Palaces and paintings can only hold small attention spans for so long — happily, Vienna is a wonderfully child-friendly city. Kids can ride the Prater's funfair and giant Ferris wheel, meet pandas at the world's oldest zoo in the Schönbrunn gardens, climb a flak-tower aquarium, get hands-on in brilliant science and children's museums, and run wild on the car-free Danube Island. Here are the best family outings, with suggested ages, prices and practical tips — and several are free or free for under-19s.
Park free; rides €2–10Prater & the Giant Ferris Wheel
Area
Leopoldstadt (2nd)
Ages
All ages
“The park is free; kids love the funfair rides, and the Liliputbahn miniature railway chugs through the green Prater to the planetarium.”
€25 (children less)Schönbrunn Zoo (Tiergarten)
Area
Hietzing (13th)
Ages
All ages
“The world's oldest zoo (1752) is home to giant pandas, elephants and a polar-bear enclosure — combine it with the Schönbrunn gardens.”
€22.90 (children less)Haus des Meeres (Aqua Terra Zoo)
Area
Mariahilf (6th)
Ages
All ages
“An aquarium and tropical house inside a WWII flak tower — 10,000 creatures over 11 floors, plus a rooftop café with a great city view.”
€16 (under-19s free)Technisches Museum Wien
Area
Penzing (14th)
Ages
5+ years
“Hands-on science and technology across huge halls — trains, planes, a mine and a brilliant children's zone; under-19s go free.”
From €5ZOOM Kindermuseum
Area
Neubau (7th)
Ages
0–14 years
“A brilliant hands-on children's museum inside the MuseumsQuartier — book timed sessions in advance, they sell out, and note age-specific areas.”
€16 (under-19s free)Natural History Museum (with kids)
Area
Innere Stadt (1st)
Ages
5+ years
“Dinosaur skeletons, an animatronic Allosaurus, a huge meteorite hall and a digital planetarium make this a kid-pleaser; under-19s free.”
FreeDonauinsel
Area
Danube Island
Ages
All ages
“A 21-km recreation island in the Danube with bike paths, playgrounds, shallow swimming spots and summer beach bars — free and great for burning energy.”
From ~€25Madame Tussauds Vienna
Area
Prater (2nd)
Ages
6+ years
“In the Prater funfair — wax figures of Mozart, Sisi, Klimt and global stars; buy online for cheaper tickets and combine with the Ferris wheel.”
Vienna with kids in detail
1.Prater & the Giant Ferris Wheel
The Prater is the number-one destination in Vienna for a fun family day out, a huge and historic park that combines a free-to-enter funfair with vast green spaces, and it keeps children of all ages happily occupied for hours. The Wurstelprater funfair section is the immediate draw for kids: a sprawling, old-fashioned amusement park with more than 250 attractions, from gentle carousels, teacups, bumper cars, a ghost train and merry-go-rounds for little ones to bigger roller coasters, drop towers, swing rides and thrill machines for older children and teenagers, all charged individually so you pay only for what you ride. Presiding over it all is the famous Giant Ferris Wheel, whose slow, gentle rotation in enclosed cabins is exciting yet safe even for the youngest, offering a memorable view over the city. Beyond the rides, the Prater's enormous green expanse is perfect for families who want to picnic, cycle, scoot or simply let off steam, and children love the Liliputbahn, a charming narrow-gauge miniature steam-and-diesel railway that trundles through the parkland to the planetarium and back. There are plenty of ice-cream stands, sausage stalls and kid-friendly eateries dotted about, plus a Madame Tussauds and other indoor attractions for a change of pace. Free to enter and open around the clock, wonderfully varied and easy to reach on the U1 or U2 metro to Praterstern, the Prater is the ideal antidote to museum fatigue and a place the whole family will enjoy, whether you spend a couple of hours on the rides or a whole day mixing thrills with green-space relaxation.
Hours
Park always open; funfair rides ~10:00–24:00 (Mar–Oct)
Price
Park free; individual rides €2–10; Ferris wheel €14 (children less)
Getting there
U1/U2 to Praterstern, at the funfair entrance
Insider tip: The park is free; kids love the funfair rides, and the Liliputbahn miniature railway chugs through the green Prater to the planetarium.
