Frankfurt's neighbors make easy day trips, and each one has something kids remember. Ride an 1888 water-powered funicular up Wiesbaden's Neroberg, float over Rheingau vineyards in a small gondola, or split oil shale for fossils near Darmstadt. Rainy day? The museums in Mainz and Darmstadt have Ice Age beasts and century-old animal dioramas. Here's what we checked, from the Nerobergbahn to the Messel Pit.
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.
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.
Mainz's natural history museum tells the region's deep past in vaulted Gothic halls. The "Wild Worlds" exhibition moves through fossils from tropical seas, giant amphibians of a red desert, a primeval horse from a volcanic lake, manatees, the "terrible beast" of the ancient Rhine, and Ice Age hyenas and woolly rhinos. A separate section covers forest wildlife. Kids hoping for dinosaurs won't find any: the collection is all local.
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.
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.
Darmstadt's state museum puts art and natural history under one roof. For kids, the draw is the natural history wing: ten animal dioramas built when the museum opened in 1906, 48-million-year-old fossils from the Messel Pit (a UNESCO World Heritage site), Peale's Mastodon, the first skeleton ever mounted in the US, and a glowing mineral display. Arms and armor, medieval art and Art Nouveau rooms round out the visit.
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.
The Nerobergbahn is a funicular railway from 1888 that climbs 438 meters up the Neroberg, Wiesbaden's home hill, in about three and a half minutes. It runs on water: the top car fills a tank and its weight pulls the lower car up. At the top sit the Neroberg temple viewpoint, the gold-domed Russian Orthodox church, a high-ropes climbing forest, a forest trail and the Opelbad outdoor pool.
Frankfurt's neighbors make easy day trips, and each one has something kids remember. Ride an 1888 water-powered funicular up Wiesbaden's Neroberg, float over Rheingau vineyards in a small gondola, or split oil shale for fossils near Darmstadt. Rainy day? The museums in Mainz and Darmstadt have Ice Age beasts and century-old animal dioramas. Here's what we checked, from the Nerobergbahn to the Messel Pit.
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.
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.
Mainz's natural history museum tells the region's deep past in vaulted Gothic halls. The "Wild Worlds" exhibition moves through fossils from tropical seas, giant amphibians of a red desert, a primeval horse from a volcanic lake, manatees, the "terrible beast" of the ancient Rhine, and Ice Age hyenas and woolly rhinos. A separate section covers forest wildlife. Kids hoping for dinosaurs won't find any: the collection is all local.
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.
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.
Darmstadt's state museum puts art and natural history under one roof. For kids, the draw is the natural history wing: ten animal dioramas built when the museum opened in 1906, 48-million-year-old fossils from the Messel Pit (a UNESCO World Heritage site), Peale's Mastodon, the first skeleton ever mounted in the US, and a glowing mineral display. Arms and armor, medieval art and Art Nouveau rooms round out the visit.
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.
The Nerobergbahn is a funicular railway from 1888 that climbs 438 meters up the Neroberg, Wiesbaden's home hill, in about three and a half minutes. It runs on water: the top car fills a tank and its weight pulls the lower car up. At the top sit the Neroberg temple viewpoint, the gold-domed Russian Orthodox church, a high-ropes climbing forest, a forest trail and the Opelbad outdoor pool.
