entertainment and outdoor leisure for kids in Kaliningrad
Sites and monuments of Kaliningrad architecture
The ruins of the Royal Castle in Kaliningrad
Previously standing at this location until 1969 was a royal castle. It has since been blown up and the new multi-story building has taken its place of the Council House still under construction. Sponsorship for the ruins of the castle was taken on by the Historic Arts Museum where they hold tours on the territory of the ruins, which can be ordered at the sample place in the tour service booth. Furthermore, re-enactment clubs have long since taken a liking to these places for holding medieval tournaments, which they also allow spectators to attend.
The gate handle of Konigsberg
In the 19th century, they started to build a second power fortress, which had several gates located in separate parts of the city. However, we only got our hands on 7 of them while 3 of them house interesting museums.
Currently open within the gates is historic cultural center The Great Embassy – exhibitions on the arrival and development of city fortresses, the visit of Peter I’s Great Embassy in Konigsberg, and the long connections these lands have had with Russia. Also, open in the culture center is the Royal Manners School for children and adults.
The Friedrichsburg Gates of Konigsberg
Presented in the center of Ship Sunday is the history of shipbuilding: models of sailboats and battleships, old maritime tools and navigational devices, and images of traditional Russian boats. They host game programs and re-enactments and have a museum shipyard as well where you can watch how they build ships.
The Friedland Gates of Konigsberg
Featured at the museum are several permanent exhibitions, one of which is dedicated to the everyday life of Konigsberg residents in the beginning of the 20th century and they’ve assembled a collection of many household items: dishes, irons, hair clips, an agricultural adjustment, and more. The second exhibition describes the development of the city’s sewer network. The main local “attraction”, however, is the 40 minute multimedia time travel. An image of the old city is projected onto the gate aperture and side walls with a market, passers-by, shop windows, and familiar sights.
They do tours for children (schoolchildren and preschoolers) ranging from a simple overview to thematic games, such as Craftsmen City, A Journey through Middle Age Castles, and Romantic Expedition. Tours must be scheduled ahead of time.
Another thing they organized for the museum is a city street train tour. On Sundays, a retro street train departs from the South Train Station for a trip duration of an hour and 30 minutes. Tickets are sold at the museum ticket office and you can call them at +7 (4012) 64-40-24.
Rosgarten Gates at Konigsberg
The Rosgarten Gates are considered the most beautiful gates in Kaliningrad and they are the only gates that have preserved all the fortification elements of the old complex: a bridge, a moat, and a casemate. Currently located inside the gates is a restaurant and the Amber Museum as well.
The cathedral, the symbol of the Kaliningrad Region, is located on Kant Island. Built almost 700 years ago, it has sunken into the ground even more than a meter and a half deep. Inside the cathedral is the largest organ in Europe and in the concert hall they hold organ and symphonic music concerts. Furthermore, on the second floor is a museum where children may be shown types of middle age armor and on the third floor is a very old Vallengorod library from the year 1650 with a restored interior and stained-glass window. Kant’s grave is also located by the cathedral and inside is an institute of his name. Outside the cathedral, tourists are almost always awaited by re-enactors who will take a picture of a child armored with a sword and will let them make a souvenir coin with their own hands.
Where to take your kids for a walk in Kaliningrad: gardens and parks in Kaliningrad for kids
Youth Culture Park and a walk around the Upper Lake
In the large park is a vegetated green zone and a lake where you can go for a ride in the summer on a boat or a catamaran, go skating in an indoor skating rink, and a have a bite to eat at a carting club café. Situated in the same place is a tropical butterfly hall as well. The park also organizes kids and family celebrations in addition to the city walks and concerts that go on there.
When exiting the park, you can continue right in the direction you’re going for a walk along the Upper Lake. This is a well-kept venue featuring a fountain, a skate park, bike trails, and a kids playground. On the playground is a 24-meter three-mast Frigate Sail, swings for both kids and infants, benches, merry-go-rounds, sandboxes, and hang-out areas.
