Last updated: 19 April 2024
Writing about indoor entertainment centers feels wrong in Greece, where a diversity of natural, outdoor playgrounds are the highlight. Yet, my daughter never showed more excitement about returning to a beach than she did with XPLORE. It’s been a regular hangout for the last two weeks. I’ve also found myself unexpectedly enjoying its creativity, conveniences and comforts enough to cast off purist ideas about true Greek experiences and ideal learning environments for children.
Is Golden Hall’s newest kids attraction for you?
Here’s a brief introduction to help with quick decisions on whether to include XPLORE in your Athens itinerary:
Who is it for?
All three zones are worth exploring: The aquarium (“Ocean”), a play zone (“Adventure”) for kids from 4 to 12, and a science discovery center (“Science”) for children from 5 to 12 years old.
Little D was in a sweet spot where she could enjoy all the play zones, including Science even though she just turned 4. Science was nearly as exciting as Adventure for her. With adult help, the exhibits are fun to work with even if you’re too young to understand the principles at work.
At 18 months, Adventure was still fun for Baby A. The Enchanted Garden was perfect for her with a treehouse and slide, play kitchen in a pumpkin, and vegetable sorting station. She also enjoyed the race car ride with me, and tumbling around the climbing structures in the construction-themed playground.
Each zone costs €7.50 per person for a 3-hour entry period.
Is it just another indoor playground?
I’ve been to a few in Chicago and in Singapore where we lived with children. XPLORE is a step up. The play spaces are inventive, captivatingly creative, technically sophisticated, subtly educational, and expansive with a dizzying diversity of themes to get immersed in (e.g. Superheroes, TV Studio)
In Adventure, use a child-sized excavator to move balls around a ball pit in the construction area. There’s also a 3-level obstacle course that’s more than just tunnels and slides – work with others to load bricks up a conveyor belt, then throw them back down a rubble chute. Then there’s the race track – small, but still fun for a 4 or 5 year old’s first ride (kids 5 and older can go solo).
Science encourages learning through play. A water play center allows you to experience fluid dynamics by creating your own aqueducts, watch water wheels at work, construct fountains with pipes, and throw balls into swirling vortexes. The ball run labyrinth gets them thinking about transport systems and how to move things along a specific course you can manipulate. Then watch the power of wind push flying scarves through a convoluted maze of air pipes, and catch them as they fall to the ground.
Lastly, every parent convenience has been thought of, including a small café for snacks, spotless child-sized toilets and baby changing facilities complete with pampers.
How much time can we spend there?
The ticket gives you access for 3 hours. Which is really the maximum amount of time I can spend in there anyways. That said, considering younger kids enjoy repetition, 2 to 3 hours is enough time to discover each zone, apart from the aquarium which you can get through in under an hour.
And so we returned for another 5 days to keep exploring.
Tips:
- Buy tickets online for a 10% discount.
- There’s really a lot going on in each zone, so be selective. I’d match the aquarium experience with one other for a full day’s outing.
- Avoid weekends. Weekdays tend to be quiet and lovely.
