Four to seven is a good age for getting out: old enough to sit through a puppet show or pedal a bike, young enough that a ball pit still makes the day. This list pulls together the shows, workshops, museums, playgrounds and seasonal outings whose age range covers this stretch, so you can skip the ones built for toddlers or teens.
Der Räuber Hotzenplotz, the robber adventure, comes to the stage of the Basler Kindertheater in a version by Jessica Wohlwend. Kids and the adults who bring them watch it together.
It is performed in Swiss German dialect, so it suits kids who hear Swiss German at home or at school. Kids who don't understand dialect will miss most of the dialogue.
Andrew Bond is the Swiss children's songwriter whose songs many kids already know by heart. This family concert is built for joining in: songs from his nature album "Machs wie de Dachs" (Do It Like the Badger) take the audience through fields, woods and meadows, singing, playing and dancing along with animals, birds and insects, with some of his best-known autumn songs mixed in. It's sung in Swiss German.
The Brothers Grimm's Snow White, staged by the Basler Kindertheater in a version by Mónica and Jessica Wohlwend. The wicked queen wants to be the fairest in the land, and Snow White flees her stepmother to the seven dwarfs' cottage.
The play is spoken in Swiss German dialect, so it suits kids who follow Mundart. The theater pitches it to young and old alike.
Balz Aliesch writes modern kids' songs in Baseldytsch, the Basel dialect of Swiss German, mixing pop, reggae, funk and rockabilly with plenty of jokes. Here he plays the favorites from his three albums: songs about everyday kid life to listen to, sing along with and act out, written so the grown-ups enjoy them too. Fauteuil regulars may know him as an actor from the Pfyfferli and the fairy-tale shows.
Kipling's story of Mowgli, the boy raised in the jungle, and his animal friends, in a new stage version Kamil Krejci wrote and directs for the Fauteuil-Märchenbühne. He plays it for laughs and for suspense, with original music by Alexius Tschallener and choreographed scenes.
The theater's own ensemble of eight actors performs it in the Fauteuil hall on Spalenberg, a two-minute walk from Marktplatz in the Old Town.
Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate classic, Die Schatzinsel, on stage at the Basler Kindertheater in a version written by Jessica Wohlwend. Kids follow a story full of pirates, mysterious islands and hidden treasure, told live in Swiss German dialect.
It suits families who want an exciting adventure story together, and kids who already understand Swiss German, since this is a spoken play and the words carry it.
Four odd birds hatch one by one from a giant egg, and then a big black grand piano appears. The newly hatched birds explore their world and the mysterious instrument, and playful, unusual music grows out of it.
The grand piano becomes the meeting point of the show, with all four performers making it sound. It suits curious kids who like to see how instruments make their sounds.
Theater Arlecchino has staged shows for kids and families since 1997, and has played at its Walkeweg home by St. Jakob since 2015. The program mixes its own productions with guest shows: fairy tales, classics such as a kids' Magic Flute set to Mozart's melodies, concerts, and the Fasnachtsbändeli comedy before Fasnacht. Kids watch from benches or chairs, and the theater bar sells drinks, cake and ice cream.
The Fauteuil-Märchenbühne is the Theater Fauteuil's own fairy-tale musical, staged every winter since 1965 in its small hall on Spalenberg. Each season brings one new story with costumes, detailed sets and songs; past shows include Rumpelstilzchen, Frau Holle and Räuber Hotzenplotz.
This season's show is Dschungelbuech, a Jungle Book version by Kamil Krejci with music by Alexius Tschallener. It is performed in Swiss German dialect.
Basler Kindertheater has staged plays since 1970, and every part is played by children and teenagers. It was the first children's theater in Switzerland. Each season brings four productions of fairy tales and adventure stories, such as Der Räuber Hotzenplotz and Schneewittchen, with full costumes and stage sets.
A whole special exhibition on the teddy bear, inside a toy museum that holds one of the world's largest collections of historic teddies. It traces the bear from old legends and Basel's own Bear Dance to the 1907 teddy craze, Winnie-the-Pooh, Paddington and the Haribo Goldbear.
Kids can hug a giant plush bear and play at a teddy first-aid station between the glass cases.
Räbeliechtli is a Swiss autumn tradition: kids carry lanterns carved from turnips and walk together in the evening. This one is run by the ELCH and goes through the Lange Erlen to the square outside Kaffi ELCH.
Big and small are welcome. It suits preschoolers and early schoolers best, and families who booked can stay on afterward for a soup supper.
A Christmas village for kids, decorated with fir trees, set up by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen inside the Basel Christmas market on Münsterplatz. Kids go from house to house to dip candles, decorate gingerbread, make Christmas presents, try tin pouring or blacksmithing, and ride the kids' train. A marionette theater performs a Christmas story.
Kids warm up with hot chocolate in the fire room while adults get mulled wine at the bar.
The Märchenwald (also called the Märliwald) turns Münsterplatz into a Christmas village of several houses. Kids move between them to dip candles, decorate gingerbread, make Christmas presents and ride the kids' train.
It suits preschool and primary-age kids who like making things with their hands. Most of it happens out on the square, so dress everyone for a cold December afternoon.
Niggi-Näggi is Basel's name for Samichlaus, the Swiss St. Nicholas, and the Zolli is what locals call Zoo Basel. For this afternoon event, he comes to the zoo.
It suits preschool and primary-age kids who know the Samichlaus tradition. The event is outdoors, so dress for the weather.
Santiglaus (St. Nicholas) drops in at Haus zum Kirschgarten with his helper Schmutzli. Kids who dare can step up and recite a little poem in front of him.
The rest of the family watches from the garden with warm drinks. It suits kids who can say a short rhyme in German, and younger siblings who just want to see him.
Lorenz Pauli, a well-known children's book author, comes to the Chinds-Chöpf family theater series at Theater BAU3 and tells stories. Some are about big snow and cold days; the rest he keeps as a surprise.
It is storytelling theater, so the show is his words and the pictures kids build in their own heads. It suits kids who love being read to and can follow spoken German.
Hoppolino is a large indoor soft play center. The main draw is a 6 m Spider-Tower with several climbing levels, plus a big climbing frame, a spiral slide that drops into an extra-large ball pit, a 4 m trampoline and a go-kart track.
The smallest children get a separate toddler area, and an interactive floor-and-wall game zone is listed as coming soon.
Kids stamp, print, write and draw their own advent calendar at the Basler Papiermühle, a hands-on museum of paper, writing and printing inside a medieval mill: 24 doors, 24 surprises.
It's an open workshop, so families drop in and work at their own pace. Teens and adults make one too, and the museum's other stations, from scooping paper to old printing presses, come with the same ticket.
