A first Frankfurt trip with kids goes further with a plan. These are the places we'd take visiting family first, the ones that hold a kid's attention and not only an adult's. Struwwelpeter, the wild-haired boy from a classic German picture book, was dreamed up by a Frankfurt doctor, and he still has a museum here. Here's what we checked, from the Senckenberg dinosaurs to the Main Tower deck.
A natural history museum built around a dinosaur hall, where a Tyrannosaurus, a Triceratops and a long-necked Diplodocus stand over the floor. Other galleries cover whales and elephants, the deep sea, coral reefs, insects, and 47-million-year-old fossils from the nearby Messel Pit.
In the Aha?! Science Lab, kids handle more than 100 natural objects, look at them under microscopes and help sort samples for real research projects.
Frankfurt Zoo packs more than 450 species into 11 hectares, from gorillas, bonobos and orangutans in the Borgori Forest ape house to seals, Humboldt penguins, giraffes and okapi outside. The Exotarium has a tropical rainforest pool and leafcutter ants, and the Grzimek House holds small animals like mouse lemurs and bats.
Kids can pet dwarf goats and run off steam on the big sand playground.
A 20-hectare botanical garden in the Westend with around 13,000 plant species. Indoors, kids walk through the 1869 Palm House, the Tropicarium's rainforest and desert glasshouses, a carnivorous plant collection with Venus flytraps, and a butterfly house where pupae hatch in view.
Outside are a large playground with a water play area, a shaded playground above the pond, rental boats in summer and a mini golf course.
Römerberg is Frankfurt's historic main square. On one side stands the Römer, city hall since the 15th century, with stepped Gothic gables; facing it is the Ostzeile, a row of half-timbered houses, each with its own name.
Kids can spot Justitia on the Justice Fountain, holding scales and a sword without a blindfold. Most buildings are reconstructions: the old town was largely destroyed in 1944.
Main Tower is a skyscraper in the banking district with Frankfurt's highest viewing platform, 200 meters up. A high-speed elevator climbs to the enclosed 55th floor, then stairs lead to the open-air deck above.
On a clear day kids can trace the river Main and spot the Taunus hills, and a free AR app labels cities on the horizon. A poor pick for anyone uneasy with heights or wind.
The city's children's museum sits inside the Historisches Museum by the river. Its current exhibition, Damals 1410, is a walk-through game: kids time-travel to a medieval town, help a builder raise a castle with AI, work as influencers at the smithy and put out a fire, earning badges for skills like spotting fake news.
Orange family-trail stations in the main museum let kids mint a coin or make a cartoon.
A hands-on science center with around 200 experiment stations over four floors, covering math, computer science, natural science and technology. Kids stand inside a giant eye, lie on a bed of nails, watch sand jump to sound on Chladni plates and power a light bulb themselves.
A puzzle room tests patience, and one exhibit looks into the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Suits curious school-age kids.
A small museum about Der Struwwelpeter, the picture book of cautionary tales, and its author, the Frankfurt doctor Heinrich Hoffmann, set in two houses in the Neue Altstadt.
Kids follow a game trail, roll dice to race Herr Fix around the world in 77 days, pose with giant figures from the book, and dress up to act out the stories on a real stage.
The Städel holds 700 years of European art, from Dürer and Botticelli to Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso and Gerhard Richter, in a building on the Museumsufer riverbank.
Kids get their own program: family tours that turn paintings into stories, studio workshops where they paint or draw and take their work home, and Imagoras, a tablet game for children. It suits kids who like to draw and look closely.
A forest playground of almost three hectares at the foot of the Goetheturm, a 43-meter wooden lookout tower in the Stadtwald. Tall trees shade slides, swings, climbing towers, a wooden maze and a mud play area.
Climb the tower's 196 steps for a view over the southern woods to the skyline. The Goetheruh restaurant sits next door, and the Goetheweg walking trail passes right by.
A sightseeing boat on the Main that leaves from the Eiserner Steg footbridge, a short walk from the Römer. One loop heads upriver toward Gerbermühle, the other downriver toward the Griesheim lock, and the long trip does both. Kids can sit on the open top deck and watch the bank towers and bridges slide past. Commentary is in German and English, and food and drinks are sold on board.
The Museum für Kommunikation traces how people send messages, from cuneiform tablets to glasses with built-in AI, across 2,500 square meters and 46 themed islands with no set route. Kids can try dozens of interactive stations and put questions to a talking painting of the computer scientist Alan Turing, which answers visitors. It suits curious school-age kids more than toddlers.
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.
A staffed adventure playground on 5,000 square meters inside the Riederwald forest, open since 1973. Instead of ready-made equipment, kids get boards, beams, ropes, hammers, nails and saws from the tool hut and build their own towers and dens.
There is mud, sand and water to dig in, a fire pit, and a play house with a kitchen and toilet. Staff hand out tools and lend a hand when asked.
Kleinmarkthalle is the city's covered food market, open since 1954, with more than 60 stalls across over 1,500 square meters. Traders sell fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, bread and international deli food, and small food stands serve meals to eat on the spot.
Kids can try the local specialties at the stalls, like Frankfurter sausages and Grüne Soße, the city's green herb sauce.
