Hot afternoon, restless kids? These are the places where they can get properly wet: outdoor pools with lawns for a picnic, indoor pools for gray weeks, and parks and forest playgrounds with water play built in. Some are free and some charge entry, so check each listing before you pack the towels.
A thermal bath and leisure pool under a domed roof, with two giant slides, water cannons, current pools, a waterfall and whirlpools. Older kids jump from the 1m and 3m boards or swim lengths in the 25m sports pool.
Toddlers have a separate area with its own pool, water toys, a small slide and a changing room, and there is a large outdoor pool area too.
Titus Thermen is a leisure pool run by BäderBetriebe Frankfurt. The adventure pool has a 50m slide, a waterfall and neck showers, and the main leisure pool has a current channel and a water organ, both up to 1.30m deep at 29°C.
Babies and toddlers get the Bambini Welt, a shallow 32°C pool with small animal features. Swimmers have a five-lane 25m pool with a 1m diving platform.
Main Bad Bornheim is the Frankfurter Bäder leisure pool next to the Ostpark. Kids head for the 74-meter tube slide and the wide slide, then the spray park with jets, a water tree, a cascade and a tipping bucket. Toddlers get their own splash pool.
There is also a warm bubble pool, plus a 25-meter pool with a movable floor, a 1-meter board and a 3-meter platform for confident swimmers.
Riedbad is a city-run pool complex with an indoor hall and a large summer outdoor pool. Indoors there is a 25m pool with 1m and 3m boards and a 33°C learner pool.
Outdoors, kids get a heated play pool with a slide, a shaded splash pool with water toys, a 5m diving platform, a big playground, a play lawn, table tennis and beach volleyball.
Waldspielpark Louisa is a city-run play park among the trees of the Frankfurt Stadtwald, with sandy play areas, swings and a big wooden ship to climb. In summer, a splash field and a paddling pool no deeper than 35 cm give kids a way to cool off.
Toilets are on site, and a kiosk sits on the road in front of the park. Dogs are not allowed inside.
Waldspielpark Tannenwald is a forest playground run by the city of Frankfurt on the edge of Neu-Isenburg. The big draw is the water play area: a spray field and jets on a natural-stone surface, with a red fish sculpture that spits water.
Frankfurt and Neu-Isenburg rebuilt it for €1.3 million after a four-year closure, adding a new building with toilets. It suits kids who want to get soaked on a hot day.
Waldspielpark Schwanheim is a water play park in the Schwanheim forest. A big spray field cools kids off on hot days, and a paddling pool is set aside for toddlers. Around them sit play equipment, a row of table tennis tables, an 18-hole mini golf course and a soccer field. A separate barbecue area has open and covered fire pits.
A forest play park in the Stadtwald, built around a water spray field where kids run through the jets on hot days. There is a separate children's play area and an 18-hole mini golf course with large wooden figures.
The sports side has a roller skating rink, table tennis, a basketball court and a soccer field. A kiosk and toilets are on site.
Volkspark Niddatal, which locals call Niddapark or the BUGA grounds, is the city's largest park, with 168 hectares of riverside meadows along the Nidda. On its western edge sits a big play area with a climbing castle, a large sandbox, a double zip line, tire swings, ping-pong tables and a skate park. Next to it, a splash area sprays fountains with no pool, so even toddlers can run through.
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.
A former Rothschild estate, opened as a public park in 1892, with old, dense trees in the south and wide lawns to the north. Kids head for the water play area with its spray field and for the adventure playground. Look for the life-size copper bull from 1910 on the west side.
Each summer the Stoffel open-air festival fills the park with concerts, a night flea market and a kids' program.
A supervised adventure playground built as a Wild West town, a nod to the American families who once lived in the nearby housing areas. Kids find a stagecoach, wooden horses, a rocket with a roller slide, a mini Grand Canyon, and a water play area with streams for damming and mini canoes. Staff build huts with kids and fire up a bake house for flatbread and bread.
Stadionbad is a big city outdoor pool beside the football stadium in the Stadtwald forest. It has a 50m lap pool, a diving tower with boards from 1m up to 10m, and an adventure pool with a waterfall, a current channel and slides.
Toddlers get their own splash pool and a playground, there is a separate non-swimmer pool, and wide lawns leave room for a picnic blanket and a long afternoon.
Brentanobad is a municipal outdoor pool in Rödelheim. Its main pool stretches over 220 meters, sloping from zero depth to 1.80m, with a grille marking off a non-swimmer zone that has its own slide. A 16-meter wide slide drops into the swimmer section.
Toddlers get a paddling pool with water play features under a sun sail, and the grounds add a playground with a huge sandbox.
Strandbad Langener Waldsee is the bathing beach on the Langener Waldsee, a lake of about 75 hectares in the woods between Langen, Walldorf and Dreieich. Kids get 900 meters of sand and lawns, water to swim and splash in, and sailboats and windsurfers to watch on the lake.
Beach volleyball courts, a restaurant, showers and a campground share the grounds. Dogs and barbecues are not allowed.
Silobad is an outdoor public pool in Unterliederbach. Kids who can't swim yet get an 850 m² shallow pool with a wide slide, a water mushroom and the Froschkönig (Frog Prince) island, and toddlers have a paddling pool partly under a sun sail. Confident swimmers get a 50m pool with 1m and 3m boards. On the lawns: a playground, minigolf, beach volleyball, table tennis and a snack bar.
