Basel sits where Switzerland, France and Germany meet, so a family day out can cross a border as easily as a canton line. These are the trips worth the train or car ride when the city's own parks and museums run out: rides, gondolas, animals and plenty of history. Here's what we checked, from the steam engines at Mulhouse's Cité du Train to the kick-scooter run down from Wasserfallen.
Germany's largest theme park splits its grounds into 18 themed areas, each built around a European country. Rides run from fairy-tale boat trips and the Fjord-Rafting river ride to Pegasus, a junior coaster the whole family can ride, and big coasters like Voltron Nevera and blue fire.
Smaller kids also get a ball pool and an adventure playground. The resort runs Rulantica, a separate water park, and six themed hotels.
Switzerland's most-visited museum covers rail, road, air, water and space travel. Kids can see original locomotives, two Swissair planes, rockets and Mars rovers, a submarine, and a 31.5-meter model of the Gotthard railway. A walk-in cube makes the floor turn into a wall.
Outside, younger kids ride scooters, climb into play buses and take the miniature garden railway. A planetarium, a film theater and a chocolate ride share the site.
Cité du Train holds the biggest collection of railway equipment in continental Europe: more than a hundred locomotives, coaches and wagons covering over 150 years of French rail history. The Show Circuit sets 27 of them in sound-and-light scenes.
Kids can watch steam locomotive 232 U 1 turn its driving wheels every 30 minutes, ride a small electric train between the big ones, and set a model railway diorama running.
A 25-hectare zoo and botanical garden in the Rebberg district, at the edge of the Tannenwald forest, with about 1,200 animals. Polar bears, musk oxen and arctic foxes live in the Grand Nord area by the entrance, near the lions and tigers. Further in are red pandas, zebras, a sea lion pool, and a mini farm with a playground. Horizon Afrique, opened in 2025, adds giraffes, pygmy hippos and crocodiles.
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.
Rulantica is the indoor water world of Europa-Park, with a Nordic theme and over 50 slides and attractions across 14 themed areas. Older kids race each other down the eight tubes of Vikingløp, while toddlers climb, roll and slide with the trolls in Trølldal.
From May to September an outdoor area opens as well, with the Svalgurok slide world, sandy beaches and the Svømmepøl pool.
A gondola climbs from Reigoldswil to the Wasserfallen in about 10 minutes, with six-person cabins that run continuously, so there is no timetable to learn. At the top station, families pick up kick scooters and helmets and ride a 4 km forest track back down to the valley in 20 to 30 minutes. An adventure playground with a giant wooden sled and climbing tower sits beside the top station.
The Écomusée d'Alsace is the largest open-air museum in France: around 80 half-timbered houses, workshops and farm buildings, moved here and rebuilt as a village, showing rural Alsace from the Middle Ages to the early 1900s.
Kids watch traditional crafts being demonstrated, meet some 60 farm animals of old local breeds, and walk the fields and forest around the village. It sits between Mulhouse and Colmar.
The Feldbergbahn is a gondola up the Feldberg, at 1,493 meters the highest peak of the Black Forest. Its enclosed 8-seat cabins take strollers, wheelchairs, bikes and dogs, and two colorful cabins feature Resi, the cow mascot.
At the top, the Feldbergturm's viewing platform on the 11th floor looks across the Black Forest to the Alps on clear days. The first floor holds an interactive Black Forest ham museum.
A wildlife and ride park on a Black Forest mountainside, spread over 36 hectares. More than 200 animals from 25 species live along the forest paths, plus a petting zoo and an aviary.
Rides include a 1km alpine coaster, two 800m summer toboggan runs (one covered), the RiverSplash water ride and indoor coasters. A 218m suspension bridge hangs 30m up, and Luxi's Kinderland is an indoor playground.
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.
Solarbob is a toboggan run of over 1,000 meters with banked curves, tunnels, a free speed check and a 540-degree spiral. Riders sit alone or in pairs, get pulled uphill by a solar-powered lift, and set their own speed with a lever on the way down.
Beside it, the rope park runs its courses from one central tower, with a continuous safety line so nobody unclips between platforms.
