What to See with Kids in Ufa: Vacationing with Kids in Ufa, Russia

23.08.2015 4453


A review of various destinations and entertainment available for the whole family in Ufa, including petting zoos, museums, summer and winter attractions, water parks, dinosaur parks, a meteorite from space and a map made out of gems, interactive shows for children, and kids science shows. 

 

 

Kids Museums in Ufa, Exhibitions for Kids in Ufa 

If you would be interested in drawing a shadow portrait, building a bridge without using nails, and blowing up a huge soap bubble, you should consider stopping by Intellectus Intriguing Science Museum. In the movie theatre there built in the form of a sphere, they will show you movies about space and in the various rooms of the museum, they do experiments with a Talking Head, pendulums, Tesla lightning, and a Chinese Cup.    

 

 

At the Ufa Planetarium, they will gladly introduce preschool-aged children and up to the wonders of space. Small children are invited to a journey to the Moon in the company of Neznayka and a little bit older kids are shown films about the prehistoric Earth as well as ancient myths that are associated with constellations and planets. Every now and then, they planetarium sets up open events, where they let their visitors look into a telescope.  

You get to learn about nature, culture, and history tickle your fancy if you desire to stop by the National Museum of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Inside the nature rooms, visitors will get to find out how the Burzyan bees collect Bashkir honey, about various landscapes from the prairies to the caves, and also what kinds of animals live inside them. In the history rooms, they explain to children what Salavat Yulaev was famous for, what other kinds of people inhabit his native region, and how much Bashkiria has changed since its ancient days up to the 20th century. 

 

 

Presented at the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography for your viewing pleasure are golden figures of animals, weaponry, and decorations from burial mounds. At the archeological section of the exhibition, you can listen to stories about the Sarmatians, the Khazars, and the other ancient peoples that inhabited Southern Ural; check out various objects from their daily lives; and get to know their culture. Then, in the ethnographic rooms you will hear about the various traditions of the Bashkirians, the Tatars, the Udmurts, the Mordovians, and the Chuvashes (in one of the rooms you get to look inside a Bashkirian tent and an izba). Also presented at the museum is an effigy of a life-size mammoth along with a real “alien” from space –meteorite Sterlitamak. 

 

 

Featured at the Geology Museum is a large collection of minerals and rock formations. In fact, they even have a map of Bashkortostan at the entrance of the exhibition posted with depictions of valuable minerals. Inside the halls, you can also check out fossils up close along with the remains of prehistoric plants and animals that were found in Bashkiria. Children will find out how useful minerals are extracted as well as how Bashkirian diamonds, gold nuggets, rhodonite, and malachite look. 

 

 

Old telegraph machines and telephone switchboards can be found in the expositions of Museum of Communications in addition to military radio transmitters and typing machines. They will also talk to you about how people used to pass the time before the internet was around: for example, they used to listen to vinyl records on turn-tables and they would watch “KVN-49” TV on a small screen with a magnifying lens. If you’re heading there on a week day you will get in for free and on weekends they do tours for whole groups. 

Children get to find out what part the Bashkirian people took in World War 2 at the Battle Glory Museum. There they will be told about the struggle for victory and the life of the soldiers at the war front as well as the workers at home. Included amongst the exhibits are letters written from the front, soldiers’ and officers’ uniforms, and various weapons used by German and Soviet forces, for example the famous machine gun “Maxim” and the motor of an airplane that was knocked out of the air in 1942. You can take your children to a thematic tour also well dedicated to the decisive battles of the war, guerrilla warfare, and the lives of war captives. 

They offer you to take a closer look at Bashkirian nature at the Forest Museum. Presented on two separate floors is a large collection of bird and animal effigies. You can see practically all of the regional forests inhabitants in dioramas –wild boars on an autumn forest edge, a fox in the snowy winter, and moose on a summer meadow. You can also check out real bears, wild boars, and foxes in the summer wild beast show inside the museum.

 

 

Located at Azbukat Raceway is the Horse Breeding and Horseracing Museum. At the exhibition, children will get to find out what makes the Bashkirian breed of horses different from the rest, see 12 different champion quarter horses, and check out horse figures made by Kaslinski casters. In the theater hall they also show you movies about the history of Ufa horseracing as well as about Bashkirian horses. They also have a diorama with a tent, horsemen, and a herd of horses. Entrance to the museum is free of charge and if you’d like a tour, you must schedule in advance. 

Also, you can take your kids with you for a visit at the art gallery at the Bashkirian Art Museum or the Modern Art Museum.

 

Kids Theaters in Ufa, Shows for Kids in Ufa 

You can find 30 different kids shows in the Bashkirian Puppet Theater’s repertoire. On the stage there, they perform Eastern fables, such as “Aminbek”, Namrud Kingdom, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the magical Russian stories of With a Wave of a Wand and Masha and the Bear as well as European puppet shows The Three Little Pigs, The Puss in Boots, and Everybody in the Mummy House.      

They also do kids shows at the Bashkirian Drama Theater in the Name of Majit Gafuri. You should consider taking your kid to see Mogley, The Master’s Workshop, or Snow White or going to one of the musicals. They also have interactive shows there where they teach children the safe way to handle a fire and the rules of traffic in the form of a game. 

Two different casts work at the Youth Theater in the Name of Mustai Karim: one Russian and one Bashkirian. They perform more than ten different fables in Russian –for example, about Pippi, Cinderella, Morozko, and Tom Sawyer. In Bashkirian, you can watch the Buzzy-Wuzzy Busy Fly, Chipollino, Romeo and Juliet, and At the Ark at Eight.  

