Strasbourg with Kids: What Actually Works, by Age

Strasbourg is an easy city with a family, for a reason nobody says often enough: the city museums are free for under 18s. Not half price, free.

Add a fully pedestrian centre where everything is within walking distance, a simple tram network, and a science centre that fills an entire half day, and you have a destination that forgives a lot.

What it does not forgive is transplanting the adult itinerary onto a family day and hoping it holds. Here is what actually works.

The rule that changes the budget

An adult ticket for the city museums is €9, reduced €5, and entry is free for under 18s. For two adults and two children, a museum costs eighteen euros rather than thirty six.

Two dates to remember: they close on Tuesdays, and they are free for everyone the first Sunday of every month.

The Strasbourg City Card, at €5 for an adult and €3.50 for a child, valid 7 days, gives 20 to 50% off the boat trip, the tourist train and Le Vaisseau. As a family over two days, it almost always pays for itself.

The four safe bets

Le Vaisseau, the outing that saves a day

This is the place to know about, and it earns its reputation. A science discovery centre built entirely for three to twelve year olds, where everything is touched and handled, at 1 bis rue Philippe Dollinger.

Tickets are a flat per person price, the same for adults and children, free for under threes, and there are family tickets for four to seven people that bring the unit price down. It is not a museum where adults pay and children come free, so budget for everyone.

It closes one day a week and has an annual closure in winter, which catches out families travelling in January. Check the calendar before you build a day around it.

Allow two to three hours, and honestly closer to three with children who take to it. Tram C or E to Winston Churchill, then five minutes on foot along the quai des Alpes.

The planetarium, for older ones

An immersive dome show at the university's Jardin des sciences, suitable from about four upwards. The show runs three quarters of an hour to an hour, and allow an hour and a half on site if you add the historic dome.

There are reduced and family rates, which make it one of the cheaper afternoons in the city.

Watch the opening days, which are the real trap: outside the school holidays it only opens to individual visitors on a few days a week, and it switches to a much wider timetable during the local school holidays. Booking online is strongly advised either way.

Tram C, E or F, stop Université.

The zoological museum

Reopened and modernised, at 29 boulevard de la Victoire, it works from about five or six upwards with its big display cases of wildlife from around the world. It is a city museum, so €9 for an adult and free for under 18s.

That makes it the best interest to price ratio in the city for a family, and it is a minute from the planetarium, so the two combine neatly into half a day.

One habit worth acquiring, and it applies to every city museum: beyond the on Tuesdays closure, they also shut occasionally, for a few days to a few weeks, for maintenance or to install an exhibition. It happened to the zoological museum in September 2026. A look at musees.strasbourg.eu the night before saves a disappointment with tired children.

The boat trip on the Ill

A little over an hour sitting down, warm, with commentary and scenery going past. For a child who has had enough of walking, it is a rest disguised as an activity.

The boats are covered, which also makes this the emergency plan when it rains.

The free things that work

The Orangerie park

The largest park in the city, free and always open, with white storks nesting in the open in the trees and on the surrounding roofs. You see them all year, and the best moments are March and April for the bill clattering, then late April and May for the chicks.

The rest fills a late afternoon easily: rowing boats on the lake, a circuit of small vintage cars, several playgrounds split by age group, and a bowling alley.

Beware a common confusion: the Orangerie zoo closed permanently on 6 August 2022, and the old mini farm no longer exists either. Plenty of pages online still advertise enclosures open daily and a mini farm for a euro. That is simply untrue.

The site has become L'Arche de l'Orangerie. Since 28 February 2026 the old mini farm has housed MICADO, a centre for learning about animal behaviour run by the Ethosph'R association, which takes in rehabilitated laboratory animals: miniature pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats and hens.

You do not go in to stroke the animals but to learn to read their behaviour, and above all there is no drop in visiting: access is by booking only, generally on the first Sunday and the third Wednesday of the month, through sortiesnature.org. A wildlife care centre run by the LPO is due to open in the old zoo around 2027.

In short, come for the park, the storks and the rowing boats, which ask nothing of you. If MICADO interests you, book ahead, otherwise you will find the door shut.

