Tourismus NRW
Station on trail "Waldfeenpfad", Brilon, © Tourismus NRW

Off to new ad­ven­tures!


Great en­joy­ment even for the young­est ones

These family excursion destinations invite to new explorations and exciting adventures: caves permit a trip into subterranean worlds of magic, while at the same time constituting a brief visit into Earth’s past. Human-made underground worlds can be examined in the collieries, mines, and ironworks where families are illustratively shown what work in the mine used to look like. Farms give even young children a choice between working in the stable with cows and rabbits or action in the play shed. Beyond that, there is plenty of entertainment with animals, some of them even in the wild, where wild horses, Arctic wild geese, and bison can be found. Land and water animals from around the world can be watched up close in zoos and zoological gardens. Those out on adventure hikes by bike or on foot will find thrilling adventures and special opportunities to play wild along the path. Even bad weather will not stop the young explorers. A number of hands-on museums offer (natural) sciences to try out and history close enough to touch.

  • Bäume, © Tourismus NRW e.V.
  • Affe, © Tourismus NRW e.V.
  • Urban microadventurers, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Ac­tion

Run­ning, cyc­ling, jump­ing, play­ing wild, or hik­ing: chil­dren and adults can ex­plore the most beau­ti­ful patch of nature in North Rhine-West­phalia in some very dif­fer­ent man­ners, just as they like it.

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Eifel National Park, child looking through binoculars with ranger , © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Hik­ing with chil­dren

Wheth­er on nature ad­ven­ture trails, a guided tour with en­joy­able puzzles, or an­im­al com­pan­ions right by their side: NRW has great ad­ven­tures to of­fer to young hikers. The chil­dren’s hik­ing trails are no less en­joy­able for adults, how­ever, of­fer­ing great ex­per­i­ences for the en­tire fam­ily.
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BWS, Patrick Gawandtka
The PanoramaRadweg niederbergbahn, © BWS, Patrick Gawandtka

Cyc­ling with chil­dren

Away from busy roads, fam­ily cyc­ling tours lead through a vari­ety of land­scapes. Not only is there plenty to see along the way, but ex­cit­ing ad­ven­tures and ad­di­tion­al op­por­tun­it­ies to let off steam are wait­ing for you as well.
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An­im­als

Li­on or llama? Ko­ala or cow? NRW of­fers many an­im­al en­coun­ters, in the zoos and zo­olo­gic­al gar­dens as well as on farms or in nature.

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Dülmen wild horses herd, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Wild an­im­als

Ex­per­i­en­cing wild an­im­als in their nat­ur­al hab­it­ats is one of the most beau­ti­ful things. NRW of­fers some places where you can meet wild horses, arc­tic wild geese, or im­press­ive bison if you are just a little lucky. Let us tell you where to find these wild an­im­als.
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ZOOM Erlebniswelt
Zoom Erlebniswelt, Californian sea lion, © ZOOM Erlebniswelt

Zoos and zo­olo­gic­al parks

Wheth­er clas­sic zoos with an­im­als from around the world, wild­life parks with nat­ive spe­cies, or aqua parks that take vis­it­ors on jour­neys in­to the world of aquat­ic an­im­als: every single zoo in North Rhine-West­phalia houses some very spe­cial high­lights.
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Gertrudenhof
Pig at the Gertrudenhof, © Gertrudenhof

Hol­i­days on the Farm

Help­ing out in the barn, play­ing wild in the play shed, or en­joy­ing coun­try life even overnight – NRW has a num­ber of farms that of­fer a choice of op­tions to en­joy life on the farm. All of them are worth­while and en­joy­able des­tin­a­tions. Find an over­view of some spe­cial of­fers con­nec­ted to life in the coun­tryside be­low.
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Ad­ven­tures

Ex­cur­sions in­to caves, col­lier­ies, mines, and iron­works or to one of a num­ber of dif­fer­ent hands-on mu­seums of­fer in­ter­est­ing facts to try out and his­tory to touch.

Stadt Bochum, Planetarium
Planetarium Bochum, 50 Years of the Moon Landing 2019, © Stadt Bochum, Planetarium

Mu­seums for chil­dren

Even bad weath­er will not stop ex­plorers of any age group in NRW. When the swim­ming lake or ski­ing slope are not par­tic­u­larly in­vit­ing, the pyr­am­ids or the plan­et­ari­um beck­on all the harder.
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Björn Salgert
The Stock and Scherenberger Erbstollen in Spockhövel, © Björn Salgert

Caves, Tun­nels, and Min­ing Gal­ler­ies

A long, long time ago, North Rhine-West­phalia was an enorm­ous sea. Min­ing came many mil­lions of years later. To this day, there are many caves, tun­nels, and min­ing gal­ler­ies that can take you on a trip in­to the un­der­world.
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Phantasialand
Roller coaster in the themed world "Rookburgh" in Phantasialand , © Phantasialand

Amuse­ment parks

NRW’s amuse­ment parks of­fer plenty of show, ac­tion, and thrill with roller coast­ers, wa­ter slides, or chairo­planes. The young­est fam­ily mem­bers can en­joy some less rap­id rides, too.
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Johannes Höhn
The Zollverein Colliery Shaft, © Johannes Höhn

Col­lier­ies, mines, and iron­works

Min­ing has a long tra­di­tion in North Rhine-West­phalia. Fam­il­ies can ex­per­i­ence the sweaty un­der­ground work up close and see what used to be brought to light in an ex­cur­sion in­to col­lier­ies, mines, and iron­works.
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