Indoor Playgrounds in Berlin: What a Rainy Afternoon Really Costs
October has started doing what Berlin Octobers do. The playground at the end of the street is wet by ten, the sandpit is a puddle, and on 25 October the clocks go back, so by the first week of November it is dark before 17:00. The Berlin autumn school holidays run from 19 to 31 October. For a lot of families that means one question, asked again every wet Saturday until March: where do the kids go to run?
Berlin has a handful of big indoor playgrounds and two children's museums that do the same job in a calmer way. They are not cheap, and the price list is rarely the bill you pay. Adults pay too in all four big halls, Fridays and school holidays often cost weekend money, and the time you walk in decides how much play you actually get. The same family of four can pay 23 euros or 50 euros for one wet afternoon.
The old factory hall of the Labyrinth Kindermuseum in Wedding, one of the six places in this comparison. The exhibitions change, the open hall stays.
Indoor playgrounds in Berlin: the six places I compared
I looked at the four big commercial halls that most Berlin parents end up at, plus the two children's museums inside the Ring. Prices and hours come from each venue's own website, checked on 10 October 2026, and travel times from S+U Alexanderplatz on a Saturday morning.
JOLOs Kinderwelt, Kreuzberg. 1,500 square metres at Am Tempelhofer Berg, for ages 1 to 12. About 25 minutes by U-Bahn, the nearest station is U6 Platz der Luftbrücke.
Bambooland, Spandau. More than 2,000 square metres on Nonnendammallee, 200 metres from U7 Paulsternstraße. About 38 minutes.
Bim & Boom, Marzahn. A big hall on Beilsteiner Straße for children up to 12, with free parking. About 29 minutes with the S7 to Springpfuhl.
Tommys Turbulente Tobewelt, Weißensee. Roelckestraße, for ages 0 to 12. About 35 minutes with the M4 tram and a bus.
MACHmit! Museum für Kinder, Prenzlauer Berg. A climbing shelf and workshop tables inside a former church. About 12 minutes on the M2 tram.
Labyrinth Kindermuseum, Wedding. A hands-on exhibition hall in an old factory on Osloer Straße. About 17 minutes with the U8 to Pankstraße.
The pattern is plain once you put them on a map. The big halls sit on the edge of the city, in Spandau, Marzahn and Weißensee, with JOLOs in Kreuzberg as the only central one. The two museums are close, but they are smaller and they close at 18:00.
What a rainy afternoon costs, hall by hall
Set the day, slide to the time you will really get there, and add the people who are coming. Each row shows when the place is open, how much play is left from your arrival, and what you pay at the till.
Try a Saturday at 15:00 first, then a Wednesday at 17:00. The order of the rows changes more than you would expect.
Why the adult ticket changes the maths
Most parents compare the child price. That is the smaller part of the bill when two adults come along. At the big halls an adult pays between 7.50 and 11 euros, whether or not you join in. Bambooland and JOLOs let adults on parts of the equipment; Bim & Boom does not.
Here is one Saturday from 15:00 for two adults, a five-year-old and a two-year-old:
Labyrinth Kindermuseum: 23 euros with the family ticket for up to four people.
MACHmit! Museum: 34 euros with the family ticket for up to five people.
JOLOs Kinderwelt: 41 euros (14 for the child, 9 for the under-3, 9 for each adult).
Bim & Boom: 42 euros (14.50, 6.50 for the toddler, 10.50 for each adult).
Tommys Tobewelt: 48 euros online, because the two-year-old already pays the full child price there.
Bambooland: 50 euros (15 for each child, 10 for each adult).
My advice: price the whole family before you choose. A hall that looks two euros cheaper per child can come out more expensive once the adults and the toddler are on the bill, and the gap between the cheapest and the dearest option here is 27 euros for the same afternoon.
An inflatable bouncy castle in a German indoor play hall. JOLOs and Bim & Boom both have them, and on a holiday morning that is the busiest corner.
School holidays and Fridays cost weekend money
The cheap price is the exception, and it shrinks during the holidays. JOLOs, Bim & Boom and Tommys charge their weekend price on every school holiday day, so a Tuesday in the Herbstferien costs Saturday money. Bambooland is the exception: its price list goes by weekday only, so Monday to Thursday stays at 10.80 euros per child.
Fridays catch people too. JOLOs, Bambooland and Tommys already charge their weekend price on a Friday. At Bim & Boom a Friday is still a weekday.
Two halls also split the holiday and weekend day in half. JOLOs and Tommys open from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 15:00 to 19:00 on those days, with an hour's break in between, and at JOLOs you come for one half. If you arrive at 13:00, you get one hour of play.
If your two weeks of Herbstferien still have empty days in them, my guide to the Berlin autumn school holidays covers the childcare side of the same dates.
