Basel's Old Town is small enough for kids to walk end to end, with a museum, a stage or a river crossing every few streets. This collection gathers the museums, theaters, Rhine trips and seasonal festivals on the Grossbasel side of the river, so you can plan a rainy afternoon, a sightseeing weekend or a winter market visit from one page.
Basel's Herbstmesse, "d Mäss" to locals, has run every autumn since 1471 and is the biggest funfair in Switzerland. Rides, game booths and food stalls fill squares on both sides of the Rhine: old-time carousels and a Ferris wheel beside the Münster, faster rides in Kleinbasel, and a pottery and craft market under the plane trees on Petersplatz. Snack stops: Mässmogge candy, spiced Magenbrot and hot chestnuts.
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.
A marionette play about a young ghost living in a castle in Scotland, performed by the theater's own ensemble in a Basel German version by Markus Blättler.
The Basler Marionetten Theater has staged puppet plays since 1943 in the Zehntenkeller, a historic cellar beside the Münster. It suits kids who understand Swiss German; a child who speaks only English will find the story hard to follow.
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.
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.
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 Basler Stadtlauf is Basel's big city road run, and on race day the old town fills with runners of every age.
Alongside the main run there are 1 km school races for kids and a family run, where one parent and one child run together from the Münster down to the Marktplatz. It suits kids who like to race and families who want to do it side by side.
Basel's newest Christmas market, a village of huts at Theaterplatz that spreads into the nearby squares. Around 40 huts sell local design and crafts, plus food from the region and around the world.
Kids get their own areas, and the program promises stilt walkers in costume, fairy-tale storytelling, craft afternoons and a carousel. It suits families who want browsing, snacks and Christmas lights in one outing.
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.
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.
Ballett Basel and choreographer Marco Goecke turn Astrid Lindgren's children's classic into a dance fairy tale. Orphan Bo, raised by an unloving foster family, reaches the Land of Faraway, learns he is Prince Mio, finds his father and, with his friend Jum-Jum, stands up to the cruel knight Kato.
Goecke's precise, playful movement builds clear pictures and leaves room for kids' own imagination and humor.
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.
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.
A family concert based on Janosch's story of Josa, a boy who is given a magic fiddle. Its sound can make anyone small and weak or big and strong, so he sets off for the moon to enchant it too, with adventures all the way to the end of the world.
Suits kids who like adventure stories and are curious about classical music.
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.
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.
Museumsnacht is Basel's big winter night at the museum. One ticket opens dozens of museums and cultural venues across the city and neighboring towns, each with its own program of exhibitions, music, dance and hands-on activities.
Families pick a few houses, plan a route and hop between them. It suits school-age kids who can stay up late and enjoy a crowd.
Basel's Fasnacht is the biggest carnival in Switzerland and on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. For three days the city center belongs to the cliques: pipers, drummers, Guggenmusik bands and floats in the Cortège parades.
Kids watch the parades, see the big clique lanterns on show at Münsterplatz and find Räppli (confetti) everywhere. It suits families who don't mind crowds and loud drums.
This is the day Basel's carnival puts kids at the center. Children too young to march with a clique or Guggenmusik come out with their parents in homemade costumes and masks, hand out sweets and throw confetti (Räppli).
Older kids who already play an instrument form small groups with family and friends. It suits families who want to join in, not only watch from the curb.
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.
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.
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.
Em Bebbi sy Jazz turns Basel's Old Town into one big jazz evening, with concerts at many spots around the center.
It's come-and-go, so families can wander between sets, stop for a song or two and head home when the kids are done. It suits kids who enjoy live music and can stay out for an evening.
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.
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.
Basler Personenschifffahrt runs passenger ships on the Rhine from the Schifflände landing stage in the old town. The Panorama Sightseeing Cruise passes the cathedral, the Roche towers and the Tinguely Museum, then heads into the Rhine port, where cranes load goods onto freighters.
The longer Rhine Panorama & Locks Cruise travels upriver to Rheinfelden, passing through the locks at Birsfelden and Augst on the way.
