Frankfurt Berlin Prague with tweens

cmduck,

suggestions for what?

also, what floats your boat?

happy trails.

Frankfurt-region activities for families with kids:

Frankfurt or Opel Zoo (located in a beautiful area of the Taunus mountains overlooking Frankfurt).

The well-preserved town of Büdingen (contains what people travel to Rothenburg odT to see, but without the tour buses and trinket shops).

There's a pretty good castle between Frankfurt and Büdingen that offers falconry demonstrations, but I forget the name.

Hessenpark- Open-air folk museum. It's only half finished, but perhaps worth a visit if you're into that kind of thing.

The Mittelrhein- needs no introduction

Marburg- Beautiful, well preserved university town. The old town wraps around a hill, with a castle and castle garden on top.

If you'll have a car, the small village of Münzerberg north of Frankfurt has a prominent castle ruin that you can see for miles (just drive north on A5 and you'll see it).

Taunus Wunderland: I haven't visited, so I'm not sure if this is more of an amusement park or adventure forest. Either way, it seems to be popular.

If the kids like hiking, consider a stroll up to the summit of Großer Feldberg (the prominent mountain with the TV towers on the top) on a clear day. It's a fairly easy hike and the views from the top are stunning.

Finally, if you want dinner with live Schlager music, head to Rüdesheim am Rhein for dinner some night.

Tom made some great suggestions. That castle near Büdingen with the falconry show is Burg Ronneburg. Hessen Park is excellent and I think for tweens, a good choice of activities. They have over 100 buildings so far. There are animals, demonstrations, and working farms. Also, interestingly, 2 synagogues. All of these buildings were moved here from other places.

If you have a car, I could also recommend going to a really cool museum that is also near Büdingen, but tough to get to by train or bus, the Glauburg. This is all about the Celts that lived here and is very interactive, with all text in English. There were a lot of tweens, teens and kids there they day we visited and they all looked like they were having a good time. If Romans are more your thing, then a visit to the reconstructed Roman fort, the Saalburg, should do the trick. For a good coolness factor, but again, you need a car, I would consider going to Frankensteins Castle near Darmstadt. It is a ruin, but still interesting.

http://www.burg-ronneburg.de/

http://www.falknerei-ronneburg.de/oeffnungszeiten.html#kranichstein

http://www.hessenpark.de/index.php?id=english

http://www.keltenwelt-glauberg.de/en/

http://www.saalburgmuseum.de/english/sb_en_home.html

http://frankenstein-restaurant.de/content/e1369/index_ger.html

For just staying in Frankfurt, these museums are kid friendly and should be interesting for that age group: the Senckenburg Natural History Museum, Film Museum, Bible Museum, Communication Museum. I would go to the top of the Main Tower, or even better, climb the steps to the top of the Kaiserdom.

You could also go to the popular adventure pool in Frankfurt, Rebstock Bad.

Speaking of Burg Frankenstein, the view from there is superb, so if you choose to visit, go on a clear day.

We took our kids to Berlin and Prague twice. For tweens, the biggest hits were a Segway tour in Prague; boat tour in Berlin; Berlin Wall museum; and stopping in the cafes for dessert and ice cream! Walking through the Old Town Square to/across the Charles Bridge in Prague, going to the top of the Reichstag in Berlin and seeing the Brandenberg Gate were also enjoyed by all. My daughter (11) liked the Black Light theater in Prague, but you may not find it appropriate for your kids (some nudity).