Oliwa is the leafy corner of Gdańsk where the city runs into the forest. This list gathers the family plans in the district: shady parks and woodland trails, animals to visit, hilltop views, seasonal fairs, and indoor spots to burn off energy when the Baltic weather turns. It updates as new plans are added, so check back before the weekend.
Dookoła Świata (Around the World) is an interactive kids' show by Teatr Garden. The audience follows Nikola and her grandfather, a pilot, to China, India and Poland, discovering the customs and costumes of each country.
Kids learn to say hello and thank you in each language, and music and dance from each place fill the show. It is led in Polish, so it suits kids who follow Polish.
Dolina Radości is a wooded valley in the Oliwa Forest, part of the Tricity Landscape Park. The Oliwa Stream runs along its floor past ponds and a small waterfall, and large glacial boulders lie beside the paths.
A marked nature trail runs through the valley, and the yellow Eight Views trail leads to it from Oliwa, so a walk can start in town and end deep in the woods.
A 15-meter steel viewing tower tops Pachołek, a 100-meter hill in the Oliwa forest at the edge of the Tricity Landscape Park. A short walk and a flight of stairs lead up to the platform, which looks over Oliwa, Przymorze, Wrzeszcz and the Main Town, and out to Gdańsk Bay. To the west the view is all forest. It suits kids who like spotting landmarks from up high.
Oliwa Park is an 11-hectare historic garden beside Oliwa Cathedral, laid out in the 18th century in a formal French style with an English landscape section. The Oliwa Stream runs through it, with two large ponds, a cascade and four footbridges to cross. Kids can test the two whispering grottoes near the palm house, look for the lantern and gate in the Japanese-style garden, and walk the clipped lime avenues.
Gdańsk Zoo covers 124 hectares in Oliwa, with nearly 900 animals from 144 species, including elephants, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, orangutans and red pandas. Keepers feed the African penguins and gray seals in front of visitors most days.
At the Children's Zoo, kids pet and feed goats, rabbits and alpacas. The ZOOlandia rope park inside the grounds has 15 tree obstacles and a 26-meter zip line.
Oliwa Cathedral has three organs linked to a single console: the great 18th-century rococo organ above the entrance, a transept organ and a small positive organ in a side arch, with 7,876 pipes between them. The demonstrations are short concerts that show them off.
Look up at the organ case: its carved angels hold trumpets and bells and can be set moving, along with spinning suns and stars.
Public skating in the Mała Hala, the smaller ice hall of the Hala Olivia arena, where the GKS Stoczniowiec club has run open sessions every fall and winter for close to six decades. Hockey matches are played on the same ice.
Beginners can borrow a "penguin" skating aid to push along, and there is a free cloakroom, skate and helmet rental, and a café.
A 2,000 m² trampoline park with a large foam pit, sports trampolines, acrobatic tracks, an air track, trampolines with basketball hoops for dunking, a dodgeball arena and a gladiator zone. The 4.26 m Super Quad trampoline gives the highest bounces.
Trainers on the floor help kids learn flips safely, and there are changing rooms with showers, free lockers and a snack bar.
Oliwa is the leafy corner of Gdańsk where the city runs into the forest. This list gathers the family plans in the district: shady parks and woodland trails, animals to visit, hilltop views, seasonal fairs, and indoor spots to burn off energy when the Baltic weather turns. It updates as new plans are added, so check back before the weekend.
Dookoła Świata (Around the World) is an interactive kids' show by Teatr Garden. The audience follows Nikola and her grandfather, a pilot, to China, India and Poland, discovering the customs and costumes of each country.
Kids learn to say hello and thank you in each language, and music and dance from each place fill the show. It is led in Polish, so it suits kids who follow Polish.
Dolina Radości is a wooded valley in the Oliwa Forest, part of the Tricity Landscape Park. The Oliwa Stream runs along its floor past ponds and a small waterfall, and large glacial boulders lie beside the paths.
A marked nature trail runs through the valley, and the yellow Eight Views trail leads to it from Oliwa, so a walk can start in town and end deep in the woods.
A 15-meter steel viewing tower tops Pachołek, a 100-meter hill in the Oliwa forest at the edge of the Tricity Landscape Park. A short walk and a flight of stairs lead up to the platform, which looks over Oliwa, Przymorze, Wrzeszcz and the Main Town, and out to Gdańsk Bay. To the west the view is all forest. It suits kids who like spotting landmarks from up high.
Oliwa Park is an 11-hectare historic garden beside Oliwa Cathedral, laid out in the 18th century in a formal French style with an English landscape section. The Oliwa Stream runs through it, with two large ponds, a cascade and four footbridges to cross. Kids can test the two whispering grottoes near the palm house, look for the lantern and gate in the Japanese-style garden, and walk the clipped lime avenues.
Gdańsk Zoo covers 124 hectares in Oliwa, with nearly 900 animals from 144 species, including elephants, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, orangutans and red pandas. Keepers feed the African penguins and gray seals in front of visitors most days.
At the Children's Zoo, kids pet and feed goats, rabbits and alpacas. The ZOOlandia rope park inside the grounds has 15 tree obstacles and a 26-meter zip line.
Oliwa Cathedral has three organs linked to a single console: the great 18th-century rococo organ above the entrance, a transept organ and a small positive organ in a side arch, with 7,876 pipes between them. The demonstrations are short concerts that show them off.
Look up at the organ case: its carved angels hold trumpets and bells and can be set moving, along with spinning suns and stars.
Public skating in the Mała Hala, the smaller ice hall of the Hala Olivia arena, where the GKS Stoczniowiec club has run open sessions every fall and winter for close to six decades. Hockey matches are played on the same ice.
Beginners can borrow a "penguin" skating aid to push along, and there is a free cloakroom, skate and helmet rental, and a café.
A 2,000 m² trampoline park with a large foam pit, sports trampolines, acrobatic tracks, an air track, trampolines with basketball hoops for dunking, a dodgeball arena and a gladiator zone. The 4.26 m Super Quad trampoline gives the highest bounces.
Trainers on the floor help kids learn flips safely, and there are changing rooms with showers, free lockers and a snack bar.