Circus Knie tours Switzerland with a big-top show, and Basel is one of its stops. The program mixes international circus artists, modern show technology and the horses of the Knie family.
For this tour the company has a new tent and new seating, which brings a new seating plan. It suits kids who can sit through a full circus show and like horses.
Vogelpark Steinen is a bird and animal park in the southern Black Forest. Eagles, falcons and owls fly in an open-air falconry arena seating about 600, and kids can walk through the Barbary macaque enclosure at feeding time and feed parakeets in a covered free-flight aviary.
There are also kangaroos, a bird house on local species, a labyrinth with an eagle owl search game, several playgrounds and a water-treading pool.
The Spielaue is the public playground beside Tierpark Lange Erlen, a free animal park. Kids slide down from a raised plateau, scramble over a climbing sculpture, dig in the sand and play with the playground's own water system.
A path runs through a small stream so children who use a wheelchair can join in. It sits outside the animal park's fence, so it stays open after the park closes.
Built in 1969/70 as a practice ground for road safety, the Verkehrsgarten lets kids ride bikes, scooters and inline skates around a small network of streets away from real traffic. A full renovation in 2024 added newer city features: a raised tram-stop curb, a sidewalk crossing and an indirect turn for bikes.
Basel's cantonal police teach school road-safety lessons here, so public riding fits around class times.
A large indoor play hall with a climbing tower, trampolines, a go-kart track, bumper cars, a soccer pitch and a roller slide. A separate area is set aside for kids up to 5, and the play equipment is built for adults too.
Parents can sit in the bistro, which serves snacks and hot and cold drinks, or bring food from home.
The Swiss Fire Brigade Museum follows how firefighting equipment developed, with objects dating back as far as the 13th century. Its several floors run from medieval hand-operated spraying devices to modern oxygen breathing sets, collected across Switzerland and mostly from the Basel region.
Kids who are into fire engines and old machines get plenty of historic equipment to study up close.
Museum.BL is the cantonal museum of Basel-Landschaft, housed in the former arsenal in Liestal's old town. Its permanent shows cover the region's wild animals and plants (Wildes Baselbiet) and the history of silk ribbon weaving, drawing on collections of natural history, archaeology and ethnology.
The exhibits are interactive and built with families in mind, and three or four temporary shows change through the year.
MUKS is a small museum in a historic building in Riehen, the village on the Swiss-German border. Its permanent Spiel (play) exhibition fills rooms themed on dreaming, living and cheating with old toys, odd inventions and a dream bubble to slip into.
A second permanent show, Village, tells Riehen's history. Outside, a courtyard and garden have seating, sun umbrellas, games and a self-service kiosk.
SpielEstrich is a 1,000 m² indoor playground under the old timber roof of the Kaserne, built for kids from kindergarten age to 12. There is room to run, climb, jump and play, plus hammocks for kids who would rather lie still.
Robi-Spiel-Aktionen runs it, and Kaffi Hü, the café on site, sells food for kids and adults.
Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, played with short-strung marionettes. Peter opens the garden gate and meets the big gray wolf, and every character has its own instrument: the waddling duck gets the oboe, the cat sneaks to the clarinet, and Peter's grandfather gets the bassoon.
A first taste of classical music for kids who can follow a story told in German. It is a guest production at the marionette theater.
Basel's Christmas market fills the city center with stalls of tree ornaments, gifts and food, around the Barfüsserkirche and in front of the Münster, where the trees are hung with glowing snow globes.
For kids, the main draw is the Märchenwald on Münsterplatz: a forest of fir trees run by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen association, full of hands-on crafts and with its own puppet theater.
Vogel Gryff is Kleinbasel's own festival day, run by the three honorary societies on this side of the Rhine. Each one sends out a costumed figure: the griffin (Vogel Gryff), the lion (Leu) and the wild man (Wild Maa), who dance in the streets at set spots around the neighborhood.
It suits kids who like big costumes and old local traditions, and who don't mind a winter day outdoors.
The Basel Tattoo takes its music out of the arena and onto the streets of downtown Basel. All the Tattoo's formations, plus guest bands from Switzerland and abroad, march the route.
Kids watch from the roadside as the bands pass. The organizers compare the buzz in the city to Basel carnival. It suits families whose kids like loud, colorful music.
St. Chrischona is the highest point of Basel-Stadt: a wooded hilltop above Bettingen with a church, a playground and Switzerland's tallest freestanding structure, the 250-meter TV tower. 71 steps under the church tower lead to a platform with views to the Alps, the Jura, the Black Forest and the Vosges.
The Generationenparcours playground has a slide, climbing course, seesaw, swings and a bouldering block, plus a forest zip line.
The first national nature reserve in Alsace, created in 1982, covers 904 hectares of the Rhine's old floodplain: reed beds, wet meadows, marshes and riverside woods. Trails and bird hides cross two sites, the historic core and the Ile du Rhin, and Highland cattle and Konik horses graze the meadows. In the core, two exhibitions about the Rhine and its salmon fill the buildings of Napoleon III's imperial fish farm.
Four ferries carry foot passengers across the Rhine between Grossbasel and Kleinbasel. Each hangs from a cable over the river and crosses on the current alone, with no engine. Each has its own name and landing: Wild Maa at St. Alban, Leu by the Münster, Vogel Gryff at Klingental and Ueli at St. Johann. Kids can watch the river push the boat from bank to bank.
One of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, founded in 1589 and next to the Spalentor since 1898. More than 7,500 plant species grow in the outdoor beds and greenhouses.
Kids can find cocoa, bananas and coffee in the Tropical Greenhouse, giant water lily pads in the Victoria house, century-old golden barrel cacti in the Succulent House, and tiny frogs hiding among the tropical plants.
Mega Kid's is a 2,000 m² indoor play area inside the Megazone leisure center, which also has laser tag, karaoke boxes and arcade games. Kids climb, slide and explore multi-level play structures with giant slides and a ball pit, and little ones get a separate toddler space.
A Circus-themed party room hosts birthdays, and the center sits just over the French border from Basel.
Tierpark Weihermätteli is a 4-hectare animal park in Liestal, home to about 200 animals from some 20 mostly native breeds, several of them rare. Kids meet dwarf goats, Shetland ponies, llamas, donkeys, Highland cattle, sika deer and raccoons, and can stroke animals in the petting zoo.
A new nature playground, built on several levels with native plants, opened in 2026.
A neighborhood playground built around a large paddling pool with a water feature, which keeps kids cool through the summer months. Around it are climbing equipment, a slide, swings, a sandpit, a carousel, a seesaw and a play lawn.
Benches, movable picnic tables and a temporary toilet block sit by a lawn for lounging. City gardener Richard Arioli designed it in 1956, and it was last renewed in 2003.
