Ferie is two weeks off school in the middle of winter, when days are short and cold. These picks work whatever the weather does: ice rinks and a sledding hill for snowy days, a water park, an aquarium and trampoline halls for gray ones, and a ski day in the mountains. Here's what we checked, from the Afrykarium sharks to the light trail at Topacz Castle.
Lumina Park is a winter light trail in the wooded grounds of Topacz Castle, just south of Wrocław. This season's theme is a journey through time: a 1.5 km forest path with more than 200 light installations, guided by a character called the Magical Courier of the Ages. Kids walk it after dark, spotting scenes from different eras. It suits families happy with an evening walk outdoors in the cold.
A full-size 60 by 30 meter rink at the Spartan sports center on Spiska street. The rental desk has figure and hockey skates from size 26 to 50, helmets, and seal, penguin and bear skating aids that young kids push along while they find their balance.
Skaters go both directions, and every half hour a light arrow and a sound signal tell everyone to switch.
Lodowisko Orbita is the ice rink in the smaller hall of Hala Orbita, a sports and events arena run by Spartan. Public sessions are sold by the hour, and the rink rents skates with a free helmet, plus seal and bear skating aids that beginners push across the ice.
Instructors run group courses for a parent and child together, kids on their own, or adults, plus private lessons.
A roofed, open-sided ice rink run by the WCT Spartan sports center, which also has a roller-skating track on site. Rental skates come with a free helmet, and beginners can rent a seal or bear skating aid to push across the ice.
Saturday evenings turn into an ice disco, and instructors give private lessons for kids and adults.
This indoor water park has nine slides, from the DuoRacer, where two riders race side by side, to a gentle slide in the paddling pool, plus a wave pool, a lazy river and jacuzzis.
The Children Bay is a warm 32.5°C pool, 90cm deep, with a small slide and wall fountains, and it doubles as the swimming-lesson pool. Outdoor pools and a brine pool open in warm weather.
Hydropolis is an interactive museum about water, run by the city water company inside the historic Na Grobli waterworks. Kids walk past a tiger shark model with a shoal of 1,500 tuna, a full-size replica of the Trieste bathyscaphe, deep-sea creature models and a 3.5-meter water vortex.
There are more than 70 interactive installations, cinema rooms, and a children's zone with multimedia games about dolphins and coral reefs.
Poland's oldest zoo covers 32 hectares by Centennial Hall and keeps more than 12,000 animals from over 1,100 species. The headline is the Afrykarium, an indoor oceanarium given over to African wildlife: sharks and rays, Nile crocodiles, hippos, manatees and penguins.
Elsewhere are the Madagascar pavilion, a terrarium and a children's zoo, and a visit mixes indoor halls with outdoor paths.
Kolejkowo is the largest model railway exhibition in Poland, filling 1,000 square meters on the first floor of the Sky Tower. Nineteen trains run on 720 meters of track past miniature Lower Silesian buildings, from Market Square townhouses to the Śnieżka weather observatory and Świebodzki station.
The lights cycle quickly between day and night, and 6,375 tiny figures act out scenes, from road works to a fleeing thief.
Loopy's World is a 4,000 m2 indoor play center built around a multi-level climbing structure with seven slides, including a four-lane family slide. There are also trampolines, a ninja track, a climbing wall, a 3-meter ball zone with air cannons and a block-building area.
The structure is built for adults too, so parents can follow kids up. Go-karts, an electric train and arcade games cost extra.
GOjump MEGApark spreads across 5,500 square meters and three zones. GOjump has trampolines, a foam pit, a ninja course, parkour and acrobatics areas, a trampoline dodgeball court and the GOjet slide. GOtrix turns moving into a points game, with bumper cars, a laser room and arcade machines.
GOjump Przygoda, open weekends, adds a climbing wall and jump challenges run by a trainer. A café overlooks the whole park.
Zieleniec is the largest ski area in the Kłodzko Valley, sitting at about 950 meters in the Orlickie Mountains. One SKI-PASS covers 31 lifts, including 7 chairlifts and several conveyor carpets for first-timers, and the runs link up so you can ski from one end of Zieleniec to the other without taking skis off.
About 16 km of runs are floodlit for evening skiing.
Mała Sobótka is a man-made hill, built at the end of the 19th century from soil left over from a railway embankment. Locals also call it Górka Skarbowców, after the street beside it.
After a snowfall its slopes fill with sleds, and skiers and snowboarders turn up too. The rest of the year it is a spot for walks and play, joined by a strip of green to Park Grabiszyński.
Stara Kopalnia is the former Julia coal mine, restored in 2014 into a 4.5-hectare museum of shaft towers, engine halls and original machinery. Guided tours, often led by former miners, pass through the lamp room, the miners' bathhouse, the dispatch room and an underground tunnel.
The SOWA zone adds hands-on science exhibits for kids, and there is a contemporary art and ceramics gallery on site.