This park was created in the beginning of the 20th century at the old power fortifications and you see some old bastilles here and there, fortress walls, ravelins, and in the place of an open ditch there are now ponds, which have become an attractive place for swans to call home. On the territory of the park is also a boat station, Locomotive Stadium, a model airplane factory, and a café. In addition, there is a kids playground and many nice places to go for a walk.
Regional Ecologic Center Landscape Park in Kaliningrad
This is currently the territory of the Kaliningrad Regional Ecology, Natural History, and Tourism Youth Center. The gorgeous landscape comprising this park features 350 different types of plants, including relics. In the center is a greenhouse of tropical plants, a miniature zoo with guinea pigs, little parrots, finches, newts, and chinchillas. Also, in the center they do educational ecological programs.
Founded in the 17th century, it used to be the royal park and favorite leisure location of Queen Louise. Currently in the park is a church in her name as well as a surprise puppet theater inside. There was also ample space in the park for kids attractions and an outdoor skating rink, monuments to Baron Munchhausen and Vladimir Vysotsky, as well as a concert venue, several cafés, and two fountains, including a kids splashing fountain reminiscent of the firework fountains of Peterhof. Furthermore, the park regularly hosts festivals and various celebrations.
The botanical garden of Baltic Federal University in the name of Kant in Kaliningrad
Located on the territory of the garden are greenhouses, hothouses, a pond, a tree plant orchard, and a playground with a trail of funny wooden sculptures. They do tours on Saturdays and Sundays, for example to the cactus greenhouse, and they let you in only with a tour guide. An especially beautiful thing to see in the garden is when the magnolia are just starting to blossom. Magnolia Day is celebrated every year on April 29th.
This zoo is cozy and green and there are little sculptures everywhere like a little girl with a baby deer. On the zoo’s territory, there is a small kids playground and from May to October a kids petting zoo called “Pryg Skok” opens up with tamed goatlings. You can celebrate a kid’s birthday too and from time to time they have themed holidays like Birds Day, Walrus Day, Zebra Day, and more. Illustrated on all informational materials is a pink hippo. They made it the zoo’s emblem for a reason. This hippo Hans was saved by the zoo during World War II.
The only amber museum in Russia is located in Don’s Tower in Rosgarten Gates Complex and presented there is a collection of historical and modern amber products. The museum regularly (about every two weeks) does exhibitions, celebrations, and competitions. For young people and teenagers there they have the educational “Student Fridays” and a discussion club. They also have thought up organized games related to amber for kids of various ages. For instance, for five-year-olds that might be Who Lives in the Amber Forest and for eighth-graders it might be Amber in Myths and Legends or Amber in the Amber Age Poetry.
The World Ocean Museum in Kaliningrad
In the main section of the museum, they have sea aquariums, collections of sea shells, corrals, and a sperm whale skeleton. On the roof of the building is an observation deck with a real lighthouse and also in the Ocean Museum is a scientific research boat called Knight, a museum submarine, and other floating rigs, all of which are docked at the Embankment of the historic fleet and each of which may by climbed on by tour groups. Saint- Petersburg icebreaker Krasin, by the way, is also a branch of the Kaliningrad Ocean Museum.
Presented in the 8 halls are various works of art from Eastern Prussia, glass and ceramics of the 60s, and works performed by Kaliningrad artists. There is an array of educational programs for children and adults, from multimedia workshops to studying Japanese arts and the creation of lotus, from Gzhel and hohloma workshops to trivia on the stories of Andersen and Hoffman. All workshops must be scheduled in advance by calling +7 (4012) 46-70-47. Also in the gallery they do activities coinciding with certain holidays and they teach you to make holiday cards, wall newspapers, and calendars.
Kaliningrad Regional Arts History Museum
This museum features several halls, each dedicated to a separate theme from World War II to the most ancient archeological findings. In various halls, you get to see the possessions of a medieval astrologist, ancient swords, spurs, hammers, a club, and an axe out of a moose horn. In the Archeology section are findings of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic Ages: weapons out of mammoth tusks and the horn of a north deer, objects made from bone, treasures from the Iron Age, items from the Vikings age, and other exhibits.