Opened in 1992 and redesigned in 2011, St. Johanns-Park has a playground, ground-level water jets, a football pitch with goals and a big lawn. Kids climb two sculptures shaped like a pig and a goose, a nod to the animals that once grazed outside the St. Johanns-Tor.
Spilruum St. Johann, an open meeting point for kids, is here too, along with the kleiner Wassermann park café.
Kannenfeldpark is the city's largest public green space, laid out as a cemetery and turned into a park after 1952, with a wide collection of tree species.
Five play islands line the southwest cross path, each with its own theme: climbing, swings, slides, a sandpit with a water tap, and a paddling pool. There is also a toddler playground, table tennis, chess by the rose garden and a garden theater.
Vorstadttheater Basel stages professional, contemporary theater for children and adults together, inside the Gemeindehaus Oekolampad. Its own ensemble makes one or two new plays a year and runs each for about two months.
Between those runs, touring guest companies take the stage, from puppet and storytelling shows for preschoolers to plays for older kids that take on big themes like growing up and growing old.
Four floors and more than 1,000 square meters of historical toys: over 2,500 teddy bears (the most comprehensive collection in the world, many by Steiff), dolls, old dolls' houses, grocery shops and 1:12 miniatures. Many scenes start moving at the push of a button.
On an animated tablet tour, virtual figures move through the displays, and a kids' track sends zeppelins flying and music notes dancing out of a gramophone.
A wildlife park in the Lange Erlen riverside woods along the Wiese, run by the Erlen-Verein since 1871. It keeps native animals across about 20 hectares: European bison, red and fallow deer, chamois, lynx, wildcats and foxes, plus owls in aviaries and waterbirds on the ponds.
Rare Swiss farm breeds such as Valais sheep and woolly pigs round it out.
Ermitage Arlesheim is a landscape garden opened in 1785 across 40 hectares of wooded valley. Paths wind past ponds, an old mill, a rock gate and a string of grottoes, up to a hermit's hut and the Schloss Birseck castle ruin with its Knight's Hall.
A riddle booklet written for kids turns the walk into a hunt for clues at each numbered station.
Kiddy Park Basel is an indoor play hall with a ball pit, a trampoline jump area, climbing structures and obstacle courses. Babies get soft crawling zones, and under-6s have their own area with smaller equipment.
The play is active and low-tech, with no screens or entertainers. Staff supervise the floor, parents can sit in the lounge, and a snack corner and the Munchkin Island restaurant serve kids' meals.
A play café built around a large playroom with a climbing structure, toys and play corners, set up for babies and toddlers. Parents sit in the café with coffee and homemade cupcakes and keep an eye on the playroom through a TV monitor.
Highchairs, toddler stools, a changing area, nursing armchairs and covered buggy parking are all there, plus table games for older siblings.
Gratis uffs Glattyys is Basel's free skating day, when the canton opens both public rinks, Margarethen and Eglisee, to everyone. It's an easy, no-pressure way for a family to spend a whole day on the ice.
At Margarethen, regional ice sports clubs add a program kids can join in. It suits kids who can already stand on skates; total beginners will need a parent's hand.
Every year, Harley-Davidson riders turn their motorbikes into Christmas vehicles and ride through Basel's illuminated city center dressed as Nikolaus, Santiglaus, Santa Claus or angels. It is one of the highlights of Basel's Christmas season.
Kids watch from the street as the decorated bikes roll past. It suits families with young children who love Santa, and anyone who likes motorbikes.
Built for the Grün 80 garden show, Park im Grünen spreads across lawns the size of about 18 soccer fields. The St. Alban-Teich and its fountain sit at the center, near a 45-meter dinosaur model and a Bernhard Luginbühl iron sculpture that doubles as a play structure.
Kids also get a playground, an 18-hole minigolf course, a vintage carousel, a Kneipp foot bath and six public barbecue spots.
Jean Tinguely built this fountain in 1977 where the stage of the old city theater once stood. Ten metal machines, some made from the theater's old stage parts, turn, wobble and spray water across a wide, shallow pool, driven by electric motors.
Stone benches ring the pool, so parents can sit while kids watch the sprays up close.
Merian Gardens covers 18 hectares of gardens and organic farmland run by the Christoph Merian Foundation. Kids can visit the sheep, chickens and rabbits in the stables, spot frogs and dragonflies at the pond along the shady canal path, and look for beaver tooth marks on trees.
There is also a mill museum, an orchard with 300 fruit varieties, a historic iris collection and a rhododendron valley that blooms in spring.
Rötteln is one of the largest castle ruins in southern Baden, stretching about 300 meters along a hilltop spur above Lörrach. Kids can climb both keeps for views over the corner where Germany, Switzerland and France meet, roam the walls and courtyards, and see the small castle museum with its fairy-tale organ and weapons display. Behind the castle, a grill area has a well-known climbing root.
Gempenturm is a 28-meter steel lookout tower with five levels, standing in the woods at the edge of the Gempen plateau. From the top, kids can pick out Basel, the Baselbiet, Alsace and the Vosges, and the Black Forest.
Hiking trails, some with steep climbs, loop around the tower, and the Gempenturm restaurant sits right next to it.
Solitude Park runs along the Rhine beside the Museum Tinguely, with old trees, a big lawn, and park chairs and benches facing the river. Kids head for the playground with its paddling pool, the table tennis tables, and the Jean Tinguely fountain. Sculptures and changing artworks from the museum stand around the grounds, and the Schöpfli im Park café sits on the lawn.
Margarethenpark is the big green space for the Gundeldingen neighborhood ("Gundeli"), though it sits just over the line in Binningen. A wide open lawn is ringed by old trees, with woodland paths behind.
The main playground by the Sempacherstrasse entrance, built in 2026, has a mammoth, a baby mammoth and a volcano. A smaller one by Frobenstrasse has a climbing course and a paddling pool.
A 32-hectare landscape park built for the 1999 garden show, near the point where Germany, Switzerland and France meet. Kids head for the Tatzelwurm playground, where they walk through the mouth of a 60-meter concrete dragon and work Archimedes screws to make it spray water from its nostrils. The water gardens hold turtles and water birds, and a farmyard by the Sundgau House keeps dwarf goats and rabbits.
An 18.7-meter iron pylon from 1957 stands on the Rhine harbor quay in Kleinhüningen, marking where France, Germany and Switzerland meet. Its shape, by sculptor Wilhelm Münger, recalls a ship's propeller: three iron blades twist as they rise, with the three national flags at the base.
The true tripoint sits about 150 meters away in the middle of the Rhine.
Bowling by ARENA has 14 lanes for classic bowling and HyperBowling, and was the first HyperBowling center in Switzerland. In HyperBowling, touch-sensitive bumpers cover the gutters and players aim for a lit-up color before the pins, which makes it easier for kids to score.
