Istanbul has a lot up its sleeves for students who will soon enjoy the semester holiday set to begin on January 18. Turkey's largest metropolis offers plenty of entertainment and educational activities with museums, theme parks, public aquariums and zoos for families who prefer to stay in Istanbul during the two-week break. Here is a selection of the most popular spots in Istanbul for kids and parents alike to have fun: - Viasea One of the new venues in Istanbul, Viasea Aquarium, Theme Park and Aslan Park in Tuzla offers a wide array of entertainment to its visitors. The world's first climatic-themed island of fun featuring five different attractions, Viasea educates and entertains at the same time while opening the doors of a completely different sea world with more than 12,000 species in 47 different thematic displays. The visitors will take a journey into a fascinating underwater tunnel and bottle-feed the koi and ray fishes. ViaSea Theme Park also has the 'Red Fire', the 5th biggest rollercoaster in Europe, and appeals to all ages. It combines a modern and traditional theme park experience. Last but not least, the 8-acre Aslan Park allows visitors to know more about these big felines. - Miniaturk A miniature park on the Golden Horn, Miniaturk, is one of the largest of its kind in the world where visitors marvel at more than 100 models completed in 1/25th scale. Sixty-one of the structures represent famous landmarks around Istanbul, while 9 others represent buildings in Anatolia and 12 from the Ottoman territories that lie outside of Turkey today. Also featured are historic structures from the antique era to the Byzantine and the Seljuks. - Rahmi Koç Museum The Rahmi Koc Museum, located in Haskoy at a 27,000-acre land is the first museum in Turkey dedicated to the history of transport, industry, and communications that hosts the Mustafa Koc Building, Historic Haskoy Shipyard, and an open-air exhibition area. The museum itself is a living memory of Turkey with its numerous sections, including one for Ataturk, featuring items on roads, machines, communication, scientific tools, models and toys. Decommissioned Turkish Navy submarine TCG Uluc Reis, historic recreational boat MV Fenerbahce, and a nostalgic ride along the shores of the Golden Horn should be in your to-do list. The museum also features exhibits, workshops, and activities for children to try out their information on astronomy, maths and printing press. - Istanbul Toy Museum Founded by Turkish poet and author Sunay Akın, Istanbul Toy Museum exhibits some of the most exquisite samples of toys dating back to the 18th century. Akın has collected these toys in 20 years from auctions, more than 40 collectors and antique shops in order to revive history in a more entertaining way. One of the most family-friendly museums for a pleasant semester holiday, where each room resembles a different theater stage, the Toy Museum promises an enjoyable time to all three generations. The gallery of space toys exhibits shining stars overhead, whereas miniature train sets are exhibited in a genuine train compartment whereby the progress of industry is depicted over the years by the language of the toys. - Barış Manço Museum The house where once Barış Manço, one of the most popular and influential singers in modern Turkish music history, had lived in Istanbul is now waiting for visitors in the semester. When you got in his house, the address of which is probably known by everybody in turkey, 1/1 A real-size wax figure of Manço greets you as you step into his house standing next to his own grand piano. The visitors will be happy to see his large collection of glass items, career awards, dining room, dressing room, winter, and summer gardens. - Kite Museum Founded by Mehmet Naci Aköz, an avid kite collector since 1986, this museum boasts a collection of more than 2,500 toys, related publications, material and kites from 6 continents and 33 countries. It is the first of its kind in Turkey and one of the 18 kite museums in Europe. In the museum, students can make their own kites in the Kite School and enjoy the first-ever kite library of the world, the Gülen Okumuş Kite Library. - Chocolate Museum Chocolate Museum in Esenyurt comes first in the to-do list of chocolate-craving kids for this semester. The art-inspired museum exhibits Turkish-Islamic artworks, world art masterpieces, legendary characters, and chocolate waterfalls. In the main hall, you will see a real-size chocolate house, Noah's Ark, and paintings that tell about the history of chocolate. In the Istanbul Hall, you will see chocolate versions of Galata Tower, Blue Mosque and the Maiden Tower, July 15 Martyrs' Bridge and many other Istanbul landmarks. In the Civilizations Hall, you will enjoy the Hittite, Ancient