 

 

At the Russian Drama Theater, they have shows for children, such as The Little Witch, “Konyok-Gorbunok”, and Snow White. You can also introduce your child to the rules of traffic at a game show called Detective at the Intersection. If you have teenagers, you might enjoy watching a modern play, such as Mr. Ibrahim and the Colors of the Koran or a show based on the work of Ostovsky, Lermontov, Gorky, or Nekrasov.  

A family project called Let’s Listen to Music has been launched in the Bashkirian Philharmonia. The concert program consisting of classical compositions was created especially for future mothers or mothers of children less than 3 years old. If you like you can also take your children to a concert in the Organ hall or listen to the National Orchestra of Traditional Instruments play. 

At the Bashkirian Opera and Ballet Theater, kids get to find out how a performance is created at the interactive show Let’s Make an Opera!. There you can check out little operettas and visit more serious symphonic music performances. Also open in the theater is a museum with theatrical decorations, props, and costumes of the performers. 

 

 

They do interactive show for schoolchildren between the ages of 1 and 7 at Zazerkalye Museum Theater. An enchanted oak tree, a talking oven, and various other magical objects await all participants of the game. The theater opened up in December 2013 and at the moment its repertoire is rather small –just four shows: Mischievous Arrows, Twelve Months, Fairytale Turmoil, and The World of Little Friends. 

You can go see shows in Tatar at Nur Theater. They perform just three shows there for kids: Winnie Poo, The Cat’s House, and Akbai the Country Dog. They also do comedies and dramas there for schoolchildren and adults.  

 

 

Ufa Zoos

There is a little wild beast show open in the middle of the zoo in the name of the Bashkirian Foresters. Living in the cages there are bears, foxes, wild boars, wolves, moose, and owls. You can also go for a ride around the zoo on a horse or a pony and the farther part of the park has a duck pond. Another point of interest at the zoo is the Forest Museum where they have effigies of animals and birds. 

Located at Bashkortostan mall is Zhili u Babysi Petting Zoo where you are allowed to pet and feed all of the animals living there. You and your child will get to touch hedgehogs, goatlings, guinea pigs, rabbits, kangaroos, and emus. On holidays, the petting zoo features thematic tours and on summer vacation they prepare surprises for schoolchildren as well. 

A mandarin duck, a Chinese silk chicken, and the littlest horse in the world live at Lapushka Petting Zoo. Aside from that, they let you pet tiny marmoset monkeys, a Chilean squirrel –the degu, Bennett’s kangaroo, and giant snails. The also sell treats for all the birds and animals at the zoo. They do not let you take food inside.  

 

Attractions and Parks to Take Your Kids in Ufa 

Planeta, the only water park in Bashkortostan was officially opened in December 2013. The park is laid out in the style of Jurassic Park: you can see dinosaurs, fangtooth fish, and all kinds of “fossils” between the rivers and pools. The water park features 30 attractions: they have family slides, extreme slides for teenagers and adults, and eight different pools to swim in. For small children they also have a small paddling pool with little slides. 

 

 

You can go ride swings, carousels, and a 27-meter Ferris wheel in the summer time at Central Culture and Recreation Park in the Name of Gafuri. In the winter people go skiing, tubing, and ice-skating there as well. The park is split into two sections: the Lower Park has a horse club and a go-cart course. Open year round also in the Central Culture and Recreation Park is “Dinozavrik” where you can check out 16 figures of dinosaurs close up along with a mammoth and King Kong the giant gorilla. 

Open next to the Central Culture and Recreation Park is Magic World Amusement Park with new carousels: Calipso, Snowstorm, and the Kangaroo Trampoline for the whole family and Castle of Horrors, Shuttle, and Hip Hop for those more into extreme entertainment. If you have small children, you should consider riding the carousels, a train, and a cable car. 

In the summer they set up a little trampoline town with 6 trampolines at Kashkadan Culture and Recreation Park. There they offer children to ride the bumper boats, go race car driving, and jump on a real sports trampoline. For a little bit older people, they rent out boats and in the winter you can take your kids to the skating rink.

 

 

Parents with children are awaited year round at Gammi Rope Park. In Olympic Park mountain skiing center they have four courses, the easiest of which is the Green Course suitable for kids seven years and up. They also have four courses at Magic World Park: Brave for teenagers and adults, Schoolchild and Extreme for kids seven and up, and Little Extreme for preschoolers. Finally, they also offer you to ride a trolley over the Ufa River and other parts of the city (you can read about all the events of the rope parks ahead of time on social network sites). 

Opening in the summer time at Yakutova Park are electric carts, a free fall tower, roller coasters, and a Boeing simulator. For small children they have inflatable trampolines there, mini merry-go-rounds, and a little pool with boats. If you have a little bit older kids you can go for a ride on a row boat around Soldatsky Lake. Also, Jolly Roger Complex is open at any time of the year with bowling lanes, 60 video game machines, and a maze with hills and a dry pool. 

 

 

To the north of the city you can go ride attractions during the summer and go ice-skating in the winter at Neftekhimikov Culture and Recreation Park and Pervomaysky Culture and Recreation Park at Chernikovka. 

At Pobeda Park you can go for a walk and make your way to an observation deck with a view of the White River. Some other good places to take your kids for a walk would be Matrosov Garden with two fountains, Salavat Yulaev Park with a Bridge of Love, Aksakov Garden with a pond and swans, Sofyushkina Avenue, and Nepeyevsky Dendrological Park with rare trees and squirrels that you can feed. 

 

 

There are multi-level mazes with a dry pool, developmental toys, and video game machines in various kids entertainment centers –for instance, MegalandPlay DayIgrandiaArbuzAquarium, and Bungalo.

 

 

We have kids events in Ufa posted for every day in our events guide.

 

Photos: vk.com/intellectus_ufa, vk.com/nmrb_ufa102, vk.com/muzlesufa, ru.wikipedia.org, vk.com/ufaakvapark, vk.com/megaland_ufa


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