Next to the lanes are four pool tables, darts, air hockey, arcade machines and a kids' corner with a ball pit, whack-a-mole and a crane game.
Jump Factory Basel is a trampoline park in Münchenstein with around 20 zones on one ticket. Kids bounce on the mega and long trampolines, launch into the foam pit, run up the warped wall, race down the speed slide and take on a ninja warrior course, climbing wall, battle beam, ropes course and zip line.
Parents who don't jump can wait in the café while kids play.
A big indoor funpark with two giant trampolines (over 20 jump beds with basketball hoops and a tumble line), a two-level kids ninja course, an inflatable donut slide, a climbing volcano with a slide, tunnel and wave slides, and a small soccer pitch.
A three-level play structure with bridges, tunnels and a fast steel slide has a separate toddler area.
Augusta Raurica is the excavated Roman town at Augst, with more than twenty monuments to view, walk on or touch. Kids can sit in the best-preserved Roman theater north of the Alps, stand inside a Roman sewer channel and explore a furnished Roman house modeled on a Pompeii villa.
The museum puts some finds at kid eye level, and the animal park keeps breeds similar to Roman farm animals.
KinderGleisKreis is a supervised pop-up playground on disused railroad tracks in the Dreispitz area. Kids build it themselves around a railroad theme and their own ideas, with help from the play team. Old freight wagons hold a workshop and a living room, a covered wagon serves as a workbench, and homemade rail trolleys roll along the tracks. Younger kids pull each other in small wagons on a kids' track.
A family workshop inside the Museum der Kulturen's Tie-dye exhibition. Kids and parents first look at the different techniques used to pattern textiles, including shibori, a Japanese dyeing technique.
Then everyone gets creative and dyes socks, folding and tying them so each one comes out with its own pattern. It suits kids who like hands-on making more than looking at display cases.
Europa-Park in Rust stays open through the winter season, and Rulantica opens too. Families can spend a day at each and sleep in one of the park's themed hotels, which all stay open along with the restaurants.
It suits families happy to turn a winter day trip into a short break. New Year's has its own packages built around dinner shows and parties, and several are already booked out.
Blaulichttag is Basel's open day for the emergency services. Professionals from the cantonal police, the rescue service and other blue-light organizations show the public how they work and answer questions face to face.
It suits kids who stop to stare at every police car or ambulance, and their curious older siblings. The talk is in German, but seeing the crews up close needs no German.
Erlenmattpark sits on a former freight rail yard, and about two thirds of it is protected habitat for rare plants and animals. Two big nature-themed playgrounds have climbing, slides, swings, seesaws, and sand and water play.
A large lawn takes ball games, and there are ping-pong tables and basketball hoops. The Im Triangel green next door adds a paddling pool.
Claramatte is a 10,000 m² park in Kleinbasel, shaded by 70 mature trees. The big playground has a castle with bridges and a climbing tower, plus slides, zip lines and several smaller play areas. Older kids get a woodchip soccer field, three ping-pong tables and two foosball tables.
The Kindertankstelle, a staffed play hut, lends out balls and red ride-on vehicles, and has kids' toilets and a big bouncing mat.
An indoor play hall that is part of the IMPULSIV leisure center, just over the border from Basel. The centerpiece is a big climbing tower with a tube slide, softball shooter, wave slide and rope course, plus a free-fall slide, electric go-karts, a trampoline, a wobble mountain and a soccer cage.
Toddlers get their own area with slides, a ball pool and big Lego blocks.
RobiSpielWald is a staffed adventure playground in the Gellert quarter, run by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen association. Kids come for free play, crafts and woodwork, with a team on site to help with projects or just listen.
The staff are there for the kids rather than as supervisors, so children can come and go without signing out, and parts of Robi playgrounds have limited access for adults.
Robi Allmend is a staffed adventure playground run by the Basel association Robi-Spiel-Aktionen. Kids roam an open play ground built for adventurous games, use the workshops for building and crafts, and hang out in the indoor play rooms. Special days bring donkey rides or a BMX race on the playground's own bikes.
Kids come and go freely. The play workers help with games, crafts or a problem; they don't supervise.
Robi Bachgraben is a staffed adventure playground run by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen association. Besides a rambling outdoor play area, it has well-equipped workshops and indoor play rooms.
Kids decide what they do and how long they stay. The youth workers help with play, crafts or a listening ear but are not there to supervise, and kids can leave without signing out.
Robi Horburg is a staffed adventure playground in Horburgpark, run by Robi-Spiel-Aktionen. Kids explore the adventure grounds, build and tinker in the workshop, and use the indoor play rooms. Dwarf goats and rabbits live on site. Together with Robi Volta, it was the first Robi playground in Switzerland.
Kids play freely and come and go as they like; staff help when asked but do not supervise.
The permanent galleries fill an old town building with dinosaurs, a mammoth and saber-toothed tiger, whales and fish, ammonites and other fossils, and invertebrates from squid to butterflies.
One gallery follows a butterfly from egg to adult, another covers threatened and extinct animals like the quagga and dodo, and Showcase Nature brings together the birds, mammals and minerals of Switzerland.
Gartenbad St. Jakob, the outdoor pool locals call the Joggeli, has a heated 50m pool, a family pool with a 1m diving pit, a non-swimmer pool and a paddling pool. Kids can go down several slides, including a speed slide, or jump from a diving tower with platforms up to 10m over its own pit.
There are also two beach volleyball courts, a kiosk and a restaurant.
aquabasilea is a big indoor water park with seven slides totaling 824 meters, from the open Family Splash tube to the near-vertical Cliffdrop and the dark Extrême, which hits 59 km/h.
There's a wave pool with kickboards, a toddler pool, two wild-water channels and a current channel. Outside are a grotto, water mushrooms and a warm kids' paddling pool.
ELYS Boulderloft is a bouldering gym with over 2,000 m² of climbing surface and new problems set every week. Kids under 13 boulder in the New Hall with a parent who climbs too, and can earn a bouldering license that opens the Big Hall.
Younger kids have the movement landscape, a play-and-run area with its own family bistro.
Switzerland's oldest zoo, opened in 1874, holds over 500 species in the Birsig stream valley, a short walk from Basel SBB station. Kids can watch king and gentoo penguins in the Vivarium aquarium, gorillas and orangutans in the monkey house, lions and cheetahs in the Etosha area, and Indian rhinos sharing their ponds with otters. Locals call it the Zolli.
A freshly renovated public indoor pool run by the canton of Basel-Stadt, with a 25m lap pool and an 8x12m learner pool open to the public (a second learner pool is mostly used for courses).
Adults also have a sauna area with Finnish, bio and infrared saunas, and a fitness corner. Entrances are step-free, and a pool lift gives wheelchair access to the water.
