Frankfurt has hills, rivers and old towns within easy reach, and plenty of family days start with an S-Bahn ride or a short drive out of the city. This list gathers the places we'd go for a full day out: forest hilltops, wildlife parks, castle ruins, open-air museums and river towns. Check opening seasons before you go, since some parks close for the winter.
Zoo Heidelberg keeps more than 160 animal species, from lions and Asian elephants to pandas and gorillas, in themed areas for apes, big cats, tropics and Africa. A farm with a petting zoo sits next to several playgrounds with climbing towers and slides. The biggest one has a wooden ship, Noah's Ark, with a maze of rooms inside.
A large theme park in the Palatinate, long known as Holiday Park and now called Plopsaland Deutschland. It has roller coasters, family rides and shows, plus a new family coaster, 100% Wolf. Plan a full day, and check each ride's height limit before you go if you have younger kids.
A large technology museum with aircraft, classic cars, locomotives and the submarine U17. Among the aircraft is the Tupolev Tu-144, the Soviet supersonic jet that flew at over Mach 2. An IMAX cinema sits on the same site, so a rainy day can run from morning into the afternoon.
Small gondola cabins, each fitting two adults and two kids, glide about 10 minutes over the Rheingau vineyards from Rüdesheim up to the Niederwald Monument, a huge Germania statue built between 1871 and 1883 to mark German unification.
At the top are wide views across the Rhine to Bingen, places to eat, and an easy forest loop past the Adlerwarte bird of prey station.
Burg Königstein is one of the largest fortress ruins in Germany, a castle that guarded the Frankfurt to Cologne road until French troops blew it up in 1796. Kids walk in through the Mainzer Tor, explore the walls, towers and vaulted rooms, and look out over the Rhine-Main plain and the Taunus forests.
The 3BurgenWeg trail links it to the castles at Falkenstein and Kronberg.
Schloss Freudenberg is a manor house on a wooded hill above Wiesbaden, turned into a hands-on Erfahrungsfeld (field of experience) with about 130 stations indoors and across the park. Kids walk a long barefoot path, feel their way down a pitch-dark corridor, make water jump in the Wasserspringschale, and pop corn at the fire pit. Touching everything is the point, and the artists at the stations show you how.
A former oil shale quarry where fossils from 47 million years ago survive with skin, feathers and even last meals intact. The pit itself is open only on guided tours, on foot or by electric vehicle. The museum shows original fossils and a film on the site's history.
Outside, a free area has themed play equipment, a sandpit for digging up fossils, a viewing platform and picnic spots.
A 107-hectare forest wildlife park on the edge of Hanau, home to about 350 animals from around 40 Central and Northern European species: wolves, lynx, elk, European bison, wild boar and wildcats. Kids can feed deer, mouflon and goats with feed sold at the ticket desk. Flat, wide forest paths run 15 km through the park, and the Erlebniswald play trail sits between the main path and the wolf enclosure.
A wildlife park on 25 hectares of woodland at the edge of Wiesbaden, home to over 130 animals from about 40 species native to the region. The big draws are brown bears, wolves and lynx. Some enclosures are walk-in and some animals roam the paths freely. Kids can feed the sheep, goats and deer with food sold at the park, and a keeper talks through one feeding each day.
Zoo Vivarium is the city of Darmstadt's own zoo, spread over 5 hectares beside the botanical garden. Monkeys, colorful birds, reptiles and tropical fish live in planted enclosures, terrariums and aquariums.
Kids can walk among the kangaroos in their open enclosure and pet the African pygmy goats in the petting zoo. Keepers explain the animals at commented feedings every open day, and every path works for strollers and wheelchairs.
The Großer Feldberg is the highest peak in the Taunus at 881 meters, with an open, treeless summit plateau. One of its towers can be climbed for views over the Frankfurt skyline, and the Brunhildisfelsen rock at the north edge looks out over the Usinger Land.
Kids can watch eagles and owls at the Falkenhof, the oldest falconry in Hesse. In snowy winters, the slopes fill with sleds.
The Saalburg is a Roman fort that guarded the Limes, the frontier wall now listed by UNESCO. Rebuilt around 1900 on Kaiser Wilhelm II's orders, it is the only fort on the Limes reconstructed almost completely, so kids walk through the gate and into the buildings.
The museum inside covers Roman life on the frontier with hands-on activities, and the Taberna café serves dishes from Roman recipes.
Taunus Wunderland is a family amusement park on a hillside in the Taunus hills, built for younger kids. Rides run from a baby carousel and bumper cars to the Wilde Maus coaster and splashy boat rides. Kids can dig for fossils among life-size models in the dinosaur valley, meet goats and ducks at the farm, visit the donkeys and ponies, and cool off at the water playground.
Hessenpark is an open-air museum of more than a hundred old buildings rebuilt here from villages across Hesse: farmhouses, barns, craft workshops, a 15th-century church and a 1950s pub. About a hundred animals from rare old breeds live on the farms, and the museum theater runs tours that show how villagers lived and worked. The half-timbered market square has shops, inns and benches for a break.
Opel-Zoo spreads about 1,700 animals over 27 hectares of hillside between Kronberg and Königstein. Elephants, giraffes, zebras, cheetahs and red pandas live in large open enclosures, and glass panes let kids watch spectacled penguins swim and dive.
In the walk-in petting zoo kids can feed the animals, then head for the adventure playgrounds with a climbing forest, zip line, ball pool and trampoline.
