We’re not here for the beer: Fun things to do in Pilsen with kids

While most of us equate a long weekend in Pilsen, the birthplace of Czech liquid gold, with lifting a draft beer to the lips and repeating, the city has plenty to offer pint-sized visitors as well their parents.

We recently explored the Czech Republic’s fourth-largest city — not only home to the Pilsner Urquell brewery but a historic WWII frontier town, liberated by the US army in 1945 — with a 5- and 8-year-old in tow.

While Techmania Science Center and the Pilsen Zoo are the main attractions, each meriting individual day trips, the city’s affordability, proximity to Prague, and its lesser-known, though no-less interesting, attractions make it worth a longer stay.

These are our kid-approved tips for where to go and what to eat in Pilsen, with some grown-up highlights included for parental pleasure.

The Museum of West Bohemia comprises a number of locations, all of them worth a visit, but one of its outlets is particularly kid-friendly.

Our hands-down favorite was the puppet playroom where kids can operate a variety of the marionettes, rod puppets, and hand puppets used in actual performances. 

The Pilsen brewery museum is located not on the grounds of the iconic brewery but in a former medieval malt house in the center of town. While parents will thrill to the sight of the smallest jug in the world and an original malt kiln, as well as the beer tasting for those who sign up for the tour, the upper level of the museum houses a fun attic space for kids.

Play with a large-scale Pilsen street map covered with building-shaped blocks that can be placed along the city’s American-themed streets — Rooseveltova, Americká — or just hang out and color. 

It’s also got a hands-on exhibit devoted to the history of Czech football, where kids can kick around at Individual stations laid out across 500 m2 of space. With a special area just for Viktoria Plzeň fans, naturally. 

A unique “Underground World” reconstructed from a former wartime bunker lets visitors view nocturnal animals or those that burrow beneath the ground while a climbing playground and a terrace restaurant with spectacular city views offer nice spots for a time out.

History buffs will find a surprise at the zoo as well: An M4 American Sherman tank is kept on the grounds, a nod to the liberation and the German anti-aircraft observatory that once stood on the site of today’s zoo.

Note: While you can easily get to the zoo via the city’s top-notch public transit network, during the summer season a little tourist train departs regularly from the square and will take you there for a 30-CZK/ride. 

If your kids love the Dino Park atop Prague’s OC Harfa then this branch of the attraction will surely delight (or terrify, whatever the case may be). It’s integrated into the zoo and boasts a much wider range of life-like Mesozoic model dinosaurs plus fantastic views of Pilsen, a paleontological playground, a 3D cinema, and some water attractions.

The park-like setting — with its Brachiosaurus viewing platform over the entire city — somehow makes these mechanical creations feel even more life-like. 

Dino Park can be accessed from within the zoo, and you can buy one admission for both attractions; you can also enter Dino Park on its own but from the Vinice station entrance.

You really could spend an entire day marvelling at the touchable, movable, and highly entertaining exhibits here which illustrate principles of biology, physics, math, and science in a thoroughly engrossing way. From sink-ship and wind-tunnel attractions to a water world and other brain-boosting wonders spread out across 10,000 square meters of a formerly factory space, kids will be captivated. 

Parents will appreciate the affordable gift shop with its shelves of non-fiction English-language titles as well as the David Černýsculptures (including the controversial “Entropa”) on display. 

The planetarium located next to Techmania is one of just a few European science centers that boast a highly sophisticated form of 3D projection technology, considered among the best in the world. Films focused on the galaxy and star observations are displayed across a 14-meter dome.

Note that the museum and 3D Planetarium close in the middle of the day so plan your lunch break accordingly. There is a budget-friendly canteen located on the top floor of the Science Center.

All projections are available in English and all exhibits at Techmania are also English-friendly.

You certainly can’t escape the brewing history in Pilsen. And while the historical underground which has existed beneath the city of Pilsen since the 14th century may not seem like an obvious choice for kids, it’s a rather enjoyable subterranean space that seems designed for explorations — and splashing in puddles of condensation. 

A tour takes you through a labyrinth of nooks and exhibits and ends, for parents, with a complimentary beer tapped at precisely the right temperature. The nearby Na Splice restaurant located on the grounds has a play area for enjoying dinner after.

Pizzeria Da Pietro will be opening a branch in Prague’s Vinohrady district in 2021 but if you can’t wait that long, it’s worth the trip to Pilsen alone to experience the authentic Neapolitan pies served up at this tiny kitchen on Pilsen’s Smetanovy Sady.

The original Neapolitan with hand-crushed San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and torn fresh basil was a big winner, paired with orange soda.  A glass of the Tuscan house white helped the child-handlers go the distance for the zoo!