Dinopark Kolacinek – What did the dinosaurs eat? :)

Apparently, a visit to the so-called. dinopark with a two-year-old is a “failure,” “tiresome,” and the child “will be afraid of dinosaurs.” Contrary to popular opinions on the Internet, we decided to see for ourselves if a toddler (and big kids, too, by the way) would like a place like Dinopark. Where else could we do it if not in Dinopark Kolacinek in Lodz province.

We had been thinking about visiting a Jurassic park or dinopark for about six months. We wanted to combine this with an interesting weekend in Poland, and by the way, see if this type of attraction could also interest a less than two-year-old. The prevailing opinion on the Internet is that dinoparks are more for older children – so at least from the age of 4. Younger ones won’t have any fun with it, and what’s more, they may be frightened by large, unfamiliar monsters and trauma for the rest of their lives guaranteed.

So we thought, why would we drive somewhere far away and risk leaving after 5 minutes, when there is one of the most popular dinosaur parks near Lodz: Dinopark Kolacinek. So we decided to go to the park closest to us and see for ourselves (or rather, Olivia’s skin ;-)) if there was anything to be afraid of.

Table of contents

Getting to Dinopark

Dinopark is located in the small town of Kolacinek, near Brzeziny (Dmosin municipality, Lodz province). We drove from Lodz by car for about 45 minutes, just through Brzeziny. From Warsaw it takes a little more than an hour to get there – take the A2 highway and exit for Lowicz (road 704).

There are signs in Kolacinko that lead directly to the Dinopark, although they are not road signs, but billboards that may go unnoticed by drivers. The access road to the park itself is narrower and it’s easy to miss the last turn, so slow down and look for signs.

There is free parking on site, which was about 3/4 full when we arrived an hour after the park opened. After that, there is quite a high turnover, so space should not be a problem.

A visit to the Kolacinek Dinopark

After passing through a wooden gate, guarded by two legless soldiers, we enter the Jurassic-Botanical Park Kolacinek. Just emptying our pockets and once we have the tickets in hand we set off in search of dinosaurs :) To begin with, we face a few pitfalls in the form of an extra-fee queue for the little ones and ice cream, which we manage to avoid thanks to our overdeveloped parental skills of distracting the child from any unnecessary temptations ;)

But let’s focus on the dinosaurs, because that’s what we came here for. There is a marked path in the park – the direction of the tour, but it is not at all necessary to follow the directions. The park covers quite a large area, but it is difficult to get lost here.

In simple terms – the central place is a water reservoir around which there is a path at which dinosaurs lurk. They are also in the lake (e.g., an emerging plesiosaur) and on its shore! Several are located on the way to the pond itself.

By all the dinosaurs there are information boards with buttons, after pressing which we can listen to interesting facts about a particular species in one of 4 languages: Polish, English, German or Russian.

Importantly, guided tours start at full hours – this is included in the ticket price, but due to a rather active two-year-old, we decided to walk around the park at our own discretion. We did, however, manage to pass by the tour a few times and overhear the guide giving quite interesting and accessible information about the different species for the little ones. By the way, we ourselves also learned a lot of interesting things, which we plan to pass on to Olive when she gets a little older.

But let’s go back to the basic question: can a two-year-old like it here? To our surprise and disbelief, Olive had a lot of fun here :) She was not afraid of dinosaurs, in fact she eagerly looked for them among the trees, approached, stroked and even wanted to take pictures of all of them. It is known that the older the child, the more knowledge he will take from such a park, but even for a younger one it is something new, completely unknown and interesting, plus it is time spent in the fresh air!

Fortunately, there are other attractions waiting for the little ones in Kolacinek – that’s in case any of the little ones don’t like the company of dinosaurs.

Additional attractions

There is a modest geological and paleontological museum at the Dinopark, where you can see fossils from millions of years ago, posters and information graphics.

With older children you can take a look at the“Fairy Tale Path“. This is a fenced-off area where you enter with a guide at full hours. Beforehand, however, you need to get an extra ticket at the white tent (yes, there is an additional fee to enter). During the short tour, we walk between houses depicting scenes from various fairy tales. For us it was a reminder of well-known and well-loved stories, for Olive it was watching strange characters and animals ;)

A bigger attraction for the little ones, however, will be the playgrounds – there are several with dinosaur accents. There is also a large sandbox where, for an additional fee, you can play archaeologist and search for dinosaur bones or gold particles.

An additional paid attraction is the train ride, which is located right at the entrance. Note that the queue does not run all the time, it starts at specific times.

There is also a large tent with a souvenir store, restaurant, playground and various games and simulators for children (rather already for the older ones).

The biggest attraction, however, was a small water playground. There are several sprinklers, a special platform and an additional playground with a sandbox, slide and house. It’s a good idea to bring swimwear for the little ones and towels :)

Maybe August isn’t the best time to write about Santa Claus (we’ll be faster than a Coca-Cola truck this year! ;-)), but nevertheless, one can’t help but mention that St. Nicholas Village starts its activities here during the winter. Santa Claus! We won’t write about it, because we haven’t seen it in person, but it may interest you to visit Dinopark in Kolacinek in winter.

Prices at Dinopark

What does such an attraction look like in terms of price? An adult pays 25 zloty to enter, Olive entered for friko (children under three do not pay, and children over 3 years old to 16 years old pay 22 zloty). The trip cost us a total of 50 zlotys, and this is an acceptable amount, but if you think about a family of 4 with two children to pay for it, the knees may bend under a person (for those who don’t like math – it comes out to exactly 94 zlotys). Especially since there are still several paid attractions waiting inside, which, after all, are so hard to deny a child. Plus some food, drink….

Additional attractions include: Fairy Tale Path – 8 zl/child, Railway – 10 zl/child, Gold Fever – 10 zl/child and Little Paleontologist – 11 zl/child.

Up-to-date information can be found on the Dinopark website, here.

Summary

Dinopark positively surprised us. It is a very interesting and interestingly landscaped place that will appeal to even the youngest. Despite warnings that these types of parks are for older children, Olive spent half a day here with a smile on her face and did not want to go home.

The only thing, however, is that you have to expect to spend more – but once in a while you can afford it, right? :)

We also invite you to visit the photo gallery of our entire trip:

Zobacz galerię wszystkich zdjęć z Dinoparku Kołacinek >>>

The project titled. “Expansion and modernization of the facilities of educational attractions of the Amusement Park in Kolacinek” is co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund and the state budget under the Regional Operational Program of the Lodz Voivodeship for 2007-2013.