Things to do in Naples with kids: 15 ideas that work

Naples works better with children than you might think, on one condition: give them things to do, not things to look at. Baroque churches and paintings hold them for twenty minutes; kneading pizza dough, a boat bouncing on the waves, a tunnel underground or a fish staring back through the glass hold them for hours. This guide is built that way: first things to do, then things to see, and at the end the practical stuff, which matters more in Naples than elsewhere.

We’ve put together fifteen ideas we’ve tried, grouped by type. Where there’s a bookable experience we say so, with the booking platform’s price; the rest you can do on your own, often for free.

Doing, not looking: pizza-making classes

The thing that always works, at any age, is a pizza class. Flour, water, yeast, dough stretched by hand (no rolling pin, as Neapolitan rules demand), the oven, and an hour later you eat what you made. Children come out with floury faces and a new skill; parents with a technique to try at home. Almost all the classes in the centre also make tiramisù while the dough rises, and the «pizza and gelato in two hours» format is designed for families with small children and not much patience.

A tip: book the midday slot. You arrive hungry, eat your own pizza for lunch and keep the afternoon free for the sea or a walk.

The sea, which in Naples is right in town

From Castel dell’Ovo to Mergellina the seafront is pedestrianised, flat and two kilometres long: bring the pushchair, the scooter or a bike, with the obligatory stop at the Borgo Marinari, the little harbour at the foot of the castle, where children watch the boats and the cats. The castle, when it’s open, is free to visit, and from its terraces you can see the whole bay.

To actually get out on the water there are boats: the tour of the bay in an hour and a quarter, taking in Vesuvius, Posillipo and Nisida from offshore, is the short version; trips of two or three hours with a swim stop in the coves of Posillipo and at the Gaiola are the long one, May to October. Children who have never seen Naples from the sea suddenly understand why the city is built in staircases.

Underground

Naples has a second city beneath the first, and children like it more than the one on top. The Galleria Borbonica, under Chiaia, has wartime air-raid shelters and vintage cars abandoned in the tunnels: an hour-long guided tour that feels like an adventure. Napoli Sotterranea, from the old town, goes forty metres down into Greek and Roman cisterns, with a few narrow candlelit passages that children remember for years. The catacombs in the Sanità district are fine from about six or seven upwards; the Cimitero delle Fontanelle, with its skulls, is best saved for when they’re older.

Underground it’s cool even in August and it never rains: the perfect fallback for bad days.

Museums that aren’t boring

In Bagnoli there’s Città della Scienza, the science museum with a planetarium and interactive rooms where you can touch everything: a full half day, with space to run around outside. In the Villa Comunale on the seafront, the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn houses Europe’s oldest aquarium, founded in 1874: period tanks, fish from the bay, octopus and moray eels a few centimetres from the glass. It’s small, so just right for a child’s attention span.

The National Archaeological Museum is huge, but with a strategy it’s manageable: straight to the Egyptian section with the mummies, then the Pompeii mosaics with the «cave canem» dog, then out. With a guide who knows how to talk to children, two hours fly by; on your own, stop at one.

Up high: the funicular and the star-shaped castle

The Montesanto funicular, a cable railway through the hill, is a game in itself: seven minutes climbing inside the hillside and you pop out in Vomero. From there it’s a ten-minute walk to Castel Sant’Elmo, the castle shaped like a six-pointed star with the highest terrace in the city. You can see Vesuvius, the port and Capri, and the rest of Naples suddenly makes sense. Next door, the Certosa di San Martino has a collection of nativity scenes including the Cuciniello, hundreds of figures that children pore over like a comic.

To come down, if legs allow, there’s the Pedamentina: 414 steps past vegetable gardens down to the Quartieri Spagnoli. With the smallest ones, take the funicular again.

Rides, parks and woods

Edenlandia, in Fuorigrotta, is the city’s historic amusement park, opened in the 1960s and brought back to life: old-fashioned rides, the right size for children up to ten, and Neapolitan parents bringing their kids where they used to go themselves. The Villa Comunale has a playground and flowerbeds to run around between visits to the aquarium. The Real Bosco di Capodimonte, at the top of the hill, is a 134-hectare park with lawns, avenues and a museum that won’t take offence if you skip it.

Free on Saturdays: Giro Giro Napoli

Every Saturday morning until December, the city’s museums and cultural sites open to children with free guided visits designed for them: it’s called Giro Giro Napoli and it’s run by the city council. The programme changes every week and must be booked; we list it on the Cosa fare page among the current events, with the link to sign up.

If it rains

Food, beyond pizza

Children eat everywhere in Naples: pasta al ragù (slow-cooked meat sauce) on Sundays, frittatina di pasta (a deep-fried pasta patty) as a snack, pizza a portafoglio (folded in four) to eat on the go, warm sfogliatella for breakfast, gelato at any hour. Street food tours in the old town are designed for adults but families often join: two and a half hours, six or seven tastings, and nobody complaining they’re hungry.

The practical stuff

To find out what’s on while you’re in town, festivals included, see the things to do in Naples page: pick your dates and you’ll find the events and bookable experiences for those days. Classes are in the Workshops category, boats in Outdoor.