Kaliningrad Regional Music Theater
In this theater’s repertoire are operettas and musicals, operas and rock operas, drama performances, and shows for kids. Some of them include Treasure Island, Morozko, The Never-laughing Queen, The Tinderbox, Nutcracker, The Puss in Boots, Cinderella, The Bremen Town Musicians, and more.
Third Floor Students Theater in Kaliningrad
This young theater was founded in 1995 and the actors there are students and graduates of the theatrical institute. Every year in the end of February or the beginning of March, the theater hosts its own short show festival called Thread and the idea of it is that nobody performs anything that was previously prepared, rather everything is created in the course of 10 days like in a creative laboratory. Amongst the shows of the theater, shows that are appropriate for children are Joy Game based on the story of Pollyanna and more.
Kaliningrad Regional Drama Theater
This theater was founded after the war in 1947. Included in its repertoire are a lot of classical performances, such as The Marriage of Figaro, Vassa Zheloznova, “Come on in Inspector”, and more. Shows that you could watch with your kids include Alena’s Flower, Lord Fauntleroy, The Mummy Troll and the Magician’s Hat, and The Story of Snow White, the Evil Queen, the Brave Prince, and the Good Dwarves. They do New Year’s shows as well.
Philharmonia in the church of the Holy Family in Kaliningrad
Developed in philharmonia are program cycles for various aims and ages. For teenagers and students they have Youth Academy and the literacy project is accompanied by classical music. For families with young children they have a program called The Whole Family in the Concert Hall with concert cycles based on fables and family “musical readings”.
Puppet theater in the church in the name of the Queen Louise Monument in Kaliningrad
This church is named in the honor of the most famous woman of Prussia, a woman whose beauty made an impression on Napoleon Bonaparte himself. Currently located in the building is a puppet theater whose repertoire includes 40 different shows. They’ve got Moydodyr, Thumbelina, The Boldly Buzzing Fly, Winnie Poo, and Magic Dreams according to the charming stories of Donald Bisset, which for some reason are performed quite seldom.
Entertainment and outdoor leisure for kids in Kaliningrad
City Park Entertainment Complex in Kaliningrad
Most of what they normally organize in City Park includes concerts and discos, but the local roller rink is worthy of attention as well. It’s indoors, it offers ice skate rental starting at size 29, and there is a pizzeria there as well.
Albatros Ice Arena in Kaliningrad
This is the biggest indoor skating rink in Kaliningrad. The rink is also used for a Youth Sports School in figure skating, hockey, and curling. You can do group skating any day in the evening and all day on Saturdays and Sundays. On holidays and weekends they have night skating as well.
Golden Way Ice Rink in Kaliningrad
This is an outdoor skating rink with different color lighting, ice skate rental, and skate sharpening services. Birthday boys and girls get free admission to the skating rink (with proper ID proof) and on the weekends they offer a family skating special.
Olympic Water Park and Hotel Entertainment Complex in Kaliningrad
This complex features a water park, a spa center, a sauna zone, a restaurant, bowling, a darts club, and a hotel. You could go there and try out one thing or you might well end up spending the whole day there.
The Water Park features several slides, an aqua zone for kids, a massage pool, “river” and “cliff” attractions, a Finnish sauna, and a hamam. The water there is cleaned without chlorine, using ozone instead. At the spa zone, they do massages, body wrapping, and other procedures and in so-called Sauna Land is a biosauna (very mild temperature) and an extreme sauna (very high temperature); Roman, Russian, and Turkish saunas; Pharaoh mud bath; an ice room; and an “impression shower”. They have bowling with 6 lanes and a darts club as well where you can learn to hurl darts right on target.
You can read about where to take your kids in Kaliningrad in our events guide.
Photos: vk.com/historyartmuseum, wikipedia.org, ambermuseum.ru, park-unost.ru, ecocentr39.ru, kldzoo.ru, world-ocean.ru, kaliningradartmuseum.ru, vk.com/tretazh, kenigfil.ru, albagym.ru, olympic-online.ru
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