Basel's green northeast is where families go when the kids need space. The Lange Erlen woods run along the Wiese river, with free animals to visit, streams to splash in and playgrounds built for climbing. Hirzbrunnen around it adds a big outdoor pool in summer and skating in winter. This page tracks the parks, play spots and kids' events we've checked in the area.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two lit ice fields share the site: a large 1,800 m² field for skating and hockey, and a smaller 650 m² field that is due to open in early December. Skates, hockey sticks, kids' helmets and two-runner beginner skates are for rent at the rink, and there is a restaurant on site.
On a few Friday evenings each season, the ice turns into an ice disco.
Gartenbad Eglisee is an outdoor pool complex in Kleinbasel with a 50 m pool for confident swimmers, a non-swimmers' pool, a toddler pool, and a diving pool with 1 m and 3 m boards. There is also a beach volleyball court and a restaurant.
It is the city's only pool with a women-only section, the Frauenbad (locally the Fraueli), with its own 50 m and non-swimmers' pools.
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.
Basel's green northeast is where families go when the kids need space. The Lange Erlen woods run along the Wiese river, with free animals to visit, streams to splash in and playgrounds built for climbing. Hirzbrunnen around it adds a big outdoor pool in summer and skating in winter. This page tracks the parks, play spots and kids' events we've checked in the area.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two lit ice fields share the site: a large 1,800 m² field for skating and hockey, and a smaller 650 m² field that is due to open in early December. Skates, hockey sticks, kids' helmets and two-runner beginner skates are for rent at the rink, and there is a restaurant on site.
On a few Friday evenings each season, the ice turns into an ice disco.
Gartenbad Eglisee is an outdoor pool complex in Kleinbasel with a 50 m pool for confident swimmers, a non-swimmers' pool, a toddler pool, and a diving pool with 1 m and 3 m boards. There is also a beach volleyball court and a restaurant.
It is the city's only pool with a women-only section, the Frauenbad (locally the Fraueli), with its own 50 m and non-swimmers' pools.
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.