Ferie is two weeks off school in the middle of winter, when days are short and cold. These picks work whatever the weather does: ice rinks and a sledding hill for snowy days, a water park, an aquarium and trampoline halls for gray ones, and a ski day in the mountains. Here's what we checked, from the Afrykarium sharks to the light trail at Topacz Castle.
Lumina Park is a winter light trail in the wooded grounds of Topacz Castle, just south of Wrocław. This season's theme is a journey through time: a 1.5 km forest path with more than 200 light installations, guided by a character called the Magical Courier of the Ages. Kids walk it after dark, spotting scenes from different eras. It suits families happy with an evening walk outdoors in the cold.
A full-size 60 by 30 meter rink at the Spartan sports center on Spiska street. The rental desk has figure and hockey skates from size 26 to 50, helmets, and seal, penguin and bear skating aids that young kids push along while they find their balance.
Skaters go both directions, and every half hour a light arrow and a sound signal tell everyone to switch.
Lodowisko Orbita is the ice rink in the smaller hall of Hala Orbita, a sports and events arena run by Spartan. Public sessions are sold by the hour, and the rink rents skates with a free helmet, plus seal and bear skating aids that beginners push across the ice.
Instructors run group courses for a parent and child together, kids on their own, or adults, plus private lessons.
A roofed, open-sided ice rink run by the WCT Spartan sports center, which also has a roller-skating track on site. Rental skates come with a free helmet, and beginners can rent a seal or bear skating aid to push across the ice.
Saturday evenings turn into an ice disco, and instructors give private lessons for kids and adults.
This indoor water park has nine slides, from the DuoRacer, where two riders race side by side, to a gentle slide in the paddling pool, plus a wave pool, a lazy river and jacuzzis.
The Children Bay is a warm 32.5°C pool, 90cm deep, with a small slide and wall fountains, and it doubles as the swimming-lesson pool. Outdoor pools and a brine pool open in warm weather.
Hydropolis is an interactive museum about water, run by the city water company inside the historic Na Grobli waterworks. Kids walk past a tiger shark model with a shoal of 1,500 tuna, a full-size replica of the Trieste bathyscaphe, deep-sea creature models and a 3.5-meter water vortex.
There are more than 70 interactive installations, cinema rooms, and a children's zone with multimedia games about dolphins and coral reefs.
Poland's oldest zoo covers 32 hectares by Centennial Hall and keeps more than 12,000 animals from over 1,100 species. The headline is the Afrykarium, an indoor oceanarium given over to African wildlife: sharks and rays, Nile crocodiles, hippos, manatees and penguins.
Elsewhere are the Madagascar pavilion, a terrarium and a children's zoo, and a visit mixes indoor halls with outdoor paths.
Kolejkowo is the largest model railway exhibition in Poland, filling 1,000 square meters on the first floor of the Sky Tower. Nineteen trains run on 720 meters of track past miniature Lower Silesian buildings, from Market Square townhouses to the Śnieżka weather observatory and Świebodzki station.
The lights cycle quickly between day and night, and 6,375 tiny figures act out scenes, from road works to a fleeing thief.
Loopy's World is a 4,000 m2 indoor play center built around a multi-level climbing structure with seven slides, including a four-lane family slide. There are also trampolines, a ninja track, a climbing wall, a 3-meter ball zone with air cannons and a block-building area.
The structure is built for adults too, so parents can follow kids up. Go-karts, an electric train and arcade games cost extra.
GOjump MEGApark spreads across 5,500 square meters and three zones. GOjump has trampolines, a foam pit, a ninja course, parkour and acrobatics areas, a trampoline dodgeball court and the GOjet slide. GOtrix turns moving into a points game, with bumper cars, a laser room and arcade machines.
GOjump Przygoda, open weekends, adds a climbing wall and jump challenges run by a trainer. A café overlooks the whole park.
Zieleniec is the largest ski area in the Kłodzko Valley, sitting at about 950 meters in the Orlickie Mountains. One SKI-PASS covers 31 lifts, including 7 chairlifts and several conveyor carpets for first-timers, and the runs link up so you can ski from one end of Zieleniec to the other without taking skis off.
About 16 km of runs are floodlit for evening skiing.
Mała Sobótka is a man-made hill, built at the end of the 19th century from soil left over from a railway embankment. Locals also call it Górka Skarbowców, after the street beside it.
After a snowfall its slopes fill with sleds, and skiers and snowboarders turn up too. The rest of the year it is a spot for walks and play, joined by a strip of green to Park Grabiszyński.
Stara Kopalnia is the former Julia coal mine, restored in 2014 into a 4.5-hectare museum of shaft towers, engine halls and original machinery. Guided tours, often led by former miners, pass through the lamp room, the miners' bathhouse, the dispatch room and an underground tunnel.
The SOWA zone adds hands-on science exhibits for kids, and there is a contemporary art and ceramics gallery on site.