Frankfurt has hills, rivers and old towns within easy reach, and plenty of family days start with an S-Bahn ride or a short drive out of the city. This list gathers the places we'd go for a full day out: forest hilltops, wildlife parks, castle ruins, open-air museums and river towns. Check opening seasons before you go, since some parks close for the winter.
Zoo Heidelberg keeps more than 160 animal species, from lions and Asian elephants to pandas and gorillas, in themed areas for apes, big cats, tropics and Africa. A farm with a petting zoo sits next to several playgrounds with climbing towers and slides. The biggest one has a wooden ship, Noah's Ark, with a maze of rooms inside.
A large theme park in the Palatinate, long known as Holiday Park and now called Plopsaland Deutschland. It has roller coasters, family rides and shows, plus a new family coaster, 100% Wolf. Plan a full day, and check each ride's height limit before you go if you have younger kids.
A large technology museum with aircraft, classic cars, locomotives and the submarine U17. Among the aircraft is the Tupolev Tu-144, the Soviet supersonic jet that flew at over Mach 2. An IMAX cinema sits on the same site, so a rainy day can run from morning into the afternoon.
Small gondola cabins, each fitting two adults and two kids, glide about 10 minutes over the Rheingau vineyards from Rüdesheim up to the Niederwald Monument, a huge Germania statue built between 1871 and 1883 to mark German unification.
At the top are wide views across the Rhine to Bingen, places to eat, and an easy forest loop past the Adlerwarte bird of prey station.
Burg Königstein is one of the largest fortress ruins in Germany, a castle that guarded the Frankfurt to Cologne road until French troops blew it up in 1796. Kids walk in through the Mainzer Tor, explore the walls, towers and vaulted rooms, and look out over the Rhine-Main plain and the Taunus forests.
The 3BurgenWeg trail links it to the castles at Falkenstein and Kronberg.
Schloss Freudenberg is a manor house on a wooded hill above Wiesbaden, turned into a hands-on Erfahrungsfeld (field of experience) with about 130 stations indoors and across the park. Kids walk a long barefoot path, feel their way down a pitch-dark corridor, make water jump in the Wasserspringschale, and pop corn at the fire pit. Touching everything is the point, and the artists at the stations show you how.
A former oil shale quarry where fossils from 47 million years ago survive with skin, feathers and even last meals intact. The pit itself is open only on guided tours, on foot or by electric vehicle. The museum shows original fossils and a film on the site's history.
Outside, a free area has themed play equipment, a sandpit for digging up fossils, a viewing platform and picnic spots.
A 107-hectare forest wildlife park on the edge of Hanau, home to about 350 animals from around 40 Central and Northern European species: wolves, lynx, elk, European bison, wild boar and wildcats. Kids can feed deer, mouflon and goats with feed sold at the ticket desk. Flat, wide forest paths run 15 km through the park, and the Erlebniswald play trail sits between the main path and the wolf enclosure.
A wildlife park on 25 hectares of woodland at the edge of Wiesbaden, home to over 130 animals from about 40 species native to the region. The big draws are brown bears, wolves and lynx. Some enclosures are walk-in and some animals roam the paths freely. Kids can feed the sheep, goats and deer with food sold at the park, and a keeper talks through one feeding each day.
Zoo Vivarium is the city of Darmstadt's own zoo, spread over 5 hectares beside the botanical garden. Monkeys, colorful birds, reptiles and tropical fish live in planted enclosures, terrariums and aquariums.
Kids can walk among the kangaroos in their open enclosure and pet the African pygmy goats in the petting zoo. Keepers explain the animals at commented feedings every open day, and every path works for strollers and wheelchairs.
The Großer Feldberg is the highest peak in the Taunus at 881 meters, with an open, treeless summit plateau. One of its towers can be climbed for views over the Frankfurt skyline, and the Brunhildisfelsen rock at the north edge looks out over the Usinger Land.
Kids can watch eagles and owls at the Falkenhof, the oldest falconry in Hesse. In snowy winters, the slopes fill with sleds.
The Saalburg is a Roman fort that guarded the Limes, the frontier wall now listed by UNESCO. Rebuilt around 1900 on Kaiser Wilhelm II's orders, it is the only fort on the Limes reconstructed almost completely, so kids walk through the gate and into the buildings.
The museum inside covers Roman life on the frontier with hands-on activities, and the Taberna café serves dishes from Roman recipes.
Taunus Wunderland is a family amusement park on a hillside in the Taunus hills, built for younger kids. Rides run from a baby carousel and bumper cars to the Wilde Maus coaster and splashy boat rides. Kids can dig for fossils among life-size models in the dinosaur valley, meet goats and ducks at the farm, visit the donkeys and ponies, and cool off at the water playground.
Hessenpark is an open-air museum of more than a hundred old buildings rebuilt here from villages across Hesse: farmhouses, barns, craft workshops, a 15th-century church and a 1950s pub. About a hundred animals from rare old breeds live on the farms, and the museum theater runs tours that show how villagers lived and worked. The half-timbered market square has shops, inns and benches for a break.
Opel-Zoo spreads about 1,700 animals over 27 hectares of hillside between Kronberg and Königstein. Elephants, giraffes, zebras, cheetahs and red pandas live in large open enclosures, and glass panes let kids watch spectacled penguins swim and dive.
In the walk-in petting zoo kids can feed the animals, then head for the adventure playgrounds with a climbing forest, zip line, ball pool and trampoline.