2.Schönbrunn Zoo (Tiergarten)
Tiergarten Schönbrunn holds the remarkable distinction of being the oldest zoo in the world, founded in 1752 as an imperial menagerie in the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace, and it has evolved into a modern, highly regarded and beautifully set zoo that is one of Vienna's very best attractions for families. Its historic Baroque heart — an octagonal imperial breakfast pavilion around which the original animal enclosures radiate — has been preserved and integrated into a contemporary facility that consistently ranks among the finest zoos in Europe, combining charm with high standards of animal care and conservation. The collection is wonderfully varied and includes real crowd-pleasers guaranteed to thrill children: giant pandas (the zoo has had notable breeding success), Asian elephants, big cats, a large and impressive polar-bear enclosure, penguins, a walk-through rainforest house dripping with humidity and exotic birds, an aquarium, an Arctic zone and a petting area with farm animals. Set within the glorious Schönbrunn gardens, a visit combines naturally with exploring the palace grounds, the Palm House and the hilltop Gloriette, making for a full and rewarding day out, and there are cafés and picnic spots throughout. Paths are pushchair-friendly and the whole site is well organised for families. Reached easily on the U4 metro, it does involve a fair amount of walking to see everything, so allow a good half-day and wear comfortable shoes. Educational, enchanting and set in one of the city's most beautiful spots, Schönbrunn Zoo is an essential and memorable outing for families visiting Vienna with children of any age.
Hours
Daily from 09:00 (closing 16:30–18:30 by season)
Price
Adults €25; children ~€12; family tickets available
Getting there
U4 to Hietzing or Schönbrunn, then a walk through the palace gardens
Insider tip: The world's oldest zoo (1752) is home to giant pandas, elephants and a polar-bear enclosure — combine it with the Schönbrunn gardens.
3.Haus des Meeres (Aqua Terra Zoo)
The Haus des Meeres is one of Vienna's most unusual and popular family attractions, an aquarium and small zoo ingeniously housed within a colossal Second World War anti-aircraft flak tower in the Esterházypark, its grim concrete bulk (deliberately left as a memorial, with an anti-war art installation on its flank) transformed into eleven floors of aquatic and tropical life. This vertical layout gives it a distinctive character: visitors climb through the tower discovering, at each level, tanks and habitats home to some 10,000 animals, from sharks, rays and turtles in large ocean tanks to colourful coral-reef fish, seahorses, piranhas, crocodiles and a huge variety of marine creatures, alongside reptiles, amphibians and insects. A particular highlight for children is the tropical house, a warm, humid walk-through jungle where free-flying birds, bats and monkeys move among the visitors, and the 'Crocodile Park'. The whole experience is compact, engaging and well suited to a couple of hours, making it an excellent rainy-day or indoor option and a great way to keep younger children entertained. A real bonus sits at the very top: a café and terrace on the roof of the tower offering panoramic views across the rooftops of Vienna, a lovely place to rest and refuel with the city spread out below. Centrally located in the lively 6th district near Mariahilfer Strasse and easy to reach by metro, the Haus des Meeres is a reliably enjoyable, educational and weatherproof outing that children love, and the flak-tower setting gives it a memorable, only-in-Vienna twist that adults appreciate too.
Hours
Daily 09:00–20:00 (Thu until 21:00)
Price
Adults €22.90; children ~€10.50; family tickets available
Getting there
U3 to Neubaugasse, short walk to Esterházypark; buses 13A/14A
Insider tip: An aquarium and tropical house inside a WWII flak tower — 10,000 creatures over 11 floors, plus a rooftop café with a great city view.
