Things to do with kids in Vilnius when its raining

I love Vilnius for there are so many fun things to do with kids. However the weather there can be totally unpredictable. You can go from summer to late autumn in just a couple of hours. So while there are many lovely parks and activities outdoors it’s always good to have a plan B for some indoor fun!

My 5 year old loves these five awesome places with fun things to do with kids in Vilnius:

ZOOPARK VILNIUS

If you’ve got kids who love animals (welcome to the club) head over to Zoopark Vilnius. Don’t expect to see elephants, giraffes and other large animals, because it’s an indoor place that houses over 80 different animal species from all over the world. They are all small. Think pygmy marmosets, rainbow lorikeets, meerkats, ring-tailed lemurs, capybaras and others… Although I had no idea some of them even existed let alone pronounce their names correctly I must say some of the habitants at this Zoopark are super cute.

The highlight for my daughter was the enclosure with guinea pigs and fluffy rabbits. What she enjoyed the most was feeding them.

However you can only do that if you purchase food from the counter, it was 2 euros per tiny bowl with rabbit food. Otherwise you are not even allowed to enter the enclosure. Same for parrots. You must buy their food before you enter.

As the rabbits were hungry and Thea super keen to feed them, I ended up paying almost 40 euros just for the two of us visiting.

TOYS MUSEUM

We loved the Toys Museum! It’s such a cozy place for children in Vilnius Old Town. Although called a museum it’s rather an edutainment centre where children are allowed to touch and experience the toys on displays.

I liked how they are protecting the original unique and old toys by still showcasing them and providing kids with the modern copies to play with. My favourite part was the area with the old toys and the ones that I played with when I was a kid. In fact Thea is playing with some of them.

For Thea the highlights were educational stations with plenty of participatory activities. She loved the giant mammoth, pulling strings that made wooden chicken eat their feed and also some game with little wooden balls.

Overall she loved it and I managed to convince her to leave just because the museum was closing.

The Toy Museum organises educational excursions themed around ancient dolls & the oldest Lithuanian toys which were popular in the Middle Ages as well as educational workshops for children called ‘The Young Archeologist’ and ‘Wax, the Gold of Lithuanian Woods’.

Overall I highly recommend this special edutainment space. Kids will have lots of fun while adults will take a delightful trip down memory lane.

Know before you go:

Location: Šiltadaržio st. 2, Old Town Vilnius

More information: www.zaislumuziejus.lt

FUTURE LIVE

Another fun place with plenty of digital things to do in Vilnius is Future Live interactive exhibition.

We laughed a lot. They use 3D mapping, virtual reality, various projections and other digital stuff I don’t know the name of.

This 560 m2 area is separated into several rooms. Thea loved the room with a giant screen where she had to fight aliens attempting to steal toys from a child’s room. Another highlight for her was ‘renovating’ the run down city. Basically you take a massive stick/brush and wipe it all over the screen. The areas you wipe become clean and this run down city turns into a beautiful one.

We both loved the swings towards a massive screen with changing displays. You get a feeling like flying over forests and the tops of high mountains.

And the best part? We had the entire area for ourselves! Maybe it’s more crowded on weekends, but the evening when we went was perfect.

As with most good places, leaving was the difficult part for Thea. Especially after having so much fun in the sandpit with a digital fish.

Although I think it is a bit overpriced for what it is I do recommend going there. It’s really fun. Thea was super happy and my inner child was happy too.

Know before you go:

• Location: CUP Shopping Mall, Upės st. 9. Entrance on the ground floor on the left side of the building.
• More Information: www.futurelive.lt

VILNIL MUSEUM OF ILLUSIONS

Vilnius Museum of Illusions is doing a good job with it’s SEO. They rank on the top of Google’s search so finding them while looking for things to do in Vilnius with kids was a no-brainer.

I am glad I did. Out of the two places with illusions that I am aware of, this was the first one that we went to. It is conveniently located in Vokieciu st., the heart of Vilnius Old Town.

We have only good things to say about it. I was positively surprised because before going I was rather sceptical. I checked their website in advance and didn’t really like it. However it’s way better in reality.

I loved the upside down living room and the illusion of water flowing out of the picture frame.

Thea loved most of the exhibits and especially the corner with the 1980’s style living room and an old TV showing old Russian cartoons that were very popular when I was a kid. As there were two armchairs she just sat down and chose to watch the cartoons.

We explored both storeys of the museum and liked how they have so many action oriented experiences. Writing on the wall with a digital light (don’t ask me how does that work) was another fun place for my daughter.

The place was empty, no queues, fun experiences so we had a blast and recommend it to you too!

Know before you go:

• Location: Vokieciu st. 8, Vilnius

• More information on museum, admission and opening hours: www.vilnil.lt (they’ve got English and Russian versions too).

ILLUSION ROOMS

While I had seen Vilnius Museum of Illusions being advertised in several places, I’ve never heard of Illusion Rooms before. 

I found it totally by accident and it turns out they are within walking distance from each other.

Although they both aim to trick your eyes and your mind, the exhibits are different and equally fun, so if you like these kind of things I recommend visiting both. 

One of the attractions that Thea loved in the Illusions Rooms was the Mirror Maze. It’s quite large  given the space. They hand out the gloves before you enter the maze, thus the mirrors are all clean. We’ve been to the Mirror Maze at Changi Airport in Singapore and the illusion was broken down because of the many fingerprints all over the place. 

I liked the upside down bathroom, Thea liked the Devil’s tunnel. All the other interactive experiences were interesting and fun too. 

Again we had the entire space for ourselves and the lady working there was amazing. She explained things, took the photos of us, showed us around and overall was such a sweetheart. 

I highly recommend paying it a visit. 

Know before you go:

Location: Gediminas ave. 2A, Vilnius (there is also one in Druskininkai)

More Information: www.illusions.lt

Have lots of indoor fun! If you know other great places with fun things to do with kids in Vilnius that are not listed above share in the comments below!

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