This City Was Just Named the Most Family-Friendly in Europe

A new study named Prague the most child-friendly on the continent

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Published on 03/08/22

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Blonder Mother holding her brunette son in front of Charles bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. — Massonstock / Getty Images

Parents, start looking at flights to the Czech Republic! The country's capital city, Prague, was just declared the most child-friendly city in Europe by OVO Network, a holiday rental service.

To come to that conclusion, OVO Network evaluated 50 cities across Europe on six different metrics: the number of kid-friendly attractions, museums, and amusement per capita; air quality; transportation costs; and safety. After crunching the numbers, Prague emerged as the overall top pick for families.

The Golden City especially impressed with its high density of amusement and water parks and museums—it's home to 15 amusement parks and 280 museums per one million residents and visitors. That's in addition to a bevy of kids attractions, relatively affordable transportation costs, excellent air quality, and some of the safest streets on the continent.

If you want to add more family-friendly cities on your European vacation, consider Helsinki, Finland, or Copenhagen, Denmark. These two Scandinavian cities took second and third place on the list. Helsinki has excellent air quality and is very safe with many kids attractions. Copenhagen topped the list for air quality and boasted an impressive number of museums, but high transportation costs (a single subway ride rings up to more than three euros!) kept it from the top spot.

Zagreb, Croatia, and Edinburgh, Scotland round out the top five cities. Edinburgh took second place for air quality and had the second-highest number of kids attractions on the continent. Zagreb, meanwhile, has the most affordable public transit with one-way tickets costing just 0.53 euros (around 58 cents). It's also the third safest city in Europe and has the fifth-highest number of kids attractions.

While it didn't make the top five, Lisbon has the most kid-friendly attractions by far (almost 300 more per capita than Edinburgh) and is second only to Prague when it comes to museums. For the cleanest air, consider Copenhagen or Edinburgh, which came in second. Families with safety at the top of mind will want to visit Munich or Zurich, both tied for first place.