If you’re visiting Miyazaki with kids you’re most likely going to have a great time because there’s no crowds and wide open spaces to cut loose. The first think you need to do in Miyazaki with kids is hire a bike. The bike riding was awesome, the grown up bikes have kids seats (for up to around 20kg kids) so you can sit behind mum or dad and put your feet up. See how fast you can get them to go while riding through the forests between the golf courses. The beaches were great to run around, I didn’t swim in them but what was most excellent was the fact there were no screaming, yelling tourists and we basically had the beach to ourselves (check out the pictures).
Aoshima is only 25 minutes away so I didn’t get grumpy in the car and it’s basically crab hunting heaven. I was in absolute paradise and could have spent all 3 days there just hunting for crabs. There’s also some fish and other sea creatures and my Dad loved it because the rock formations made for some good photos and he fancies himself with a camera around his neck. Stick this one on your list of things to do in Miyazaki with kids, or for that matter, without kids. Any normal kid (that’s any kid who loves sea creatures as much as I do), will love Aoshima Island.
Miyazaki City Phoenix Zoo was also not bad, it’s pretty much like most zoos in Japan, they don’t keep the poor animals in the best of conditions, but you can see them up close and there’s excellent kids facilities and it’s nice to walk around. We had a great time with the pigeons, apart from when they tried to poo on my hand. You can probably spend half a day here, have some lunch then have a lazy afternoon back at the hotel. I wouldn’t say the Miyazaki City Phoenix Zoo was the absolute best thing to do in Miyazaki with kids, but it’s worth a visit if you’re looking to fill in a morning or later afternoon.
Overall, I loved Miyazaki, there’s no amusement parks or anything of the sort, so you just get to spend time with your Mum and Dad and play with them with nobody else around.
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