Tram E, stop Droits de l'Homme.

The Vauban dam terrace

Free, with the best overall view of La Petite France, and a staircase children reliably enjoy. Five minutes of your time, a large effect.

The Ponts Couverts and the quays

Walking beside the water, watching the boats go under the bridges, counting storks on the roofs. It costs nothing and it occupies children for surprisingly long.

The little tourist train, yes or no?

Yes, with young children or tired legs. It is short, it is seated, it loops the Grande Île, and it heads off a meltdown at four in the afternoon.

No if your children are over ten and walk willingly: the same route on foot is more interesting.

When it rains

Strasbourg copes very well, which is reassuring when you are travelling with children.

The eight Eurométropole swimming pools charge a single low flat rate, with a much cheaper children's ticket, an almost nominal one for toddlers, and a ten entry card valid for a year across all of them. Several have shallow play pools suited to small children.

On top of that come the toy libraries and the public libraries, where you play and read on the spot, and the cinemas in the centre for screenings in French.

Le Vaisseau, the planetarium and the zoological museum are obviously the first answers to a wet day. The adult version of the rain programme is in Strasbourg in the rain.

A sample day with children

• 9.30am: the cathedral, twenty minutes, no more. Show them the astronomical clock and the great organ, then leave before boredom sets in.
• 10.15am: the lanes towards La Petite France, playing spot the wrought iron shop sign and the storks on the roofs.
• 11.15am: the Vauban dam terrace, the view, the staircase.
• 12.30pm: an early lunch. That is rule number one for families in this city.
• 2.30pm: Le Vaisseau, or the zoological museum and the planetarium if you would rather stay near the centre.
• 5.30pm: the boat trip, or the Orangerie park if the weather is good.

One day, one big activity. That is the format that holds. Two big activities and a six year old makes for a difficult evening.

The five traps

• The cathedral platform. 332 spiral steps, no lift. Over eight and with a motivated child, excellent. Below that, it is a bad memory at €8 per adult.
• Closing days. The city museums close on Tuesdays and Le Vaisseau has its own weekly closure, which do not fall on the same day. Check both before you commit a morning.
• Lunch at 1.30pm. Winstubs fill early and serve in tight windows. With children, aim for midday.
• The cobbles. The whole Grande Île is cobbled, and a pushchair with small wheels is agony on it. Prefer a carrier for toddlers.
• Two museums in a row. No child tolerates it, and you will not enjoy them either.

By age

• Under 3: the Orangerie park and its storks, the rowing boats, the quays, the boat trip. Le Vaisseau admits them free but the exhibits are aimed higher.
• 3 to 6: Le Vaisseau, the tourist train, the boat trip, a swimming pool, the rowing boats at the Orangerie.
• 6 to 11: Le Vaisseau and the zoological museum first, then the planetarium and the platform if the child is keen.
• Teenagers: the planetarium, the modern art museum, the Neustadt, and a full day excursion. What is actually reachable without a car is in three days in Strasbourg.

And in December

The Christmas market with children is a subject of its own, with its carousels, its workshops and its quiet space. The markets run late November to 24 December, usually 11.30am to 9pm, and our Christmas section covers them.

Preparing the rest

Our one day itinerary is the adult version of the same route, two days in Strasbourg has a family variant, and things to do in Strasbourg is the full inventory.

Sources: levaisseau.com for opening days, visit length and family tickets; the Jardin des sciences at the University of Strasbourg and culture.strasbourg.eu for the planetarium; musees.strasbourg.eu for the zoological museum and the general price list checked in August 2026; strasbourg.eu for the 2026 pool prices; strasbourg.eu pages on L'Arche de l'Orangerie and the mini farm becoming an animal behaviour centre, cross-checked with France 3 Grand Est and Pokaa, for the 2022 zoo closure and the February 2026 MICADO opening; Fondation de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame for the cathedral platform; Strasbourg tourist office for the City Card. Opening hours at Le Vaisseau and the planetarium change with the local school holidays: check before you travel.