4.Technisches Museum Wien
The Technisches Museum Wien is a superb, sprawling museum of science, technology and industry that is one of the best indoor attractions in Vienna for families with school-age children, combining a serious and comprehensive collection with a strongly interactive, hands-on approach that keeps kids genuinely engaged for hours. Housed in a grand purpose-built hall near Schönbrunn, it spreads across several vast floors covering the whole span of human ingenuity: full-size locomotives, aircraft, vintage cars and industrial machinery fill the great halls; there are extensive sections on energy, physics, musical instruments, heavy industry, transport, computing and everyday life through the ages, including a reconstructed coal mine you can walk through. Crucially for families, the museum is packed with interactive experiments and demonstrations — pull levers, push buttons, conduct physics experiments, generate electricity, explore optical illusions — that turn learning into play, and there is a dedicated hands-on children's area, 'mini' and 'Das mini' zones, designed for younger visitors to explore mechanical and scientific concepts through touch and games. Live demonstrations, including a high-voltage electricity show, add drama. The scale means there is easily a half-day's worth to see, and the interactive nature makes it appealing across a wide age range, while adults find plenty of genuine historical and technical interest too. A big practical bonus for families is that entry is free for everyone under nineteen, making it excellent value. Located near Schönbrunn and easily reached by metro and tram, the Technisches Museum is an ideal, weatherproof, educational and entertaining outing that lets curious children learn by doing.
Hours
Tue–Fri 09:00–18:00, Sat–Sun 10:00–18:00; closed Mon
Price
Adults €16; under-19s free
Getting there
U4 to Schönbrunn then tram 52/60, or U3 to Johnstrasse; near Schönbrunn Palace
Insider tip: Hands-on science and technology across huge halls — trains, planes, a mine and a brilliant children's zone; under-19s go free.
5.ZOOM Kindermuseum
ZOOM Kindermuseum is a wonderful, imaginative children's museum in the heart of the MuseumsQuartier, designed specifically for young children from babies up to the age of fourteen, and built entirely around the idea of hands-on, playful, sensory learning rather than looking at exhibits behind glass. It is divided into distinct areas tailored to different ages and interests. The 'ZOOM Ocean' is a magical, imaginative play landscape for the very youngest (roughly under eight), a soft, colourful underwater-themed world of tunnels, water play, a boat, sensory nooks and a toddler area where little ones explore, climb and pretend. The 'ZOOM Studio' is a creative art workshop where children get messy making and building with real materials and guidance. The 'ZOOM Lab' offers science and discovery activities for older kids, and the 'ZOOM Animated Film Studio' lets children actually create their own short animated films, from developing characters to shooting stop-motion, a genuinely exciting activity that older children love. Sessions are timed and themed, staffed by facilitators, and because capacity is limited and the museum is deservedly popular, especially at weekends and in holidays, advance booking is strongly recommended and often essential. It is aimed squarely at children — adults are there to accompany and enable rather than as the audience — so it is best for those actually travelling with kids rather than general visitors. Set within the buzzing, family-friendly MuseumsQuartier with its open courtyards and cafés, ZOOM is an inspired, creative and thoroughly engaging indoor outing that sparks imagination and gives young children a hands-on highlight of a Vienna trip.
Hours
Tue–Sun & holidays, timed sessions (closed Mon); book ahead
Price
From ~€5 per activity/session; adults sometimes free
Getting there
U2 to Museumsquartier or U3 to Volkstheater, within the MQ complex
Insider tip: A brilliant hands-on children's museum inside the MuseumsQuartier — book timed sessions in advance, they sell out, and note age-specific areas.
6.Natural History Museum (with kids)
While the Natural History Museum is a world-class collection that adults will love, it is also one of the most reliably kid-pleasing museums in Vienna, and the fact that entry is free for everyone under nineteen makes it superb value for families. For children, the immediate magnets are the dinosaurs: a hall of towering fossil skeletons, casts and, delighting younger visitors, a life-sized animatronic Allosaurus that moves and roars, bringing the prehistoric world vividly to life. Beyond the dinosaurs, the museum is packed with things to captivate young minds — a spectacular hall of glittering minerals, gemstones and one of the world's most important meteorite collections (including pieces you can touch and dramatic stories of impacts), extensive zoological galleries filled with animals from across the globe, a section on human evolution and prehistory that houses the famous little 'Venus of Willendorf', and displays on the deep sea, insects and the natural world. The building itself, with its grand frescoed halls, sweeping staircase and domed café, adds a sense of occasion. A particular highlight for families is the digital planetarium, whose immersive shows about space and the universe (some aimed at children) are a magical experience worth the small extra ticket. There are enough interactive elements, spectacular specimens and sheer variety to keep children engaged for a good half-day, with a café for breaks. Centrally located on the Ring opposite its art-museum twin and easy to reach, family-friendly and free for under-19s, the Natural History Museum is a brilliant, educational and weatherproof outing that entertains and inspires children while giving parents a genuinely great museum to enjoy too.