Four to seven is a good age for getting out: old enough to sit through a puppet show or pedal a bike, young enough that a ball pit still makes the day. This list pulls together the shows, workshops, museums, playgrounds and seasonal outings whose age range covers this stretch, so you can skip the ones built for toddlers or teens.
Der Räuber Hotzenplotz, the robber adventure, comes to the stage of the Basler Kindertheater in a version by Jessica Wohlwend. Kids and the adults who bring them watch it together.
It is performed in Swiss German dialect, so it suits kids who hear Swiss German at home or at school. Kids who don't understand dialect will miss most of the dialogue.
Andrew Bond is the Swiss children's songwriter whose songs many kids already know by heart. This family concert is built for joining in: songs from his nature album "Machs wie de Dachs" (Do It Like the Badger) take the audience through fields, woods and meadows, singing, playing and dancing along with animals, birds and insects, with some of his best-known autumn songs mixed in. It's sung in Swiss German.
The Brothers Grimm's Snow White, staged by the Basler Kindertheater in a version by Mónica and Jessica Wohlwend. The wicked queen wants to be the fairest in the land, and Snow White flees her stepmother to the seven dwarfs' cottage.
The play is spoken in Swiss German dialect, so it suits kids who follow Mundart. The theater pitches it to young and old alike.
Balz Aliesch writes modern kids' songs in Baseldytsch, the Basel dialect of Swiss German, mixing pop, reggae, funk and rockabilly with plenty of jokes. Here he plays the favorites from his three albums: songs about everyday kid life to listen to, sing along with and act out, written so the grown-ups enjoy them too. Fauteuil regulars may know him as an actor from the Pfyfferli and the fairy-tale shows.
Kipling's story of Mowgli, the boy raised in the jungle, and his animal friends, in a new stage version Kamil Krejci wrote and directs for the Fauteuil-Märchenbühne. He plays it for laughs and for suspense, with original music by Alexius Tschallener and choreographed scenes.
The theater's own ensemble of eight actors performs it in the Fauteuil hall on Spalenberg, a two-minute walk from Marktplatz in the Old Town.
Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate classic, Die Schatzinsel, on stage at the Basler Kindertheater in a version written by Jessica Wohlwend. Kids follow a story full of pirates, mysterious islands and hidden treasure, told live in Swiss German dialect.
It suits families who want an exciting adventure story together, and kids who already understand Swiss German, since this is a spoken play and the words carry it.
Four odd birds hatch one by one from a giant egg, and then a big black grand piano appears. The newly hatched birds explore their world and the mysterious instrument, and playful, unusual music grows out of it.
The grand piano becomes the meeting point of the show, with all four performers making it sound. It suits curious kids who like to see how instruments make their sounds.
Theater Arlecchino has staged shows for kids and families since 1997, and has played at its Walkeweg home by St. Jakob since 2015. The program mixes its own productions with guest shows: fairy tales, classics such as a kids' Magic Flute set to Mozart's melodies, concerts, and the Fasnachtsbändeli comedy before Fasnacht. Kids watch from benches or chairs, and the theater bar sells drinks, cake and ice cream.
The Fauteuil-Märchenbühne is the Theater Fauteuil's own fairy-tale musical, staged every winter since 1965 in its small hall on Spalenberg. Each season brings one new story with costumes, detailed sets and songs; past shows include Rumpelstilzchen, Frau Holle and Räuber Hotzenplotz.
This season's show is Dschungelbuech, a Jungle Book version by Kamil Krejci with music by Alexius Tschallener. It is performed in Swiss German dialect.
Basler Kindertheater has staged plays since 1970, and every part is played by children and teenagers. It was the first children's theater in Switzerland. Each season brings four productions of fairy tales and adventure stories, such as Der Räuber Hotzenplotz and Schneewittchen, with full costumes and stage sets.
A whole special exhibition on the teddy bear, inside a toy museum that holds one of the world's largest collections of historic teddies. It traces the bear from old legends and Basel's own Bear Dance to the 1907 teddy craze, Winnie-the-Pooh, Paddington and the Haribo Goldbear.
Kids can hug a giant plush bear and play at a teddy first-aid station between the glass cases.
Räbeliechtli is a Swiss autumn tradition: kids carry lanterns carved from turnips and walk together in the evening. This one is run by the ELCH and goes through the Lange Erlen to the square outside Kaffi ELCH.
Big and small are welcome. It suits preschoolers and early schoolers best, and families who booked can stay on afterward for a soup supper.
A Christmas village for kids, decorated with fir trees, set up by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen inside the Basel Christmas market on Münsterplatz. Kids go from house to house to dip candles, decorate gingerbread, make Christmas presents, try tin pouring or blacksmithing, and ride the kids' train. A marionette theater performs a Christmas story.
Kids warm up with hot chocolate in the fire room while adults get mulled wine at the bar.
The Märchenwald (also called the Märliwald) turns Münsterplatz into a Christmas village of several houses. Kids move between them to dip candles, decorate gingerbread, make Christmas presents and ride the kids' train.
It suits preschool and primary-age kids who like making things with their hands. Most of it happens out on the square, so dress everyone for a cold December afternoon.
Niggi-Näggi is Basel's name for Samichlaus, the Swiss St. Nicholas, and the Zolli is what locals call Zoo Basel. For this afternoon event, he comes to the zoo.
It suits preschool and primary-age kids who know the Samichlaus tradition. The event is outdoors, so dress for the weather.
Santiglaus (St. Nicholas) drops in at Haus zum Kirschgarten with his helper Schmutzli. Kids who dare can step up and recite a little poem in front of him.
The rest of the family watches from the garden with warm drinks. It suits kids who can say a short rhyme in German, and younger siblings who just want to see him.
Lorenz Pauli, a well-known children's book author, comes to the Chinds-Chöpf family theater series at Theater BAU3 and tells stories. Some are about big snow and cold days; the rest he keeps as a surprise.
It is storytelling theater, so the show is his words and the pictures kids build in their own heads. It suits kids who love being read to and can follow spoken German.
Hoppolino is a large indoor soft play center. The main draw is a 6 m Spider-Tower with several climbing levels, plus a big climbing frame, a spiral slide that drops into an extra-large ball pit, a 4 m trampoline and a go-kart track.
The smallest children get a separate toddler area, and an interactive floor-and-wall game zone is listed as coming soon.
Kids stamp, print, write and draw their own advent calendar at the Basler Papiermühle, a hands-on museum of paper, writing and printing inside a medieval mill: 24 doors, 24 surprises.
It's an open workshop, so families drop in and work at their own pace. Teens and adults make one too, and the museum's other stations, from scooping paper to old printing presses, come with the same ticket.