Hot afternoon, restless kids? These are the places where they can get properly wet: outdoor pools with lawns for a picnic, indoor pools for gray weeks, and parks and forest playgrounds with water play built in. Some are free and some charge entry, so check each listing before you pack the towels.
A thermal bath and leisure pool under a domed roof, with two giant slides, water cannons, current pools, a waterfall and whirlpools. Older kids jump from the 1m and 3m boards or swim lengths in the 25m sports pool.
Toddlers have a separate area with its own pool, water toys, a small slide and a changing room, and there is a large outdoor pool area too.
Titus Thermen is a leisure pool run by BäderBetriebe Frankfurt. The adventure pool has a 50m slide, a waterfall and neck showers, and the main leisure pool has a current channel and a water organ, both up to 1.30m deep at 29°C.
Babies and toddlers get the Bambini Welt, a shallow 32°C pool with small animal features. Swimmers have a five-lane 25m pool with a 1m diving platform.
Main Bad Bornheim is the Frankfurter Bäder leisure pool next to the Ostpark. Kids head for the 74-meter tube slide and the wide slide, then the spray park with jets, a water tree, a cascade and a tipping bucket. Toddlers get their own splash pool.
There is also a warm bubble pool, plus a 25-meter pool with a movable floor, a 1-meter board and a 3-meter platform for confident swimmers.
Riedbad is a city-run pool complex with an indoor hall and a large summer outdoor pool. Indoors there is a 25m pool with 1m and 3m boards and a 33°C learner pool.
Outdoors, kids get a heated play pool with a slide, a shaded splash pool with water toys, a 5m diving platform, a big playground, a play lawn, table tennis and beach volleyball.
Waldspielpark Louisa is a city-run play park among the trees of the Frankfurt Stadtwald, with sandy play areas, swings and a big wooden ship to climb. In summer, a splash field and a paddling pool no deeper than 35 cm give kids a way to cool off.
Toilets are on site, and a kiosk sits on the road in front of the park. Dogs are not allowed inside.
Waldspielpark Tannenwald is a forest playground run by the city of Frankfurt on the edge of Neu-Isenburg. The big draw is the water play area: a spray field and jets on a natural-stone surface, with a red fish sculpture that spits water.
Frankfurt and Neu-Isenburg rebuilt it for €1.3 million after a four-year closure, adding a new building with toilets. It suits kids who want to get soaked on a hot day.
Waldspielpark Schwanheim is a water play park in the Schwanheim forest. A big spray field cools kids off on hot days, and a paddling pool is set aside for toddlers. Around them sit play equipment, a row of table tennis tables, an 18-hole mini golf course and a soccer field. A separate barbecue area has open and covered fire pits.
A forest play park in the Stadtwald, built around a water spray field where kids run through the jets on hot days. There is a separate children's play area and an 18-hole mini golf course with large wooden figures.
The sports side has a roller skating rink, table tennis, a basketball court and a soccer field. A kiosk and toilets are on site.
Volkspark Niddatal, which locals call Niddapark or the BUGA grounds, is the city's largest park, with 168 hectares of riverside meadows along the Nidda. On its western edge sits a big play area with a climbing castle, a large sandbox, a double zip line, tire swings, ping-pong tables and a skate park. Next to it, a splash area sprays fountains with no pool, so even toddlers can run through.
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.
A former Rothschild estate, opened as a public park in 1892, with old, dense trees in the south and wide lawns to the north. Kids head for the water play area with its spray field and for the adventure playground. Look for the life-size copper bull from 1910 on the west side.
Each summer the Stoffel open-air festival fills the park with concerts, a night flea market and a kids' program.
A supervised adventure playground built as a Wild West town, a nod to the American families who once lived in the nearby housing areas. Kids find a stagecoach, wooden horses, a rocket with a roller slide, a mini Grand Canyon, and a water play area with streams for damming and mini canoes. Staff build huts with kids and fire up a bake house for flatbread and bread.
Stadionbad is a big city outdoor pool beside the football stadium in the Stadtwald forest. It has a 50m lap pool, a diving tower with boards from 1m up to 10m, and an adventure pool with a waterfall, a current channel and slides.
Toddlers get their own splash pool and a playground, there is a separate non-swimmer pool, and wide lawns leave room for a picnic blanket and a long afternoon.
Brentanobad is a municipal outdoor pool in Rödelheim. Its main pool stretches over 220 meters, sloping from zero depth to 1.80m, with a grille marking off a non-swimmer zone that has its own slide. A 16-meter wide slide drops into the swimmer section.
Toddlers get a paddling pool with water play features under a sun sail, and the grounds add a playground with a huge sandbox.
Strandbad Langener Waldsee is the bathing beach on the Langener Waldsee, a lake of about 75 hectares in the woods between Langen, Walldorf and Dreieich. Kids get 900 meters of sand and lawns, water to swim and splash in, and sailboats and windsurfers to watch on the lake.
Beach volleyball courts, a restaurant, showers and a campground share the grounds. Dogs and barbecues are not allowed.
Silobad is an outdoor public pool in Unterliederbach. Kids who can't swim yet get an 850 m² shallow pool with a wide slide, a water mushroom and the Froschkönig (Frog Prince) island, and toddlers have a paddling pool partly under a sun sail. Confident swimmers get a 50m pool with 1m and 3m boards. On the lawns: a playground, minigolf, beach volleyball, table tennis and a snack bar.