Hours
Thu–Mon 09:00–18:00, Wed until 20:00; closed Tue
Price
Adults €16; under-19s free; planetarium extra
Getting there
U2 to Museumsquartier or U3 to Volkstheater; on the Ring at Maria-Theresien-Platz
Insider tip: Dinosaur skeletons, an animatronic Allosaurus, a huge meteorite hall and a digital planetarium make this a kid-pleaser; under-19s free.
7.Donauinsel
The Donauinsel ('Danube Island') is Vienna's great outdoor playground, a remarkable 21-kilometre-long, narrow artificial island running down the middle of the Danube — originally created as flood protection — that has become the city's favourite place to swim, cycle, play and relax in the warm months, and a fantastic, free destination for active families. Entirely car-free and given over to recreation, the island is laced with flat, traffic-free paths ideal for cycling, scooting, skating and running with children, and it is dotted with playgrounds, open lawns and picnic spots where kids can run wild safely. Its long shorelines along the calm side-arm of the river (the Neue Donau) offer gentle, shallow, grassy and pebbly spots for paddling and swimming that are popular with local families in summer, effectively giving landlocked Vienna its own freshwater beaches, complete with lifeguarded areas in places. In the summer season the island buzzes with beach bars, cafés, ice-cream stands, boat, pedalo, kayak and bike rentals, and there are dedicated zones for various activities; it is also the site of the enormous free Donauinselfest music festival each June. The combination of water, green space, safe car-free paths, playgrounds and relaxed beach-bar atmosphere makes it perfect for families wanting to escape the city's stone and crowds for an afternoon of fresh air and activity, especially on a hot day. Free to enter and easily reached by several metro lines that stop right on the island, the Donauinsel is a brilliant, healthy and enjoyable outdoor outing that lets children burn off energy while parents relax by the water.
Hours
Always open; beach bars and rentals seasonal (summer)
Price
Free; bike/boat rental extra
Getting there
U1 to Donauinsel or Kaisermühlen-VIC; U6 to Neue Donau
Insider tip: A 21-km recreation island in the Danube with bike paths, playgrounds, shallow swimming spots and summer beach bars — free and great for burning energy.
8.Madame Tussauds Vienna
Madame Tussauds Vienna brings the world-famous wax-museum brand to the Prater funfair, offering a fun, light-hearted and photo-friendly indoor attraction that entertains families, tweens, teenagers and celebrity-spotters, and makes an easy add-on to a day at the Prater. Spread across themed zones, it presents dozens of remarkably lifelike wax figures that you can walk right up to, pose with and photograph freely, giving children and adults alike the thrill of 'meeting' famous faces. The Vienna edition leans nicely into local heritage alongside the international line-up: expect to encounter Austrian icons such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the beloved Empress 'Sisi' and Emperor Franz Joseph, the painter Gustav Klimt, composers and other national figures, presented in settings that nod to the city's imperial and cultural history, which adds an educational, distinctly Viennese flavour that visitors appreciate. These sit alongside the usual crowd-pleasing gallery of global superstars — Hollywood actors, pop and sports stars, world leaders and historical figures — arranged in interactive, sometimes playful scenes designed for great photos. The experience is compact, taking around an hour and a half, and its interactive, hands-on, photo-centric nature makes it especially appealing to children from around six upwards and to teenagers. As an indoor attraction it is a good rainy-day option and, being located right in the Wurstelprater, it combines naturally with the funfair rides and the Giant Ferris Wheel for a full day of family fun. Buying tickets online in advance is noticeably cheaper than at the door, and combination tickets with other Prater attractions can offer good value. For families wanting a fun, undemanding and Instagram-friendly break with a Viennese celebrity twist, Madame Tussauds delivers.
Hours
Daily 10:00–18:00 (later in summer)
Price
From ~€25 (cheaper online); children less; combo tickets available
Getting there
U1/U2 to Praterstern, in the Wurstelprater funfair
Insider tip: In the Prater funfair — wax figures of Mozart, Sisi, Klimt and global stars; buy online for cheaper tickets and combine with the Ferris wheel.