Circus Knie tours Switzerland with a big-top show, and Basel is one of its stops. The program mixes international circus artists, modern show technology and the horses of the Knie family.
For this tour the company has a new tent and new seating, which brings a new seating plan. It suits kids who can sit through a full circus show and like horses.
Vogelpark Steinen is a bird and animal park in the southern Black Forest. Eagles, falcons and owls fly in an open-air falconry arena seating about 600, and kids can walk through the Barbary macaque enclosure at feeding time and feed parakeets in a covered free-flight aviary.
There are also kangaroos, a bird house on local species, a labyrinth with an eagle owl search game, several playgrounds and a water-treading pool.
The Spielaue is the public playground beside Tierpark Lange Erlen, a free animal park. Kids slide down from a raised plateau, scramble over a climbing sculpture, dig in the sand and play with the playground's own water system.
A path runs through a small stream so children who use a wheelchair can join in. It sits outside the animal park's fence, so it stays open after the park closes.
Built in 1969/70 as a practice ground for road safety, the Verkehrsgarten lets kids ride bikes, scooters and inline skates around a small network of streets away from real traffic. A full renovation in 2024 added newer city features: a raised tram-stop curb, a sidewalk crossing and an indirect turn for bikes.
Basel's cantonal police teach school road-safety lessons here, so public riding fits around class times.
A large indoor play hall with a climbing tower, trampolines, a go-kart track, bumper cars, a soccer pitch and a roller slide. A separate area is set aside for kids up to 5, and the play equipment is built for adults too.
Parents can sit in the bistro, which serves snacks and hot and cold drinks, or bring food from home.
The Swiss Fire Brigade Museum follows how firefighting equipment developed, with objects dating back as far as the 13th century. Its several floors run from medieval hand-operated spraying devices to modern oxygen breathing sets, collected across Switzerland and mostly from the Basel region.
Kids who are into fire engines and old machines get plenty of historic equipment to study up close.
Museum.BL is the cantonal museum of Basel-Landschaft, housed in the former arsenal in Liestal's old town. Its permanent shows cover the region's wild animals and plants (Wildes Baselbiet) and the history of silk ribbon weaving, drawing on collections of natural history, archaeology and ethnology.
The exhibits are interactive and built with families in mind, and three or four temporary shows change through the year.
MUKS is a small museum in a historic building in Riehen, the village on the Swiss-German border. Its permanent Spiel (play) exhibition fills rooms themed on dreaming, living and cheating with old toys, odd inventions and a dream bubble to slip into.
A second permanent show, Village, tells Riehen's history. Outside, a courtyard and garden have seating, sun umbrellas, games and a self-service kiosk.
SpielEstrich is a 1,000 m² indoor playground under the old timber roof of the Kaserne, built for kids from kindergarten age to 12. There is room to run, climb, jump and play, plus hammocks for kids who would rather lie still.
Robi-Spiel-Aktionen runs it, and Kaffi Hü, the café on site, sells food for kids and adults.
Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, played with short-strung marionettes. Peter opens the garden gate and meets the big gray wolf, and every character has its own instrument: the waddling duck gets the oboe, the cat sneaks to the clarinet, and Peter's grandfather gets the bassoon.
A first taste of classical music for kids who can follow a story told in German. It is a guest production at the marionette theater.
Basel's Christmas market fills the city center with stalls of tree ornaments, gifts and food, around the Barfüsserkirche and in front of the Münster, where the trees are hung with glowing snow globes.
For kids, the main draw is the Märchenwald on Münsterplatz: a forest of fir trees run by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen association, full of hands-on crafts and with its own puppet theater.
Vogel Gryff is Kleinbasel's own festival day, run by the three honorary societies on this side of the Rhine. Each one sends out a costumed figure: the griffin (Vogel Gryff), the lion (Leu) and the wild man (Wild Maa), who dance in the streets at set spots around the neighborhood.
It suits kids who like big costumes and old local traditions, and who don't mind a winter day outdoors.
The Basel Tattoo takes its music out of the arena and onto the streets of downtown Basel. All the Tattoo's formations, plus guest bands from Switzerland and abroad, march the route.
Kids watch from the roadside as the bands pass. The organizers compare the buzz in the city to Basel carnival. It suits families whose kids like loud, colorful music.
St. Chrischona is the highest point of Basel-Stadt: a wooded hilltop above Bettingen with a church, a playground and Switzerland's tallest freestanding structure, the 250-meter TV tower. 71 steps under the church tower lead to a platform with views to the Alps, the Jura, the Black Forest and the Vosges.
The Generationenparcours playground has a slide, climbing course, seesaw, swings and a bouldering block, plus a forest zip line.
The first national nature reserve in Alsace, created in 1982, covers 904 hectares of the Rhine's old floodplain: reed beds, wet meadows, marshes and riverside woods. Trails and bird hides cross two sites, the historic core and the Ile du Rhin, and Highland cattle and Konik horses graze the meadows. In the core, two exhibitions about the Rhine and its salmon fill the buildings of Napoleon III's imperial fish farm.
Four ferries carry foot passengers across the Rhine between Grossbasel and Kleinbasel. Each hangs from a cable over the river and crosses on the current alone, with no engine. Each has its own name and landing: Wild Maa at St. Alban, Leu by the Münster, Vogel Gryff at Klingental and Ueli at St. Johann. Kids can watch the river push the boat from bank to bank.
One of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, founded in 1589 and next to the Spalentor since 1898. More than 7,500 plant species grow in the outdoor beds and greenhouses.
Kids can find cocoa, bananas and coffee in the Tropical Greenhouse, giant water lily pads in the Victoria house, century-old golden barrel cacti in the Succulent House, and tiny frogs hiding among the tropical plants.
Mega Kid's is a 2,000 m² indoor play area inside the Megazone leisure center, which also has laser tag, karaoke boxes and arcade games. Kids climb, slide and explore multi-level play structures with giant slides and a ball pit, and little ones get a separate toddler space.
A Circus-themed party room hosts birthdays, and the center sits just over the French border from Basel.
Tierpark Weihermätteli is a 4-hectare animal park in Liestal, home to about 200 animals from some 20 mostly native breeds, several of them rare. Kids meet dwarf goats, Shetland ponies, llamas, donkeys, Highland cattle, sika deer and raccoons, and can stroke animals in the petting zoo.
A new nature playground, built on several levels with native plants, opened in 2026.
A neighborhood playground built around a large paddling pool with a water feature, which keeps kids cool through the summer months. Around it are climbing equipment, a slide, swings, a sandpit, a carousel, a seesaw and a play lawn.
Benches, movable picnic tables and a temporary toilet block sit by a lawn for lounging. City gardener Richard Arioli designed it in 1956, and it was last renewed in 2003.