The cheap windows: late afternoons and short stays
Each hall has one rule that makes a short visit much cheaper, and they are easy to miss on the price lists:
Bim & Boom is half price from 17:00, Tuesday to Friday, except on public holidays. Two adults, a five-year-old and a two-year-old pay 16 euros for the last two hours on a Wednesday. That is my pick for a wet weekday after Kita.
Bambooland charges children by the 10 minutes when the stay is shorter than 110 minutes: 90 cents per started 10 minutes from Monday to Thursday, 1.25 euros from Friday to Sunday. Arrive at 17:30 on a Wednesday and each child pays 8.10 euros.
The Labyrinth runs a Freutag on Fridays outside the school holidays: from 13:00 to 18:00 everyone pays 5 euros.
Tommys prices are online prices. Tommys asks families to buy tickets online, especially on weekends and in the holidays, because it gets full, and at the till each price is 5 euros higher.
The two museums: closer, calmer and cheaper
The children's museums do not have bouncy castles, and that is part of their appeal for younger children and for parents who want to hear themselves think.
The former Eliaskirche on Senefelderstraße. The MACHmit! Museum für Kinder fills the old church with a climbing shelf and workshop tables.
MACHmit! sits in the former Eliaskirche in Prenzlauer Berg. Children climb the big Kletterregal, a shelf you climb through, make things at the workshop tables and see the current exhibition, "Kunstknall", about women in art. Entry is 9 euros for everyone from age 2 and a family ticket costs 34 euros for up to five people. It opens Wednesday to Friday from 14:00 to 18:00 and at weekends from 10:00. During the Herbstferien it opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00. On the first Wednesday of the month, children from Pankow get in free.
The Labyrinth Kindermuseum is in an old factory on Osloer Straße in Wedding. Its current hands-on exhibition is called "TALENTOPIA", with costumes and stations children can try out. It costs 7 euros for children from 2 and for adults, or 23 euros for a family of up to four. Outside the holidays it opens to families only on Friday from 13:00 and at weekends from 11:00, with the last entry at 17:00. In the Herbstferien it opens every day, from 10:00 on weekdays, and on Halloween, 31 October, until 19:00.
The Labyrinth Kindermuseum on Osloer Straße in Wedding. The U8 station Pankstraße is about 500 metres away.
The Labyrinth also lets you bring your own food, in the café area and on the steps, which JOLOs, Tommys and Bambooland do not. The café takes cash only.
Monday, Tuesday and the small print
Outside the school holidays, the week is uneven:
Monday: only Bambooland, from 12:00 in the winter months, and Tommys, from 14:00.
Tuesday: add Bim & Boom from 14:00.
Wednesday and Thursday: everyone except the Labyrinth.
Friday to Sunday: all six.
A few house rules decide whether the afternoon goes smoothly:
Socks for everyone. All four halls and the Labyrinth ban street shoes on the play floor, and JOLOs, Bambooland and the Labyrinth ask adults for socks too. The Labyrinth sells stopper socks for 6 euros.
No packed lunch at JOLOs, Tommys or Bambooland. JOLOs charges a 50-euro fee for outside food. Bambooland makes an exception for baby food and allergy food.
Age limits: JOLOs, Bim & Boom and Tommys are for children up to 12. At Bim & Boom, anyone from 13 has to stay at the tables.
Getting there by car: Bim & Boom has free parking, and JOLOs customers pay 2 euros an hour in the car park.
My move for a wet Saturday
I would choose by age and by the line you live on. For children under five who need room to move without a wall of noise, go to the Labyrinth or MACHmit! at opening time, when the floor is still quiet. For a six- to ten-year-old who has to run, pick the big hall on your side of the city: Bambooland in the west, Bim & Boom in the east, Tommys in the north and JOLOs in the middle.
The upside-down "Mach mit" bear on Senefelderstraße in Prenzlauer Berg, a few doors from the MACHmit! Museum.
On a weekday, wait until 17:00 and go to Bim & Boom. In the holidays, buy Tommys tickets online the evening before and plan JOLOs around one of its two halves. If the rain stops halfway through the day, the Berlin public libraries are a free indoor stop with children's sections, and my notes on Berlin with kids and what closes in Berlin in winter cover the rest of the dark months.
Image credits
Source and licence details for the 4 photographs used in this article.
The exhibition hall of the Labyrinth Kindermuseum: Labyrinth Kindermuseum gGmbH, Ulrich Sülflow, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons.
An inflatable bouncy castle in an indoor play hall: Andre Kaiser, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Labyrinth Kindermuseum on Osloer Straße: Gesundbrunnen Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The upside-down bear on Senefelderstraße: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.