A first Frankfurt trip with kids goes further with a plan. These are the places we'd take visiting family first, the ones that hold a kid's attention and not only an adult's. Struwwelpeter, the wild-haired boy from a classic German picture book, was dreamed up by a Frankfurt doctor, and he still has a museum here. Here's what we checked, from the Senckenberg dinosaurs to the Main Tower deck.
A natural history museum built around a dinosaur hall, where a Tyrannosaurus, a Triceratops and a long-necked Diplodocus stand over the floor. Other galleries cover whales and elephants, the deep sea, coral reefs, insects, and 47-million-year-old fossils from the nearby Messel Pit.
In the Aha?! Science Lab, kids handle more than 100 natural objects, look at them under microscopes and help sort samples for real research projects.
Frankfurt Zoo packs more than 450 species into 11 hectares, from gorillas, bonobos and orangutans in the Borgori Forest ape house to seals, Humboldt penguins, giraffes and okapi outside. The Exotarium has a tropical rainforest pool and leafcutter ants, and the Grzimek House holds small animals like mouse lemurs and bats.
Kids can pet dwarf goats and run off steam on the big sand playground.
A 20-hectare botanical garden in the Westend with around 13,000 plant species. Indoors, kids walk through the 1869 Palm House, the Tropicarium's rainforest and desert glasshouses, a carnivorous plant collection with Venus flytraps, and a butterfly house where pupae hatch in view.
Outside are a large playground with a water play area, a shaded playground above the pond, rental boats in summer and a mini golf course.
Römerberg is Frankfurt's historic main square. On one side stands the Römer, city hall since the 15th century, with stepped Gothic gables; facing it is the Ostzeile, a row of half-timbered houses, each with its own name.
Kids can spot Justitia on the Justice Fountain, holding scales and a sword without a blindfold. Most buildings are reconstructions: the old town was largely destroyed in 1944.
Main Tower is a skyscraper in the banking district with Frankfurt's highest viewing platform, 200 meters up. A high-speed elevator climbs to the enclosed 55th floor, then stairs lead to the open-air deck above.
On a clear day kids can trace the river Main and spot the Taunus hills, and a free AR app labels cities on the horizon. A poor pick for anyone uneasy with heights or wind.
The city's children's museum sits inside the Historisches Museum by the river. Its current exhibition, Damals 1410, is a walk-through game: kids time-travel to a medieval town, help a builder raise a castle with AI, work as influencers at the smithy and put out a fire, earning badges for skills like spotting fake news.
Orange family-trail stations in the main museum let kids mint a coin or make a cartoon.
A hands-on science center with around 200 experiment stations over four floors, covering math, computer science, natural science and technology. Kids stand inside a giant eye, lie on a bed of nails, watch sand jump to sound on Chladni plates and power a light bulb themselves.
A puzzle room tests patience, and one exhibit looks into the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Suits curious school-age kids.
A small museum about Der Struwwelpeter, the picture book of cautionary tales, and its author, the Frankfurt doctor Heinrich Hoffmann, set in two houses in the Neue Altstadt.
Kids follow a game trail, roll dice to race Herr Fix around the world in 77 days, pose with giant figures from the book, and dress up to act out the stories on a real stage.
The Städel holds 700 years of European art, from Dürer and Botticelli to Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso and Gerhard Richter, in a building on the Museumsufer riverbank.
Kids get their own program: family tours that turn paintings into stories, studio workshops where they paint or draw and take their work home, and Imagoras, a tablet game for children. It suits kids who like to draw and look closely.
A forest playground of almost three hectares at the foot of the Goetheturm, a 43-meter wooden lookout tower in the Stadtwald. Tall trees shade slides, swings, climbing towers, a wooden maze and a mud play area.
Climb the tower's 196 steps for a view over the southern woods to the skyline. The Goetheruh restaurant sits next door, and the Goetheweg walking trail passes right by.
A sightseeing boat on the Main that leaves from the Eiserner Steg footbridge, a short walk from the Römer. One loop heads upriver toward Gerbermühle, the other downriver toward the Griesheim lock, and the long trip does both. Kids can sit on the open top deck and watch the bank towers and bridges slide past. Commentary is in German and English, and food and drinks are sold on board.
The Museum für Kommunikation traces how people send messages, from cuneiform tablets to glasses with built-in AI, across 2,500 square meters and 46 themed islands with no set route. Kids can try dozens of interactive stations and put questions to a talking painting of the computer scientist Alan Turing, which answers visitors. It suits curious school-age kids more than toddlers.
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.
A staffed adventure playground on 5,000 square meters inside the Riederwald forest, open since 1973. Instead of ready-made equipment, kids get boards, beams, ropes, hammers, nails and saws from the tool hut and build their own towers and dens.
There is mud, sand and water to dig in, a fire pit, and a play house with a kitchen and toilet. Staff hand out tools and lend a hand when asked.
Kleinmarkthalle is the city's covered food market, open since 1954, with more than 60 stalls across over 1,500 square meters. Traders sell fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, bread and international deli food, and small food stands serve meals to eat on the spot.
Kids can try the local specialties at the stalls, like Frankfurter sausages and Grüne Soße, the city's green herb sauce.
