Family friendly activities

Explore Tartu: Family-Friendly Activities During FOSS4GE 2024!

Uncover the charm of Tartu beyond the conference halls with a plethora of family-friendly adventures awaiting you. Whether you’re looking to immerse your loved ones in culture, nature, or simply seeking some wholesome fun, Tartu offers a wealth of activities to suit all ages and interests.

Discover our curated selection of attractions and experiences that promise to make your FOSS4GE 2024 journey unforgettable for the whole family!

AHHAA Science Center

Source: AHHAA Science Centre

Source: AHHAA Science Centre

The AHHAA Science Centre offers science, excitement, adventure, and fun for visitors of all ages. In the AHHAA building in the centre of Tartu, you can see and try out exhibits, take part in film screenings in the unique spherical planetarium and watch science theatre performances. It is an attractive learning environment where you are bound to learn something new. Most of the exhibits are 'hands-on', so you can try everything yourself.

Address: Sadama 1, Tartu ( openstreetmap, googlemaps )

Ice Age Center

Source: Ice Age Centre

Source: Ice Age Centre

The Ice Age Centre is an exciting theme park 20 min drive away from Tartu that explores what life was like after the last ice age. The prominent features of the theme park are the mammoths that lived 10,000 years ago. Get in touch with how life on Earth has developed during the millennia. Is there going to be a new ice age in the future? The exhibition offers an overview of the causes of the ice age and its impact on Earth, introduces the development story of Estonian nature and human settlement, the causes and research of climate change, and the vision of liveable environments in the future.

Address: Saadjärve 20, Äksi ( openstreetmap, googlemaps )

Upside-down House

Source: Upside Down House

Source: Upside Down House

The Upside Down House is located 2 km from Tartu city centre. It is a dizzying adventure for everybody - grown-ups and children. They literally have turned the house upside down. Upstairs is downstairs and vice versa. All the things like sofas, kitchen cabinets and everything else, that you usually see on the floor, hang from the ceiling in the Upside Down House. Actually, they are still on the floor, but the floor is the ceiling and the ceiling is the floor and as a matter of fact, it is you, who is upside down.

Address: Roosi 86, Tartu ( openstreetmap, googlemaps )

Estonian National Museum

Source: Tanel Kindsigo

Source: Tanel Kindsigo

The Estonian National Museum is located right next to the Upside Down House. It is the largest museum in Estonia with nearly 6,000 m² of exhibition space and has exhibits showcasing the everyday life of Estonians throughout history at the permanent exhibition ‘Encounters’. The museum experience is complemented by temporary exhibitions. There is a restaurant and a museum shop. The outdoor areas of the museum are perfect to have a rest and a picnic. There is also a romantic rotunda and a glass-roofed distillery on the shores of Lake Raadi.

Address: Muuseumi tee 2, Tartu ( openstreetmap, googlemaps )

Estonian Sports and Olympic Museum

Source: Estonian Sports and Olympic Museum

Source: Estonian Sports and Olympic Museum

The Estonian Sports and Olympic Museum offers a lot of knowledge and activities for sports fans of all ages! The permanent exhibition "History of Estonian Sports" honestly and attractively opens the most interesting moments of our sports history – from big victories to painful losses, from heroic deeds to doping dramas. The magnificent Estonian Sports Hall of Fame presents the achievements of our sports legends.

Address: Rüütli 15, Tartu ( openstreetmap, googlemaps )

Tartu Toy Museum

Source: Silja Järv

Source: Silja Järv

Tartu Toy Museum, situated in the Old Town of Tartu, takes adults back to the brighter days of their childhood and offers children plenty of interesting things to see and do. The permanent exhibition displays toys that Estonian children have played with throughout the years. Artist-made dolls, souvenir dolls of different nations, and Finno-Ugric traditional toys are also exhibited. Playrooms and workshops are also open. You can see puppets from Estonian puppet films and temporary exhibitions in the outbuilding. The museum also has a theatre building named "Teatri kodu" (The Home of Theatre) with a theatre hall, a museum of puppets, and a children’s studio.

Address: Lutsu 8, Tartu ( openstreetmap, googlemaps )

Department of Geography,
University of Tartu

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