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.
Bibliothek Schmiedenhof is the largest branch of the GGG Stadtbibliothek, six floors and more than 110,000 books, films and audiobooks between Rümelinsplatz and Gerbergasse in the Old Town.
The children's department on the second floor is set up for reading aloud, joining in and exploring, next to a youth zone with games and study desks. The fourth floor holds English novels and nonfiction, plus a quiet press area.
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.
Basel's oldest cellar theater, founded in 1943, plays in the vaulted Zehntenkeller beside Basel Minster. Its family program turns children's books and fairy tales into shows with marionettes and table puppets, from a young Scottish ghost learning to scare to The Wizard of Oz with flying monkeys.
A separate evening program of plays and talks is aimed at adults.
Basel Minster is the city's former cathedral, now a Reformed Protestant church, built of red sandstone with colored roof tiles and two slim towers. Kids can climb both the Georgsturm and the Martinsturm, about 250 steps each up a narrow staircase, for a wide view over Basel.
Below the Georgsturm, look for a picture from 1372 of Saint George fighting a remarkably small dragon.
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.
Cartoonmuseum Basel is a museum of narrative drawing: comics, graphic novels, cartoons, caricature and animation. Its changing exhibitions draw on more than 12,000 original works, shown in an old townhouse renovated and extended by Herzog & de Meuron.
Each exhibition gets a Cartoon Sunday, a family afternoon where kids try drawing and comic techniques in the studio. It suits kids who like to draw more than kids who want to run.
The Musikmuseum fills the Lohnhof, a former monastery that served as a prison until 1995, on a hill above Barfüsserplatz. About 550 European instruments from five centuries are displayed in 24 former prison cells, so kids walk from cell to cell rather than through big halls.
The local star is the oldest intact Basel drum, or "Drummle", from 1571.
The Barfüsserkirche has housed the museum of Basel's history since 1894. Displays run from archaeological finds and medieval religious art to present-day objects. Look for the cathedral treasury, the Basel Dance of Death, medieval tapestries and Renaissance cabinets of curiosities.
Temporary exhibitions pair the collection with current social issues, and the family program adds drop-in workshops and tours.
Kunstmuseum Basel holds the oldest public art collection in the world, which began with a cabinet of Holbein works bought by the city and university in 1661. The Hauptbau covers painting from the Middle Ages to postwar modernism, with Rubens, Rembrandt, Monet, van Gogh and Picasso along the way.
An underground passage leads to the Neubau across the street, home to the big special exhibitions.
Antikenmuseum Basel holds Switzerland's largest collection of ancient art, spanning 5,000 years of Mediterranean cultures. The Egypt rooms show some 600 objects, including painted coffins, mummies and amulets, with a children's trail and audio-visual displays.
Elsewhere are Greek vases painted with myths and everyday scenes, Greek sculptures in the top-lit Oberlichtsaal, and Roman portraits and sarcophagi in the basement. A bistro is on site.
The Swiss Museum of Paper, Writing and Printing sits in a late medieval mill beside a rushing mill stream, where the mill wheel turns and the stamping mill hammers away. Kids scoop their own sheet of paper, write with a goose quill, try a typewriter, typeset their name and make marbled paper. Craftspeople work the historic machines on site, so families watch printing and bookbinding done the old way.
Switzerland's largest anthropological museum holds over 340,000 objects from around the world, shown in changing exhibitions on the Münsterplatz. In the permanent Alive galleries, kids can join in braiding a giant textile tree among carved ancestors and altars.
A separate annex covers Basel Carnival, with ceiling-high lanterns, masks, costumes, piccolos and drums, plus a replica carnival pub.
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.
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.
Rheinbad St. Johann, known locally as the Rhybeli, is a wooden river bathing house built in the 19th century below the Johanniterbrücke. Two 24-meter pools sit in the Rhine itself, next to a sun deck with free umbrellas and an Italian kiosk serving pasta, pinsa and espresso.
Swimming is unsupervised and only for strong swimmers, and the club that runs it says the layout does not suit small children.