Opened in 1992 and redesigned in 2011, St. Johanns-Park has a playground, ground-level water jets, a football pitch with goals and a big lawn. Kids climb two sculptures shaped like a pig and a goose, a nod to the animals that once grazed outside the St. Johanns-Tor.
Spilruum St. Johann, an open meeting point for kids, is here too, along with the kleiner Wassermann park café.
Kannenfeldpark is the city's largest public green space, laid out as a cemetery and turned into a park after 1952, with a wide collection of tree species.
Five play islands line the southwest cross path, each with its own theme: climbing, swings, slides, a sandpit with a water tap, and a paddling pool. There is also a toddler playground, table tennis, chess by the rose garden and a garden theater.
Vorstadttheater Basel stages professional, contemporary theater for children and adults together, inside the Gemeindehaus Oekolampad. Its own ensemble makes one or two new plays a year and runs each for about two months.
Between those runs, touring guest companies take the stage, from puppet and storytelling shows for preschoolers to plays for older kids that take on big themes like growing up and growing old.
Four floors and more than 1,000 square meters of historical toys: over 2,500 teddy bears (the most comprehensive collection in the world, many by Steiff), dolls, old dolls' houses, grocery shops and 1:12 miniatures. Many scenes start moving at the push of a button.
On an animated tablet tour, virtual figures move through the displays, and a kids' track sends zeppelins flying and music notes dancing out of a gramophone.
A wildlife park in the Lange Erlen riverside woods along the Wiese, run by the Erlen-Verein since 1871. It keeps native animals across about 20 hectares: European bison, red and fallow deer, chamois, lynx, wildcats and foxes, plus owls in aviaries and waterbirds on the ponds.
Rare Swiss farm breeds such as Valais sheep and woolly pigs round it out.
Ermitage Arlesheim is a landscape garden opened in 1785 across 40 hectares of wooded valley. Paths wind past ponds, an old mill, a rock gate and a string of grottoes, up to a hermit's hut and the Schloss Birseck castle ruin with its Knight's Hall.
A riddle booklet written for kids turns the walk into a hunt for clues at each numbered station.
Kiddy Park Basel is an indoor play hall with a ball pit, a trampoline jump area, climbing structures and obstacle courses. Babies get soft crawling zones, and under-6s have their own area with smaller equipment.
The play is active and low-tech, with no screens or entertainers. Staff supervise the floor, parents can sit in the lounge, and a snack corner and the Munchkin Island restaurant serve kids' meals.
A play café built around a large playroom with a climbing structure, toys and play corners, set up for babies and toddlers. Parents sit in the café with coffee and homemade cupcakes and keep an eye on the playroom through a TV monitor.
Highchairs, toddler stools, a changing area, nursing armchairs and covered buggy parking are all there, plus table games for older siblings.
Gratis uffs Glattyys is Basel's free skating day, when the canton opens both public rinks, Margarethen and Eglisee, to everyone. It's an easy, no-pressure way for a family to spend a whole day on the ice.
At Margarethen, regional ice sports clubs add a program kids can join in. It suits kids who can already stand on skates; total beginners will need a parent's hand.
Every year, Harley-Davidson riders turn their motorbikes into Christmas vehicles and ride through Basel's illuminated city center dressed as Nikolaus, Santiglaus, Santa Claus or angels. It is one of the highlights of Basel's Christmas season.
Kids watch from the street as the decorated bikes roll past. It suits families with young children who love Santa, and anyone who likes motorbikes.
Built for the Grün 80 garden show, Park im Grünen spreads across lawns the size of about 18 soccer fields. The St. Alban-Teich and its fountain sit at the center, near a 45-meter dinosaur model and a Bernhard Luginbühl iron sculpture that doubles as a play structure.
Kids also get a playground, an 18-hole minigolf course, a vintage carousel, a Kneipp foot bath and six public barbecue spots.
Jean Tinguely built this fountain in 1977 where the stage of the old city theater once stood. Ten metal machines, some made from the theater's old stage parts, turn, wobble and spray water across a wide, shallow pool, driven by electric motors.
Stone benches ring the pool, so parents can sit while kids watch the sprays up close.
Merian Gardens covers 18 hectares of gardens and organic farmland run by the Christoph Merian Foundation. Kids can visit the sheep, chickens and rabbits in the stables, spot frogs and dragonflies at the pond along the shady canal path, and look for beaver tooth marks on trees.
There is also a mill museum, an orchard with 300 fruit varieties, a historic iris collection and a rhododendron valley that blooms in spring.
Rötteln is one of the largest castle ruins in southern Baden, stretching about 300 meters along a hilltop spur above Lörrach. Kids can climb both keeps for views over the corner where Germany, Switzerland and France meet, roam the walls and courtyards, and see the small castle museum with its fairy-tale organ and weapons display. Behind the castle, a grill area has a well-known climbing root.
Gempenturm is a 28-meter steel lookout tower with five levels, standing in the woods at the edge of the Gempen plateau. From the top, kids can pick out Basel, the Baselbiet, Alsace and the Vosges, and the Black Forest.
Hiking trails, some with steep climbs, loop around the tower, and the Gempenturm restaurant sits right next to it.
Solitude Park runs along the Rhine beside the Museum Tinguely, with old trees, a big lawn, and park chairs and benches facing the river. Kids head for the playground with its paddling pool, the table tennis tables, and the Jean Tinguely fountain. Sculptures and changing artworks from the museum stand around the grounds, and the Schöpfli im Park café sits on the lawn.
Margarethenpark is the big green space for the Gundeldingen neighborhood ("Gundeli"), though it sits just over the line in Binningen. A wide open lawn is ringed by old trees, with woodland paths behind.
The main playground by the Sempacherstrasse entrance, built in 2026, has a mammoth, a baby mammoth and a volcano. A smaller one by Frobenstrasse has a climbing course and a paddling pool.
A 32-hectare landscape park built for the 1999 garden show, near the point where Germany, Switzerland and France meet. Kids head for the Tatzelwurm playground, where they walk through the mouth of a 60-meter concrete dragon and work Archimedes screws to make it spray water from its nostrils. The water gardens hold turtles and water birds, and a farmyard by the Sundgau House keeps dwarf goats and rabbits.
An 18.7-meter iron pylon from 1957 stands on the Rhine harbor quay in Kleinhüningen, marking where France, Germany and Switzerland meet. Its shape, by sculptor Wilhelm Münger, recalls a ship's propeller: three iron blades twist as they rise, with the three national flags at the base.
The true tripoint sits about 150 meters away in the middle of the Rhine.
Bowling by ARENA has 14 lanes for classic bowling and HyperBowling, and was the first HyperBowling center in Switzerland. In HyperBowling, touch-sensitive bumpers cover the gutters and players aim for a lit-up color before the pins, which makes it easier for kids to score.
