11 family-friendly tips in Solothurn

Family-Friendly Tips for the 11er City

This num­ber is con­sid­ered to be Solothurn’s num­ber because it appears again and again in the city and its his­to­ry. For exam­ple, Switzerland’s most beau­ti­ful baroque city has 11 his­tor­i­cal foun­tains and 11 church­es and chapels. But I promise you: My tips are guar­an­teed to be more var­ied and fam­i­ly-friend­ly.

Solothurn Youth Hostel: Our homebase during our stay

The youth hos­tel is the per­fect start­ing point for all your expe­ri­ences. Ide­al­ly locat­ed right on the Riv­er Aare, you can eas­i­ly reach every­thing from here – even if you’re trav­el­ling by pub­lic trans­port or bicy­cle. Thanks to the well-equipped fam­i­ly room with its own show­er and WC, as well as the mod­ern ambi­ence through­out the youth hos­tel, we imme­di­ate­ly feel at home. The cool thing is: Break­fast is includ­ed in the room rate. And even though there are dozens of cafés and restau­rants right next to the hos­tel, with kids, I always find it more relax­ing to have din­ner at the youth hos­tel. After all, they always offer a three-course menu for a super-fair price of CHF 19.50 per adult.

Would you like to join us on our fam­i­ly-friend­ly adven­tures in the Solothurn region? Besides the youth hos­tel, I’ve put togeth­er ten more fam­i­ly-friend­ly tips for you here:

Tip 1: Hermelin Trail on the Weissenstein

Solothurn’s local moun­tain, the Weis­senstein, is eas­i­ly reached by gon­do­la. Up here, you can enjoy a fan­tas­tic view over Solothurn, as far as Lake Biel and much far­ther. And the excit­ing Her­melin Trail awaits your kids. On this easy, almost 4 km hike, you can learn all about the native ani­mals and solve puz­zles. With a bit of luck, your lit­tle adven­tur­ers will dis­cov­er a trea­sure at the end of the trail.

Tip 2: Discover Solothurn in a fun way

If you’d rather explore the beau­ti­ful baroque city, make it fun for your kids: On the Pumpel­pitz Trail, you will dis­cov­er all the sights of Solothurn, but also get to know hid­den cor­ners and alleys over rough­ly 2.5 hours. Togeth­er with Pumpel­pitz and his friends, you will become detec­tives and solve tricky puz­zles togeth­er. There are more than enough oppor­tu­ni­ties to take breaks.

Tip 3: Quench your thirst for knowledge in Solothurn’s museums

Solothurn is home to a mul­ti­tude of muse­ums. We par­tic­u­lar­ly liked the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um of Solothurn, where admis­sion is even free, the Der Kleine Prinz und seine Welt muse­um show­cas­ing The Lit­tle Prince and the Old Armoury. All muse­ums offer spe­cial deals for fam­i­lies, and you can spend plen­ty of time vis­it­ing depend­ing on the inter­est and age of your kids. My sev­en-year-old liked the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um of Solothurn the best by far, as he was able to try out so much for him­self and get hands-on.

Tip 4: Get creative with Lia Pottery

Derendin­gen is just a stone’s throw from Solothurn and is also eas­i­ly acces­si­ble by pub­lic trans­port. And it’s home to Lia Pottery’s pot­tery stu­dio. If you already have expe­ri­ence, vis­it the “open stu­dio” where you can get cre­ative your­self. Alter­na­tive­ly, you’ll also find lots of great class­es here – even for kids. We didn’t have any pot­tery expe­ri­ence our­selves and took a super excit­ing hand-build­ing class: We had the hang of it in no time and are now look­ing for­ward to receiv­ing our self-made memen­tos from our trip to Solothurn.

Bonus tip: Tips 4 to 6 can be per­fect­ly com­bined!

Tip 5: Treat yourself to culinary delights at Bloomell Coffeehouse

Every day Sun­day is the mot­to here: At Bloomell Cof­fee­house, you can enjoy the best brunch all day long, 365 days a year. You absolute­ly have to try the pan­cakes – they’re tru­ly amaz­ing. But there are also great kids’ menus and savoury dish­es like shak­shu­ka, avo­ca­do toast and much more.

Tip 6: Browse the Seidenkinder concept store$

True to the mot­to “All good things come in threes,” I rec­om­mend a detour to the Sei­denkinder con­cept store in Derendin­gen. Like Bloomell Cof­fee­house and Lia Pot­tery, the shop is also locat­ed in the cool Emmen­ho­fare­al. In the shop, you’ll find the loveli­est things for your kids, your­self and your home. Sabine and her team are pas­sion­ate about sus­tain­abil­i­ty and design.

Tip 7: Play and get creative at Frida Kunstspielwelt

If you don’t want to take a detour to Derendin­gen, you can also get cre­ative in Solothurn. Specif­i­cal­ly, at Kun­st­spiel­welt Fri­da right next to the main sta­tion. Here, kids can let their imag­i­na­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty run wild: Whether in the stu­dio doing hand­i­crafts and paint­ing, putting on a play or enjoy­ing some free play. Par­ents can either join in or sip a relax­ing cof­fee. This unique con­cept absolute­ly blows us away.

Tip 8: The perfect place in rainy weather

On our trip to Solothurn, we aren’t so lucky with the weath­er. All the bet­ter that we’ve dis­cov­ered Lumi Land. Lumi Land com­bines an indoor play­ground and a bistro. Par­ents can relax and enjoy cof­fee, matcha and home-made spe­cial­i­ties while the chil­dren play and hang out in sight. Lumi Land is per­fect for par­ents with small­er kids.

Bonus tip: Tips 8 and 9 are the per­fect com­bi­na­tion

Tip 9: Experience adventure on the playground at the Attisholz Areal

The weath­er cleared up after our vis­it to Lumi Land, mak­ing it the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­bine it with a leisure­ly walk to the Attisholz Are­al. Stroll along the Riv­er Aare for around 20 min­utes before you final­ly reach your des­ti­na­tion: The play­ground! You will find this adven­ture play­ground in the unique atmos­phere of an old indus­tri­al estate, dec­o­rat­ed with great graf­fi­ti and small bars. It’s the per­fect place for kids to hide, slide, climb and explore. Relax on your way back to Solothurn on the “Bip­perlisi,” Solothurn’s region­al train.

Tip 10: Aperitifs on the Aaremürli

Weath­er per­mit­ting, you’ll find all the Solothurn natives in town by the Aaremür­li. The Sol­heure is vir­tu­al­ly right next to the youth hos­tel. Here you can get cold drinks, tasty ice cream and sim­ple snacks. The per­fect place to reflect on an event­ful day and unwind.

Bottom line: our Solothurn trip

For us, the three-night stay at Solothurn Youth Hos­tel was per­fect. The city and region have so much to dis­cov­er – we can real­ly imag­ine com­ing back again. There are at least 11 more fam­i­ly-friend­ly tips for you. 😉