Basel's Old Town is small enough for kids to walk end to end, with a museum, a stage or a river crossing every few streets. This collection gathers the museums, theaters, Rhine trips and seasonal festivals on the Grossbasel side of the river, so you can plan a rainy afternoon, a sightseeing weekend or a winter market visit from one page.
Basel's Herbstmesse, "d Mäss" to locals, has run every autumn since 1471 and is the biggest funfair in Switzerland. Rides, game booths and food stalls fill squares on both sides of the Rhine: old-time carousels and a Ferris wheel beside the Münster, faster rides in Kleinbasel, and a pottery and craft market under the plane trees on Petersplatz. Snack stops: Mässmogge candy, spiced Magenbrot and hot chestnuts.
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.
A marionette play about a young ghost living in a castle in Scotland, performed by the theater's own ensemble in a Basel German version by Markus Blättler.
The Basler Marionetten Theater has staged puppet plays since 1943 in the Zehntenkeller, a historic cellar beside the Münster. It suits kids who understand Swiss German; a child who speaks only English will find the story hard to follow.
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.
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.
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 Basler Stadtlauf is Basel's big city road run, and on race day the old town fills with runners of every age.
Alongside the main run there are 1 km school races for kids and a family run, where one parent and one child run together from the Münster down to the Marktplatz. It suits kids who like to race and families who want to do it side by side.
Basel's newest Christmas market, a village of huts at Theaterplatz that spreads into the nearby squares. Around 40 huts sell local design and crafts, plus food from the region and around the world.
Kids get their own areas, and the program promises stilt walkers in costume, fairy-tale storytelling, craft afternoons and a carousel. It suits families who want browsing, snacks and Christmas lights in one outing.
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.
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.
Ballett Basel and choreographer Marco Goecke turn Astrid Lindgren's children's classic into a dance fairy tale. Orphan Bo, raised by an unloving foster family, reaches the Land of Faraway, learns he is Prince Mio, finds his father and, with his friend Jum-Jum, stands up to the cruel knight Kato.
Goecke's precise, playful movement builds clear pictures and leaves room for kids' own imagination and humor.
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.
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.
A family concert based on Janosch's story of Josa, a boy who is given a magic fiddle. Its sound can make anyone small and weak or big and strong, so he sets off for the moon to enchant it too, with adventures all the way to the end of the world.
Suits kids who like adventure stories and are curious about classical music.
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.
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.
Museumsnacht is Basel's big winter night at the museum. One ticket opens dozens of museums and cultural venues across the city and neighboring towns, each with its own program of exhibitions, music, dance and hands-on activities.
Families pick a few houses, plan a route and hop between them. It suits school-age kids who can stay up late and enjoy a crowd.
Basel's Fasnacht is the biggest carnival in Switzerland and on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. For three days the city center belongs to the cliques: pipers, drummers, Guggenmusik bands and floats in the Cortège parades.
Kids watch the parades, see the big clique lanterns on show at Münsterplatz and find Räppli (confetti) everywhere. It suits families who don't mind crowds and loud drums.
This is the day Basel's carnival puts kids at the center. Children too young to march with a clique or Guggenmusik come out with their parents in homemade costumes and masks, hand out sweets and throw confetti (Räppli).
Older kids who already play an instrument form small groups with family and friends. It suits families who want to join in, not only watch from the curb.
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.
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.
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.
Em Bebbi sy Jazz turns Basel's Old Town into one big jazz evening, with concerts at many spots around the center.
It's come-and-go, so families can wander between sets, stop for a song or two and head home when the kids are done. It suits kids who enjoy live music and can stay out for an evening.
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.
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.
Basler Personenschifffahrt runs passenger ships on the Rhine from the Schifflände landing stage in the old town. The Panorama Sightseeing Cruise passes the cathedral, the Roche towers and the Tinguely Museum, then heads into the Rhine port, where cranes load goods onto freighters.
The longer Rhine Panorama & Locks Cruise travels upriver to Rheinfelden, passing through the locks at Birsfelden and Augst on the way.
