The long weekends and holidays are coming. A lot of us want a change of scenery, some rest and to see something new and interesting. The big Polish cities like Warszawa, Kraków, Poznań or Gdańsk are always attractive destinations. In each of them you can find places which will please our demanding children and areas which will guarantee a nice and reasonably peaceful rest. Every parent knows that there are few things as annoying and likely to rain on our parade as a whinging and boring kid.

Everybody who has been to the Old Town in Gdańsk knows that it is a picturesque place, full of relics, monuments, and charming corners. I think that you should see Długi Targ Street with the Fountain of Neptune, the Żuraw (crane) on Motława – which is the emblem of Gdańsk – and the museum dedicated to the people connected with the harbour. You should also visit Artus Court with the Historical Museum of Gdańsk, the Amber Museum and, in my opinion, the most beautiful little street – Mariacka, where you can find picturesque townhouses and galleries with silver and amber jewellery. This kind of walk is interesting and relaxing for adult visitors, but it may test the patience of even the most resilient children.

To those of you whose children have had enough of old walls and potsherds and can't eat any more ice-cream, I recommend taking a break and going to the Maritime Culture Centre near the Żuraw. Here you can let the children play while visiting the exhibition "People-Ships-Ports".

I'm sure that a lot of parents were under pressure: "mum, buy me a soft drink". Shop shelves groan with drinks that tempt us with colourful and enticing labels. Some of them also have stickers to attract children's attention. You just need one peek at a list of ingredients as long as the periodic table and you don't want to buy them. Unfortunately, normal mineral water isn't attractive both in terms of taste and packaging. Adults are more sensible so more often choose water, but children are more difficult to convince.

My children mostly drink water, juice and green and fruit tea, but sometimes I am faced with the above difficult choice.

For children aged 5-6 educators and teachers have more authority than parents, so I decided to look for outside support. I was rescued from my trouble by a nearby shop with healthy and ecological food "EKOlogika" Opaczewska Street 43. In this ordinary but amazing place they organize training workshops for children and adults about products and eating habits, and they also have evenings with books and meetings with businessmen from the Ochota district as well as other events.

A tour of the south of Europe can be done in one go. The motorways shorten the travel so much that even more than 1500 km isn't a problem. When we have a bit more time, we try to brighten our trip with attractions, thanks to which our tired children don't yank their hair out and get on our nerves. I think that adult travellers could also take advantage of our proposals. They are special and remarkable. I like medieval ruins and castles which quietly tell their stories, but my children make a wry face at the prospect of visiting more "old walls".

Therefore, we changed our plans and decided to take a trip around the world. We didn't need 80 days like Phileas Fogg in the book by Julius Verne. We needed only one nice afternoon to see about 150 models of buildings and other objects from around the world in Minimundus, the Miniature Park near Klagenfurt. The park was opened in 1958 and every year the number of new exhibits increases. The income from the tickets goes to the "Rettet Kind" foundation ("Save a Child"), which runs the park. We didn't know how the objects in the park were chosen. We found out that the visitors also have a role in choosing them, as they can suggest which buildings should appear in Minimundus Park.

You can find here not only the biggest and the most famous buildings in the world, like the French Eiffel Tower or St Peter's Cathedral from Vatican City. Among the places found here there are also small and seemingly less significant but charming buildings like St. Kevin's Church from Ireland or the Belgian watermill. Each place was arranged with great attention to detail, decorated with small greenery that goes well with the style of the buildings. The details of the models are breath-taking. Reportedly, some of the maquettes were made with extraordinary building materials that cost even over half a million euros.

There are at least a few Dinosaur Parks in Poland. Some are big and some are small, but all of them try to take us back to a time on our planet when there were animals the size of houses, there were sharks in the seas as big as buses, and the air was ruled by flying animals the size of small planes. This year we have visited probably the biggest park of this kind in Poland. Jura Park in Krasiejów proposes not only a classic encounter with dinosaur mock-ups; it is also a real time journey, which we made using our imagination, supported by cutting edge technological achievements.

Dinosaur Park is only a little part of what we may see in Krasiejów. We started with the Science and Mankind Evolution Park. This inconspicuous building on the other side of a car park hides a real time machine. Tooled up with helmets like Lord Vader, we observed and listened to stories of mankind's evolution. We flew a space shuttle, we docked at an orbital space station, we went back in time 66 million years where we saw the extinct world of the dinosaurs and other species' shy attempts to colonize the Earth. Flying the space shuttle you have to grip your chair strongly. The kids were overjoyed with these learning techniques and were able to memorize loads of information.

Following this, we passed by the car park and continued our journey through time. I do not know whether you have seen the "Dinosaur Train" cartoon with your children. The dinosaurs can move between different time eras by driving a train through a time tunnel. We were able to experience a similar adventure. Sitting in a time capsule, wearing 3D glasses, we started from the Big Bang and travelled through all the cataclysms and changes which formed the Earth's surface.

The holiday – a deserved time for rest, and although everybody wants to, we cannot always go away with our children for two whole months. Fortunately, there are weekends and despite having loads of work we can go away for one day.

We only have to look around and we can find countryside attractions. Today I would like to propose a day out within one hour from Warsaw. There will be a bit of history, sightseeing, nature and some fun. There is something for everybody.

Within the programme for the development region of Łódź, Tomaszowska Okrąglica was created. It consists of Nagórzyce Grottoes, Sanctuary Blue Spring and Open-Air Museum of Pilica River. It is worth visiting all of them.

Nagórzyce Grottoes are a remnant from the underground sand mine which was in operation from the XVIII century to the beginning of the XX century. They consist of numerous passages, niches and chambers created while sand mining. After a tragic incident in which a villager died as a result of one of the chambers collapsing, the local authority handed down a decision to close the mine. For many years the pit degraded and was the meeting place of truants. However, recently, a properly secured tourist route was created. We visited it with a guide, who aimed her account at the youngest visitors. We got to know about different ways of mining and ways of securing the safety of the pits. We heard the story about the Nagórzyce devil, about the ruffian Madej and his bed. We looked out for dwarfs, who turned on the light in the mine, and finally we looked for a red hat lost by one of the dwarfs. My children were delighted. When arranging a trip to the Nagórzyce Grottoes, remember to take warm coats, because the temperature in the mine averages about 10 degrees Celsius.