Things to do in Gothenburg – a child-friendly itinerary

You can check the information for Liseberg Amusement Park here.

Day One -Liseberg Amusement Park

We chose to visit Gothenburg for a long weekend in May and the amusement park was open from Friday 3pm until late, all day Saturday and 12-8pm on the Sunday. The Grand Curiosa Hotel advertises a discount on park tickets, and you can purchase them from machines in the lobby. However, we found the best prices to be via the Liseberg app.

Admission to the park itself varies in price depending on the day you visit. It starts from around £7 up to £14 in peak season. This enables you to walk around the park grounds (which have been open since 1923) and there’s one free carousel ride in Luna Park. You can also buy a full ride pass, or a ‘Kanin’ ride pass which just includes the rides suitable for younger children. There are varying combinations of tickets so I suggest looking at the Liseberg app to see how many rides you might want to go on and then see which ticket type offers you the best value.

As a family with an almost 4year old (at 100cm tall) it was best for us to buy admission tickets with Kanin ride passes. These rides are generally suited to children over 90cm tall, and if they’re under 110cm they typically have to have an adult ride with them. Our 8 month old baby received free entry to the park and we did take him on a couple of rides where there was no height restriction but then one ride attendant told us he needed a ride pass, so we didn’t try him on any other rides.

Our daughter’s favourite rides were Underlandet (a slow-paced carriage ride with lots of bunny models), Flygis (spinning planes) and Hoppalang (a bouncy ride which will test mothers’ pelvic floor muscles!). There were a couple of lovely play parks and lots of choice for food and drinks and so we found it easy to spend over 8 hours there. Families can’t go wrong with basing themselves at the Grand Curiosa and spending a couple of days in Liseberg.

Day 2 – Finding free things to do in Gothenburg with kids

We know holidays are a huge expense, so it’s important to us to find some free or cheap activities to offset that cost. The best, free place we visited was Slottskogen – a huge city park. We bought a days travel pass from the 7-11 at Korsvagen and caught a tram to Linnéplatsen which is in the north east corner of the park.

It was all accessible with the pushchair but be aware it is on a steep hill – we were surprised to find several steep inclines (the map makes it look lovely and flat!) There is a park zoo which is free to visit, though I would describe it more as a variety of random animal enclosures; hosting penguins, seals, reindeer, moose, sheep and more.

You’ll also find a petting zoo and pony rides open April to September, however, we had to disappoint our daughter with the pony rides. Payment was via a Swedish payment app, which we downloaded but we weren’t able to link to our UK accounts. Had we taken cash we would have tried to find a kind local to buy a ticket for us but we had a cashless trip.

You could easily spend all day here because there’s also miniature golf, playgrounds, cycle paths, volleyball court and an observatory as well as a variety of eateries. We were there for approximately 4 hours because I also wanted to squeeze in a boat trip.

With hindsight, we should have headed out to the archipelago early in the morning so that we could have spent some time getting off the ferry and exploring some of the small islands. As it happened, we caught what was possibly the last ferry of the day from Saltholmen and so we simply stayed on the boat for a round trip which lasted about 90 minutes. If we were child-free I would have braved a short walk at one of the stops, but we couldn’t risk being stranded with two young children.

A bonus point is that voyage on the 281/282 ferries is included in the 24hr travel pass and we find that boat trips are a great source of entertainment in themselves. The views across the water and the tiny islands which make up the archipelago were worth the visit. It was then a 30 minute tram ride back into the city centre where we found an Italian restaurant for dinner (can’t go wrong with pizza and pasta for family meals). Some kind of boat trip is one of the top things to do in Gothenburg and the tourist office has more tips on how to get around.

Day 3 of our family holiday to Gothenburg

One of the best family attractions we visited was just a 5 minute walk from the Grand Curiosa hotel: Universeum

I would describe this as part aquarium, part tropical house, part science museum; with ten floors to explore. Our favourite floor was actually the basement, because it was home to Miniverseum – one of the best soft play areas I’ve ever seen. It’s designed for 0-6 year olds to learn about sustainability and the natural world through play and interaction. We must have spent well over an hour in there.

Sweden really knows how to do child-friendly as well, and spaces are designed specifically for families with brand new breastfeeding booths, double toilets, microwaves, highchairs and space for buggies.

We spent just under 4 hours at Universeum and if you had older children who could understand all the science experiments then you might spend even longer. It’s the perfect rainy day activity, though I’d recommend visiting in any weather. There are shows and talks throughout the day, mostly in Swedish but some in English too. Older children could do chemistry experiments in a lab or take part in an ‘are you smarter than a robot?’ quiz.

We spent the rest of our third day back in Liseberg park, up until it closed at 8pm! It stays so light in Sweden in the summer months that I could have sworn it was only 4pm.

Accommodation – the Grand Curiosa Hotel

One of the main reasons we chose to visit Gothenburg was this hotel – the Grand Curiosa. Usually I would avoid themed hotels; however, this one offers a family-friendly experience whilst being great value for money. It was just over £400 for 3 nights and that was in a room which could sleep 5 and breakfast was included. Breakfast was an experience in itself with a variety of hot and cold dishes to suit all palettes and dietary requirements. I was more than happy with warm cinnamon buns, hot coffee and fruit. Junior residents were going wild for pancakes with Nutella fluff, mini marshmallows and blueberry compote.

In the dining hall is a Victorian carousel which is free for hotel residents to ride (children under 110cm must be supervised) and it operates for 20 minutes at a time at several intervals during the day. In the hotel lobby is a 2-storey spiral slide which was extremely popular though you do have to be careful not to trip over piles of shoes left carelessly by the children (the hotel does leave a shoe rack nearby).

Another highlight was a playroom with some Brio track and trains, colouring in, air hockey table and a sort of Fussball table. It was nice to have a space to hang out in whilst the children played. Down the hall was a cinema room which showed regular films (in Swedish), and you could buy popcorn from the hotel café.

Our hotel room was great – there was a ‘nook’ with bunk beds in which could be curtained off, and this was separated from our sleeping area by the large shower room. We were provided with a travel cot for the baby and we requested a room with a view of the park. This meant we could watch people enjoying the rides until 10pm one night, whilst we were stuck in our room with sleeping children! I jest, but you know how it is travelling with young children.

I would recommend a stay at the Grand Curiosa Hotel if you are travelling to Gothenburg with children – it’s so convenient for a Liseberg visit and the carousel and playroom really elevated our experience.

Finally, our transfers to and from the hotel were made simple with Flygbussarna. Buy tickets online to save a couple of pounds, and then the bus stop was just outside departures at Landvetter airport. The children travelled for free and we paid approximately £35 for return tickets but this was about half the price of a taxi/Uber. It was a short bus ride to Korsvagen and then a 10-15 minute walk to the hotel.

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I would absolutely recommend a short trip to Gothenburg with kids; Scandinavian countries cater so well for families. If you have any questions about the trip, don’t hesitate to contact me on www.instagram.com/girlabouthampshire. 

By Sarah Frost