Family day out: Medieval Theme Park San Michael

We have visited the Medieval Theme Park San Michael, near Svetvinčenat in August (Istria region, Croatia). If you’ve been following my blog for the past few years, you probably noticed that I like visiting castles. So, when I saw this theme park on another blogger’s Instagram feed I decided to visit it with my family. It looked like a fun place for our almost three year old son. And it was such a fun day out for us all.

We went to the Medieval Theme Park San Michael with our friends. We arrived in the afternoon just slightly after its opening time. After you enter through the tall wooden door you follow the pathway to the big wooden castle. All around you are olive trees. As we were approaching the castle we saw a horse and a cart full of kids (that’s what we thought, it was a donkey actually). A lady of the castle welcomed us at the castle’s entrance and we stepped back in time.

The wooden San Michael castle just blew my mind. It’s 400 square meters in size and it even has a high dry moat. It definitely looks like a proper medieval castle and yet it was built by the family that owns and operates this theme park. The woodwork is exquisite and there are so many fine details. You can walk around the castle’s walls and climb the towers. Each tower has an escape room activity but since we were there with small kids we couldn’t do that. There are torture rooms and a witches’ den too as well as the display of medieval crafts and tools. The toilets and the restaurant are in the castle’s courtyard. You can see witches and dragons and knights and princesses here.

What did we do at the Medieval Theme Park San Michael? There are many kids’ activities here and (almost) all of them are operated by staff according to a timetable. We were just on time for the donkey ride so my husband and my son jumped in the cart and went for a ride. Afterwards I wanted to go on a wooden carousel but it really is just for the kids so I was sad that I couldn’t do that. Our son loved the tree walk and the tree house as well as the big playground wooden castle which is a smaller copy of the original San Michael castle. There are swings and a couple of other usual children’s park items. Our friends’ daughter and my son fed the goat. They saw the pigeons, chickens and sheep and they petted the bunnies. Neither of them wanted to ride a horse, unfortunately. They both had lots of fun shooting water balloons out of a huge sling. In the end we didn’t go through the labyrinth because the kids were too busy running around laughing. My husband managed to participate in the archery activity too.

What else does this theme park offer? They do medieval dinners and medieval performances during the week. We saw a zip line from one castle tower to another but it wasn’t yet operational. Of course, there’s a small souvenir shop at the entrance too. All the activities are free with the paid entry ticket (unlike in the cowboy village that we visited one weekend before this day trip). Kids from 0 to 3 have a free entry and adults pay 60 HRK (around 8 EUR) which is a bargain for this kind of a theme park. For more info click here and here.

We had some drinks and ice-creams at the restaurant’s outdoor seating. What really added to the experience was the staff. They entertained the kids and adults, engaged in conversation, and offered help, all in a very unobtrusive way. The weather couldn’t have been better either, because it was cloudy (not great for photos though) and not too hot which is rare for August. We didn’t bring along our baby girl because we wanted to have a special day out with our son (he actually got two special day trips this summer). Next year, we are bringing our daughter too. We are definitely coming back, that’s how much fun we had.

ps. this is a great destination for a day trip during Covid-19 because you are obviously in the nature and this theme park isn’t yet too crowded

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