Aviapark in the rain: fish and play areas

⏱ 4 h🚶 1 km + 🚕🍽 2📍 4 stops

🐢 A little — under 3 km

A warm day indoors on Khodynka: a huge cylindrical aquarium, lunch with a play room, a nap in the stroller in the park if the weather allows, and a whole kids' floor at AnderSon for an afternoon snack.

👶 With kids☔️ If it rains

👶 under 3, 3–6 years · ✓ stroller-friendly

The mall has lifts and wide aisles. CSKA and Khoroshyovskaya have lifts, but a taxi right to the entrance is more convenient. To Khodynskoye Pole park use the surface crossing over Khodynsky Boulevard.

🗺 Open in Yandex Maps (with transit)

1
✨ Cylinder Aquarium at Aviapark
🆓 free entry · in the mall atrium
A cylindrical aquarium with thousands of tropical fish in the middle of the Aviapark mall atrium.
A taxi is easier here. Come for opening at 10:00: it's still empty by the cylindrical aquarium in the atrium, and the baby calmly watches the fish in your arms. Mother-and-baby rooms with changing tables are on the floors — follow the signs.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Анжела Карпинская · CC BY 3.0
- Guinness World Records recognized it as the tallest cylindrical aquarium in the world: the tank is 20.31 m (measured in 2015).
- The outer structure is 24 m tall and 6 m in diameter, and the water volume is 370,000 liters.
- About 2,500 tropical fish live in the aquarium.
- Aviapark with the aquarium opened in 2014 on the site of the Central Airfield, Moscow's first airport.
🚶 on foot
2
🍽 Osteria Mario in Aviapark · 🧸 play area
Ходынский б-р, 4, ТРЦ «Авиапарк», 4-й этаж
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Lunch on the 4th floor: a kids' play area with an entertainer (paid), a kids' menu with cream soups and purées. Ask for a high chair and for your own purée to be warmed up — that's a normal request.
🍴 A family Italian trattoria on the food-court floor, with a play room, an entertainer and workshops for kids. What to order: cream soup, mashed potatoes with meatballs and veggie sticks for toddlers, mac and cheese for older kids, pizza and pasta for adults.
🚶 on foot
3
🌳 Khodynskoye Pole Park
🚪 entrance from Khodynsky Boulevard
A large modern park on a former airfield with lawns, paths and a view of Aviapark.
If the rain has stopped — nap time in the stroller on the smooth paths of the park, five minutes from the mall. If it's pouring — stroll the galleries of Aviapark, which are calm on weekday afternoons.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Комплекс градостроительной политики и строительства город… · CC BY 4.0
© Retired electrician · CC0
- The park's central alley follows the runway of the former airfield.
- Khodynka Meadow is mentioned as early as Dmitry Donskoy's will of 1389; it takes its name from the Khodynka River.
- In 1775 Catherine II celebrated peace with the Ottoman Empire here; the pavilions were built by Vasily Bazhenov.
- In 1896, during the celebrations for the coronation of Nicholas II, more than 1,300 people died here in a crush.
- On 3 May 1922 Russia's first international flights began from the Frunze Central Airfield.
- The park appeared after residents protested against development: in 2013 they united in the "For the Park" movement.
🚕 taxi, about 10 min
4
☕️ AnderSon Family Café in Sokol · 🧸 play area
Ленинградский пр., 74, стр. 8
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Afternoon snack after the nap: AnderSon in Sokol has a whole floor for kids, with a toddler zone and a changing table. Order the mini pancakes.
🍴 A family café and pastry shop with a whole floor for kids, between Experimentanium and the Sokol village. What to order: potato pancakes (draniki) with salmon, a big family breakfast, mini pancakes, lemonade with foam.