Mirakulum Adventure Playground, Milovice
What a surprise when we arrived at Mirakulum! With very few photos showing what it was like we had to trust that it would be worth the drive. Im glad to say that it exceeded expectations. I was thrilled to see energetic and inspired children exploring and enjoying the outdoors. The adventurous climbing frames, tunnels, swings and exciting castle were a delight and fresh change from loud ‘fairground style’ attractions.
On arrival do not let the entrance put you off. Housed on part of the old Russian Army Base (which was abandoned and left to the Czech government in 1992, click link for brief history and interesting photographs), you need to walk between old, crumbling panelak buildings. I found this fascinating, but my husband was confused and wondered where I had dragged him to this time!
Once through the entrance gate it becomes clear, the park is over 10 hectares in size and is being completely transformed into a natural oasis - many trees have been planted and are now quite established, in a few years time the park will be even more covered with beautiful trees, plants and grasses.
There is plenty of space for picnicking and this is something that that I would recommend, the park allows food and drink to be bought in unlike places like Disneyland. Mirakulum has plenty of food stalls selling bbq’d meats, a pancake stand and the usual czech specialities - parek v rohliku and the unhealthy fried stuff as well as drinks and ice creams so no one will go hungry here.
The park is constantly being added to, since our visit in early July there has been additional climbing bridges, slides and tunnels added and next year they plan a water play area with wading pools, cascades and water jets!
The main feature and the symbol of the park is the Mirakulum Castle, this castle has various areas to climb and several slides and a fireman’s pole. There is a giant slide in the castle and this is recommended for kids 10 years and over - they even recommend that a parent trys it first to make sure that their child will be able to handle it - wow! I think it’s because the slide is very steep and then it plunges into the tunnels/catacombs that are beneath the castle.
Some BIG tips:
Dress your children in bright, identifiable clothes so you can easily find them - often they will emerge from a tunnel 100 metres away from where you expected them or you will spot them on a climbing frame 5 metres above your head - don’t worry, they are completely safe and having a ball but yea sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of them.
Bring a torch or better still a headlamp for the kids and yourself if you wish to try these amazing labyrinth-style underground tunnels. You are often in complete darkness and have several directions to choose from.
Hats and Sunscreen on hot days are recommended as many parts of the park do not have much shade.
Mums, it might be best to wear shorts or jeans if you are going to get active and join the kids - I wore a skirt and had to often rescue my 4 year old from the high rope course when he got a bit nervous - all this with people below me, hopefully I was wearing decent underpants!!
The park has an area up the back for smaller kids called Piggyland, this has equipment such as a rope course and balance beams just slightly off the ground, a zip line, a smaller trampoline, sandpits and swings.
The front area of the park is for older kids - a bigger trampoline, really giant swings, the rope courses suspended in the air and several networks of tunnels plus a labyrinth and mini zoo (mainly goats that kids could pat). The tunnels really were something - I was quite scared by the darkness and not knowing when an entrance to daylight would appear!
There is a forest walk with information on conservation of nature and on the various trees in the forest, interestingly the signage was in Czech, Russian, English and Vietnamese which I think is very commendable.
For working parents the area is apparently covered by wi-fi (ask for details at the ticket office) so maybe you could set up your office on a picnic blanket for a day whilst the kids entertain themselves.
All-in-all we had a fabulous day, our entry fee was 400czk for the 4 of us which was money well spent. We will return again at the end of July with some friends. The drive was also very easy, only 45-50 minutes from Prague.
ADDRESS: Park Mirakulum, Topolová 629, Milovice
OPEN: Tuesdays to Sundays 10:00 to 19:00. Closed Mondays.
SEASON: From Spring to Autumn (March to Sept/Oct), closed in Winter.
COST: Tuesday - Friday 100CZK per person, Saturday & Sunday (or days with a special entertainment program) - 150czk per person or buy a Family ticket (2 adults + 2 children) - 500czk (+ 100czk per additional child). Children up to 90cm height are admitted free.
DIRECTIONS: By Car: Take D11 in the direction of Hradec Kralove and take exit 18 or alternatively you can take E65 in the direction of Mlada Boleslav then take exit 8. GPS: 50 ° 14’17 .365 “N, 14 ° 51’36 .189” E.
Train & Bus: A direct City Elephant service leaves Masarykova nádraží, it takes 45 minutes by train to Milovice. From Milovice train station Mirakulum Park is a 2.5km walk or you can catch the local bus that is included in the price of your train ticket. The bus trip takes just 7 minutes and links with train arrivals and departures. See IDOS.cz for more specific details (Milovice ‘Topolova’ from Milovice Nadrazi).
FURTHER INFORMATION: http://www.mirakulum.cz (Czech only)