Basel sits where Switzerland, France and Germany meet, so a family day out can cross a border as easily as a canton line. These are the trips worth the train or car ride when the city's own parks and museums run out: rides, gondolas, animals and plenty of history. Here's what we checked, from the steam engines at Mulhouse's Cité du Train to the kick-scooter run down from Wasserfallen.
Germany's largest theme park splits its grounds into 18 themed areas, each built around a European country. Rides run from fairy-tale boat trips and the Fjord-Rafting river ride to Pegasus, a junior coaster the whole family can ride, and big coasters like Voltron Nevera and blue fire.
Smaller kids also get a ball pool and an adventure playground. The resort runs Rulantica, a separate water park, and six themed hotels.
Switzerland's most-visited museum covers rail, road, air, water and space travel. Kids can see original locomotives, two Swissair planes, rockets and Mars rovers, a submarine, and a 31.5-meter model of the Gotthard railway. A walk-in cube makes the floor turn into a wall.
Outside, younger kids ride scooters, climb into play buses and take the miniature garden railway. A planetarium, a film theater and a chocolate ride share the site.
Cité du Train holds the biggest collection of railway equipment in continental Europe: more than a hundred locomotives, coaches and wagons covering over 150 years of French rail history. The Show Circuit sets 27 of them in sound-and-light scenes.
Kids can watch steam locomotive 232 U 1 turn its driving wheels every 30 minutes, ride a small electric train between the big ones, and set a model railway diorama running.
A 25-hectare zoo and botanical garden in the Rebberg district, at the edge of the Tannenwald forest, with about 1,200 animals. Polar bears, musk oxen and arctic foxes live in the Grand Nord area by the entrance, near the lions and tigers. Further in are red pandas, zebras, a sea lion pool, and a mini farm with a playground. Horizon Afrique, opened in 2025, adds giraffes, pygmy hippos and crocodiles.
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.
Rulantica is the indoor water world of Europa-Park, with a Nordic theme and over 50 slides and attractions across 14 themed areas. Older kids race each other down the eight tubes of Vikingløp, while toddlers climb, roll and slide with the trolls in Trølldal.
From May to September an outdoor area opens as well, with the Svalgurok slide world, sandy beaches and the Svømmepøl pool.
A gondola climbs from Reigoldswil to the Wasserfallen in about 10 minutes, with six-person cabins that run continuously, so there is no timetable to learn. At the top station, families pick up kick scooters and helmets and ride a 4 km forest track back down to the valley in 20 to 30 minutes. An adventure playground with a giant wooden sled and climbing tower sits beside the top station.
The Écomusée d'Alsace is the largest open-air museum in France: around 80 half-timbered houses, workshops and farm buildings, moved here and rebuilt as a village, showing rural Alsace from the Middle Ages to the early 1900s.
Kids watch traditional crafts being demonstrated, meet some 60 farm animals of old local breeds, and walk the fields and forest around the village. It sits between Mulhouse and Colmar.
The Feldbergbahn is a gondola up the Feldberg, at 1,493 meters the highest peak of the Black Forest. Its enclosed 8-seat cabins take strollers, wheelchairs, bikes and dogs, and two colorful cabins feature Resi, the cow mascot.
At the top, the Feldbergturm's viewing platform on the 11th floor looks across the Black Forest to the Alps on clear days. The first floor holds an interactive Black Forest ham museum.
A wildlife and ride park on a Black Forest mountainside, spread over 36 hectares. More than 200 animals from 25 species live along the forest paths, plus a petting zoo and an aviary.
Rides include a 1km alpine coaster, two 800m summer toboggan runs (one covered), the RiverSplash water ride and indoor coasters. A 218m suspension bridge hangs 30m up, and Luxi's Kinderland is an indoor playground.
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.
Solarbob is a toboggan run of over 1,000 meters with banked curves, tunnels, a free speed check and a 540-degree spiral. Riders sit alone or in pairs, get pulled uphill by a solar-powered lift, and set their own speed with a lever on the way down.
Beside it, the rope park runs its courses from one central tower, with a continuous safety line so nobody unclips between platforms.
