While we are only about halfway through our travels of Poland, I think Poznan, Poland will likely be the kids’ favorite stop in Poland! There were so many fun kids activities that they kept them happy and entertained throughout our 4.5 days in Poznan.
Poznan Old Town – Bubbles & Fighting Goats!
As with many of the towns in Poland, the Old Town is a central point within the city and reconstructed after the devastation of World War II. The Poznan Old Town had quite a large central square and there were tons of cafes and restaurants within it. However, a couple of days (especially on the weekend days) we came across ‘Bubble People’ who would make bubbles in the central part of the square for the kids to chase. The kids had an absolute blast running, trying to catch the bubbles and pop them! They especially loved the large ones!
There is also the infamous Fighting Goats that make a daily appearance at 12 noon each day. The clock at the top of the Town Hall is a cuckoo clock in which two goats emerged and buck each other 12 times as the new hour rolls. The goats are up quite high and so they are quite small, but if you’re in Poznan its one of those things you should do because you’re there. There is even a trumpeter who plays music as the goats come out to buck.
Maltanka Miniature Railway
Who doesn’t love a little mini train ride? This miniature train station is located in the Park surrounding Lake Malta. As there are several things to explore around the lake, the train makes stops at the different destinations – including the Termy Maltanskie AquaPark and the New Zoo. The train was our mode of transport to the New Zoo and the kids loved the ride! You catch the train from the Maltanka stop near Rondo Srodka and then get off at the Zwierzyniec stop at the zoo. The train runs on the hour during the week and then every half hour on the weekends. Tickets for the four of us were 25 PLN ($6.50 USD).
Poznan New Zoo & Rope Adventure Park
It seems like almost every city we visited in Poland had their own zoo. Poznan was no different, but it actually has two zoos – the ‘New Zoo’ and the ‘Old Zoo.’ We decided to go to the New Zoo as it had a bit better reviews. The zoo was well put together and provided many natural and large enclosures for the 2000+ animals on 116 hectares. On the same hand though, it made for lots of walking for the kids. We were glad we brought the stroller for the kids to take turns, but there is also a motorized tram within the zoo that can take you from one stop to another. We ended up taking the tram through one long section. It was a good reprieve for our feet, but we couldn’t really see many animals as we rode in that particular section, as it was in a forested area.
However, they had a large variety of animals including tigers, flamingos, African elephants, tapirs, giraffes, kangaroos and more! Our favorite was the red panda. We were lucky enough to see the feeding happen that afternoon. There were very tall trees within the enclosure and one panda had to climb all the way down from the top to get dinner. Then the other red panda must love bananas as he came over to snatch the banana from that guy and then escaped up another tree to eat it in silence. I guess no different than children at times.
The New Zoo also has a Rope Adventure Park. It is an extra cost of 18 PLN/child (approx. $5 USD), in addition to the zoo entrance fee (45 PLN/family - about $12 USD), but it ended up being worth every penny as the kids had an absolute blast here! They climbed, crawled, jumped and ziplined through the course – probably about 10 times! The next day Connor was asking to go back to the zoo, but mostly just for the Rope Course!
Ski Malta Amusement Park & Mountain Coaster
Ski Malta is a little ski hill located just off the shoreline of Lake Malta. During the winter there is a little ski hill; and in the summer they have a mini amusement park, including a toboggan run and mountain coaster. Anyone older then 3 years old can ride in doubles with an adult and it was so affordable to do. When we had driven through Vail, CO earlier this year it was almost $40 per ride for an adult and child. Here it was only $2.60 (12 PLN) per person per ride! The coaster and toboggan ran on separate tracks, but were similar in that you were taken to the top and then you started your descent down, controlling how fast you were going by using the brakes on the side or centre of the sled. My favorite part was Clara exclaiming, “This is so scary…..but so fun at the same time.” A great lesson in the fun that can be had if you try new things!
The park also operated an old carousel swing ride, which also cost $2.60, but riders had to be over 6 years old, so Connor wasn’t able to ride. However, Clara loved it as well. Later we came upon these cool motorized diggers that only cost 4 PLN (about $1 USD) for 2 minutes of being able to control the digger and scooping up loads of rocks and dumping them. What would have easily costed us over $100 USD for the day, was only $35 USD!
Termy Maltanskie AquaPark
All four of us had a blast at this waterpark in Poznan. The waterpark was massive and had both inside and outside components. There were some kid pools, a wave pool, lazy river and a whole assortment of slides (about 6) on the inside, as well as 4 additional outdoor only slides, a couple of outdoor pools (which both connected to the lazy river on the inside of the building), a splash park and an inflatable obstacle course.
You could purchase admission by the hour (1, 2 or 3 hrs) or buy all day access pass. We ended up purchasing the 3-hour pass, as I had to get back for work by a certain time; however, we could have easily spent all day there. You have to be super careful though that you are out of the locker room by the end of the 3 hours otherwise you can’t exit until you pay the late charge by the minute.
The signs were all in Polish, but I think we eventually figured out that some of them said you need to be 6 or 8 years old to go on them. However, we never had any problems with our kids (4 and 7 years old) going on them. However, there were a couple of slides that we later found out you had to be 12+ to go on them; not realizing it, we sent our kids down them (with us there to catch them at the bottom). The Polish lifeguard at the bottom, didn’t like that and we got a good Polish yelling at! However, the other ones that said 8 years old it didn’t seem to matter. A couple of the other slides that the kids couldn’t go on were these large wide slides that groups of people would go on all at once and slide down together – it was pretty interesting. However, they were only open for about 12 minutes at a time only 1-2 times per hour.
Rogalowe Crossaint Museum
Not far from our Airbnb and just across the square from the Town Hall with the fighting goats, was the Rogalowe Croissant Museum. The kids love croissants and baking, so I thought this would be a good activity for us to do while Alex was away to get the rental car for the day. It’s not a museum in the traditional sense, but rather it is a demonstrative show where they show how they make the infamous St. Marten’s Croissants. The hosts were entertaining and did share some interesting facts about Poznan, including that people of Poznan have their own dialect of Polish and they are known to be frugal. The St. Marten’s Croissants are a type of croissant that are specialized to this region of Poznan; in fact, you have to get certified to be able to sell ‘official St. Marten croissants’. They are filled with a special paste of almond extract, sesame seeds, peanuts, cookie crumbs and raisins. Then the top is filled is covered with icing, peanuts and cookie crumbs. They also have to be shaped like a horseshoe and weigh between 150-250 grams to be considered ‘official.’
Our demonstration was an English only show that lasted about 1 hour. There were just two other couples and the kids and I there, so we each were able to do a step of making of the croissants. Clara helped knead the dough, Connor pounded it to get the gases out and I added some filling to the croissants. At the end we were all given a small slice of the croissant to taste.
They were very tasty, but the kids thought they were going to be able to make their own croissants, so they were a little disappointed that they didn’t get to do more.
While Poznan wasn’t initially on our radar of places to visit in Poland, we’re glad that we did, as it ended up having lots of FUN and interesting activities to do with kids!
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