Next to the lanes are four pool tables, darts, air hockey, arcade machines and a kids' corner with a ball pit, whack-a-mole and a crane game.
Jump Factory Basel is a trampoline park in Münchenstein with around 20 zones on one ticket. Kids bounce on the mega and long trampolines, launch into the foam pit, run up the warped wall, race down the speed slide and take on a ninja warrior course, climbing wall, battle beam, ropes course and zip line.
Parents who don't jump can wait in the café while kids play.
A big indoor funpark with two giant trampolines (over 20 jump beds with basketball hoops and a tumble line), a two-level kids ninja course, an inflatable donut slide, a climbing volcano with a slide, tunnel and wave slides, and a small soccer pitch.
A three-level play structure with bridges, tunnels and a fast steel slide has a separate toddler area.
Augusta Raurica is the excavated Roman town at Augst, with more than twenty monuments to view, walk on or touch. Kids can sit in the best-preserved Roman theater north of the Alps, stand inside a Roman sewer channel and explore a furnished Roman house modeled on a Pompeii villa.
The museum puts some finds at kid eye level, and the animal park keeps breeds similar to Roman farm animals.
KinderGleisKreis is a supervised pop-up playground on disused railroad tracks in the Dreispitz area. Kids build it themselves around a railroad theme and their own ideas, with help from the play team. Old freight wagons hold a workshop and a living room, a covered wagon serves as a workbench, and homemade rail trolleys roll along the tracks. Younger kids pull each other in small wagons on a kids' track.
A family workshop inside the Museum der Kulturen's Tie-dye exhibition. Kids and parents first look at the different techniques used to pattern textiles, including shibori, a Japanese dyeing technique.
Then everyone gets creative and dyes socks, folding and tying them so each one comes out with its own pattern. It suits kids who like hands-on making more than looking at display cases.
Europa-Park in Rust stays open through the winter season, and Rulantica opens too. Families can spend a day at each and sleep in one of the park's themed hotels, which all stay open along with the restaurants.
It suits families happy to turn a winter day trip into a short break. New Year's has its own packages built around dinner shows and parties, and several are already booked out.
Blaulichttag is Basel's open day for the emergency services. Professionals from the cantonal police, the rescue service and other blue-light organizations show the public how they work and answer questions face to face.
It suits kids who stop to stare at every police car or ambulance, and their curious older siblings. The talk is in German, but seeing the crews up close needs no German.
Erlenmattpark sits on a former freight rail yard, and about two thirds of it is protected habitat for rare plants and animals. Two big nature-themed playgrounds have climbing, slides, swings, seesaws, and sand and water play.
A large lawn takes ball games, and there are ping-pong tables and basketball hoops. The Im Triangel green next door adds a paddling pool.
Claramatte is a 10,000 m² park in Kleinbasel, shaded by 70 mature trees. The big playground has a castle with bridges and a climbing tower, plus slides, zip lines and several smaller play areas. Older kids get a woodchip soccer field, three ping-pong tables and two foosball tables.
The Kindertankstelle, a staffed play hut, lends out balls and red ride-on vehicles, and has kids' toilets and a big bouncing mat.
An indoor play hall that is part of the IMPULSIV leisure center, just over the border from Basel. The centerpiece is a big climbing tower with a tube slide, softball shooter, wave slide and rope course, plus a free-fall slide, electric go-karts, a trampoline, a wobble mountain and a soccer cage.
Toddlers get their own area with slides, a ball pool and big Lego blocks.
RobiSpielWald is a staffed adventure playground in the Gellert quarter, run by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen association. Kids come for free play, crafts and woodwork, with a team on site to help with projects or just listen.
The staff are there for the kids rather than as supervisors, so children can come and go without signing out, and parts of Robi playgrounds have limited access for adults.
Robi Allmend is a staffed adventure playground run by the Basel association Robi-Spiel-Aktionen. Kids roam an open play ground built for adventurous games, use the workshops for building and crafts, and hang out in the indoor play rooms. Special days bring donkey rides or a BMX race on the playground's own bikes.
Kids come and go freely. The play workers help with games, crafts or a problem; they don't supervise.
Robi Bachgraben is a staffed adventure playground run by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen association. Besides a rambling outdoor play area, it has well-equipped workshops and indoor play rooms.
Kids decide what they do and how long they stay. The youth workers help with play, crafts or a listening ear but are not there to supervise, and kids can leave without signing out.
Robi Horburg is a staffed adventure playground in Horburgpark, run by Robi-Spiel-Aktionen. Kids explore the adventure grounds, build and tinker in the workshop, and use the indoor play rooms. Dwarf goats and rabbits live on site. Together with Robi Volta, it was the first Robi playground in Switzerland.
Kids play freely and come and go as they like; staff help when asked but do not supervise.
The permanent galleries fill an old town building with dinosaurs, a mammoth and saber-toothed tiger, whales and fish, ammonites and other fossils, and invertebrates from squid to butterflies.
One gallery follows a butterfly from egg to adult, another covers threatened and extinct animals like the quagga and dodo, and Showcase Nature brings together the birds, mammals and minerals of Switzerland.
Gartenbad St. Jakob, the outdoor pool locals call the Joggeli, has a heated 50m pool, a family pool with a 1m diving pit, a non-swimmer pool and a paddling pool. Kids can go down several slides, including a speed slide, or jump from a diving tower with platforms up to 10m over its own pit.
There are also two beach volleyball courts, a kiosk and a restaurant.
aquabasilea is a big indoor water park with seven slides totaling 824 meters, from the open Family Splash tube to the near-vertical Cliffdrop and the dark Extrême, which hits 59 km/h.
There's a wave pool with kickboards, a toddler pool, two wild-water channels and a current channel. Outside are a grotto, water mushrooms and a warm kids' paddling pool.
ELYS Boulderloft is a bouldering gym with over 2,000 m² of climbing surface and new problems set every week. Kids under 13 boulder in the New Hall with a parent who climbs too, and can earn a bouldering license that opens the Big Hall.
Younger kids have the movement landscape, a play-and-run area with its own family bistro.
Switzerland's oldest zoo, opened in 1874, holds over 500 species in the Birsig stream valley, a short walk from Basel SBB station. Kids can watch king and gentoo penguins in the Vivarium aquarium, gorillas and orangutans in the monkey house, lions and cheetahs in the Etosha area, and Indian rhinos sharing their ponds with otters. Locals call it the Zolli.
A freshly renovated public indoor pool run by the canton of Basel-Stadt, with a 25m lap pool and an 8x12m learner pool open to the public (a second learner pool is mostly used for courses).
Adults also have a sauna area with Finnish, bio and infrared saunas, and a fitness corner. Entrances are step-free, and a pool lift gives wheelchair access to the water.