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.
Bibliothek Schmiedenhof is the largest branch of the GGG Stadtbibliothek, six floors and more than 110,000 books, films and audiobooks between Rümelinsplatz and Gerbergasse in the Old Town.
The children's department on the second floor is set up for reading aloud, joining in and exploring, next to a youth zone with games and study desks. The fourth floor holds English novels and nonfiction, plus a quiet press area.
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.
Basel's oldest cellar theater, founded in 1943, plays in the vaulted Zehntenkeller beside Basel Minster. Its family program turns children's books and fairy tales into shows with marionettes and table puppets, from a young Scottish ghost learning to scare to The Wizard of Oz with flying monkeys.
A separate evening program of plays and talks is aimed at adults.
Basel Minster is the city's former cathedral, now a Reformed Protestant church, built of red sandstone with colored roof tiles and two slim towers. Kids can climb both the Georgsturm and the Martinsturm, about 250 steps each up a narrow staircase, for a wide view over Basel.
Below the Georgsturm, look for a picture from 1372 of Saint George fighting a remarkably small dragon.
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.
Cartoonmuseum Basel is a museum of narrative drawing: comics, graphic novels, cartoons, caricature and animation. Its changing exhibitions draw on more than 12,000 original works, shown in an old townhouse renovated and extended by Herzog & de Meuron.
Each exhibition gets a Cartoon Sunday, a family afternoon where kids try drawing and comic techniques in the studio. It suits kids who like to draw more than kids who want to run.
The Musikmuseum fills the Lohnhof, a former monastery that served as a prison until 1995, on a hill above Barfüsserplatz. About 550 European instruments from five centuries are displayed in 24 former prison cells, so kids walk from cell to cell rather than through big halls.
The local star is the oldest intact Basel drum, or "Drummle", from 1571.
The Barfüsserkirche has housed the museum of Basel's history since 1894. Displays run from archaeological finds and medieval religious art to present-day objects. Look for the cathedral treasury, the Basel Dance of Death, medieval tapestries and Renaissance cabinets of curiosities.
Temporary exhibitions pair the collection with current social issues, and the family program adds drop-in workshops and tours.
Kunstmuseum Basel holds the oldest public art collection in the world, which began with a cabinet of Holbein works bought by the city and university in 1661. The Hauptbau covers painting from the Middle Ages to postwar modernism, with Rubens, Rembrandt, Monet, van Gogh and Picasso along the way.
An underground passage leads to the Neubau across the street, home to the big special exhibitions.
Antikenmuseum Basel holds Switzerland's largest collection of ancient art, spanning 5,000 years of Mediterranean cultures. The Egypt rooms show some 600 objects, including painted coffins, mummies and amulets, with a children's trail and audio-visual displays.
Elsewhere are Greek vases painted with myths and everyday scenes, Greek sculptures in the top-lit Oberlichtsaal, and Roman portraits and sarcophagi in the basement. A bistro is on site.
The Swiss Museum of Paper, Writing and Printing sits in a late medieval mill beside a rushing mill stream, where the mill wheel turns and the stamping mill hammers away. Kids scoop their own sheet of paper, write with a goose quill, try a typewriter, typeset their name and make marbled paper. Craftspeople work the historic machines on site, so families watch printing and bookbinding done the old way.
Switzerland's largest anthropological museum holds over 340,000 objects from around the world, shown in changing exhibitions on the Münsterplatz. In the permanent Alive galleries, kids can join in braiding a giant textile tree among carved ancestors and altars.
A separate annex covers Basel Carnival, with ceiling-high lanterns, masks, costumes, piccolos and drums, plus a replica carnival pub.
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.
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.
Rheinbad St. Johann, known locally as the Rhybeli, is a wooden river bathing house built in the 19th century below the Johanniterbrücke. Two 24-meter pools sit in the Rhine itself, next to a sun deck with free umbrellas and an Italian kiosk serving pasta, pinsa and espresso.
Swimming is unsupervised and only for strong swimmers, and the club that runs it says the layout does not suit small children.