Greek, Byzantine, Ottoman ears and others that symbolizes the rich heritage of these civilizations in a pleasant chocolate journey to the past. In the Artists Hall, chocolate statues and paintings of Pablo Picasso and other world-renowned artists such as Osman Hamdi Bey's 'The Tortoise Trainer' are exhibited. In the Great Turks Hall, chocolate statues of the most important historical figures such as Fatih Sultan Mehmet, Ataturk, and Osman Ghazi are displayed. - The Museum For The History of Science and Technology in Islam The Museum, located in the Gulhane Park over a 3,500-square-meter along the old palace wall and on former royal stables of the Ottoman sultan, uniquely offers visitors to see the evolution of the different scientific branches in the Islamic civilization. The presentation of objects from astronomy, geography, maritime, time measurement, geometry, optics, medicine, chemistry, mineralogy, physics, technics, architecture, and military, shows how significant discoveries were made and were transmitted in different ways to Europe, where they were adopted, assimilated, and altered. It is also the first museum in its field in Turkey with a total of 570 tools, device replicas, model collection. - Madame Tussauds Millions of people have flocked Madame Tussauds wax museums around the world and the Istanbul branch remains just as popular with more than 60 wax statues of contemporary and historical celebrities. The museum exhibits a vast range of wax statues from Ataturk, Sinan The Architect (Mimar Sinan), and Mehmet The Conqueror (Fatih Sultan Mehmet) in the historical figures section; Zeki Muren, Madonna, Beyonce, Mazhar-Fuat-Ozkan and Baris Manco in the music section; Mona Lisa, Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci in the science and culture, and Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal and many others in the sport section. - Holiday for nature and wildlife lovers Another exhilarating semester holiday spot for the kids is to connect with nature and wildlife. The biggest thematic aquarium of the world, Istanbul Akvaryum, where a wide array of fish can be seen, visitors will travel on a route covering 17 thematic areas from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean and the Amazon Rainforest. Children will have the chance to see red-bellied piranhas, lemon sharks, Russian sturgeons, groupers, clown fish and Gentoo penguins among many others. Darica Zoo, the first private zoo in Turkey, offers visitors a chance to see a great variety of animals from monkeys, bears and grey bears to different bird species and reptiles. Snowpark, located inside a shopping mall, excites visitors who wish to ski, snowboard and slide snowtubes. Don't worry if you are a beginner. You can always take lessons from professional instructors on site. Family-friendly adventure park Forestanbul is a sanctuary filled with lots of fun for kids and adults. Sliding on ropes from one tree to another, walking on rope bridges, climbing steep 13-meter ladders, orienteering and swinging into the forest are among many things you can enjoy at the park. - Marine Animals Museum Balikci (Fisherman) Kenan Marine Animals Museum, located in Beylikduzu, exhibits wax samples of a wide range of marine animals from ray fishes, anchovies and mackerels to sharks, for free. The Museum also boasts a 1.2-ton tuna and a ray fish, reportedly one of the biggest in the world with its 2.5-meter long tail. - Journey into the world of toys Vialand, a fun-filled and action-packed theme park that covers the area of 100 football stadiums, entertains the visitors with rides and activities in its Game World, Legends World, and Adventure World sections. In the Adventure section, there are more than 50 stations such as the Justice Tower, Wild River, Viking splash rollercoaster, Jetski, King Kong, 360, BreathTaker rollercoaster and Dream Curtain. Strolling through the nostalgic 'Once Upon a Time in Istanbul' street with its wooden, balconied houses, will enliven memories. Children will enjoy their time at the outdoor game park's carousel, Little Explorers, Dream Machine, Little Miners, Fun Farm, Flying Kids, Little Tower, bumper cars, Hero Firefighters, Little Racers stations. - Legoland to develop creativity of kids Legoland is an indoor recreational center in Istanbul, where parents can provide their 3- to 10-year-old children with a lot of creativity-boosting activities. Filled with entertainment and colorful Lego toys, Legoland will take your kids on a mission of exploration at Space Missions and on a tour of culture and history at the Miniland where several world-famous landmarks such as Galata Tower, Blue Mosque and July 15 Martyrs Bridge are constructed. Lego experts will tell your kids how they build buildings, animals, and heroes out of Lego blocks.
