San Marino with kids: towers, a cable car and a couple of museums I'd skip

San Marino has something that works on nearly every child, a real castle on top of a mountain, with cannons, prison cells and a walk along the battlements. It also has a couple of places I wouldn’t show young children, and hills that are merciless on a buggy. This is how I’d plan it as a family.

What it costs, which isn’t much

The good news is that under-18s get into the State Museums free. The €11 pass opens the First and Second Towers, the State Museum, the Pinacoteca and the other public sites, and children pay for none of them. Two adults with three children spend the same as two adults on their own.

The cable car is generous too. Anyone under 120 cm rides free, and adults pay €4 one way or €7 return. On the bus from Rimini, children under 100 cm travel free without taking a seat, and above that they pay the full €7 fare. All the fares are in my guide to the San Marino cable car.

My ideal family morning

I’d start down in Borgo Maggiore and go up on the cable car, which leaves every quarter of an hour and hangs above the woods. For many children that’s the best part of the day, and it saves you the climb.

Up top I’d head straight for the Guaita, the First Tower. It has everything a child expects of a castle. In the courtyard there are artillery pieces donated by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1907, inside are the old prison cells, used until 1970, and the bell tower looks out as far as the Adriatic. Telling them people were locked up in there less than sixty years ago usually does the trick.

From the Guaita to the Cesta runs a path between battlements called the Witches’ Passage, and the name alone hooks them. In the Cesta is the Museum of Ancient Arms, with around 700 pieces, from battle axes to suits of armour. My favourite piece to show a child is a breastplate made for a child, engraved and gilded around 1540 at the royal workshop in Greenwich. It proves children played at knights too, only for real.

What I’d skip with young children

San Marino is full of private museums, and not all of them suit children. The Torture Museum in San Marino boasts more than 100 original instruments designed to cause pain and death, and I wouldn’t take young children. The wax museum has 40 scenes and 100 figures, but also a section on instruments of torture, so check first.

The one I do think works is the Museo delle Curiosità, three floors of odd objects and life-size characters, at €9 for adults and €6 reduced. All the private museums are compared in quirky museums in San Marino.

One warning to manage expectations. The changing of the guard has no published timetable in any source I can check, and in 2026 the Palazzo Pubblico is closed for restoration. If you see the guards in their green and red uniforms, lovely, but I wouldn’t build the morning around them.

Buggies, hills and logistics

The old town is steep and cobbled, with stepped stretches. With a baby I’d use a carrier and leave the buggy in the car. If you’re driving, the P9 car park has panoramic lifts up to the centre, and the SMUVI on-demand bus takes pushchairs if you tick the option when booking. On busy days the P12 shuttle is free for anyone under 120 cm, according to a local site. For a family bed, Hotel Crocenzi in Borgo Maggiore has 30 m² quadruple rooms and its own car park.

With children the afternoon can also drag in such a small town. My advice is to see San Marino in the morning and head down to the coast afterwards.

The afternoon, down on the coast

The Rimini Riviera is the natural partner. As well as the beach, there are eighteen theme parks between Ravenna and Cattolica according to the Emilia-Romagna region, including Italia in Miniatura, with 272 models and a Venice you can sail through, Fiabilandia for the youngest, Oltremare, Mirabilandia and Aquafan. Swimming options are in beaches near San Marino, and the town itself in Rimini. If your children are older and like fortresses, San Leo runs educational workshops for kids and has Cagliostro’s prison cell.