Traveling with children can be a very fun experience, and with prior planning the trip can be even more enjoyable for you and your little ones. Children’s museums can be found in every region of the country and around the world, but you might wonder to yourself, “Where are the world’s best children’s museums?” I’m here to tell you about 14 museums in the United States and beyond that you should definitely see with the kids.
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is the largest children’s museum in the world, and you and the little ones will be positively mesmerized by the five floors of exhibit space spread out across nearly 500,000 square feet. Over 120,000 artifacts and items are part of the museum collection, divided into three curatorial departments (the Natural World, the Cultural World, and the American Collection). One of the oldest children’s museums in the country, open since 1925, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis helped to popularize the interactive learning model for museums. Don’t miss the dinosaur habitat exhibit, be sure to take a ride on the steam locomotive and carousel, and marvel at Dale Chihuly’s tallest blown glass sculpture in the world (pictured). Make the Children’s Museum the highlight of your family-friendly Indianapolis vacation with Tripmasters.
The American Museum of Natural History, located across from Central Park in the Manhattan borough of New York City, is geared toward all ages. The largest natural history museum in the world, there is over 2 million square feet of exhibition space, plus a planetarium and a library. There are exhibition halls featuring artifacts and specimens from all classes of the animal kingdom, such as mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, as well as exhibitions relating to plants, biodiversity, and the environment. There is also a popular exhibition hall devoted to “human origins”, featuring artifacts from all over the world. Take some time to learn about the stars and constellations at the Hayden Planetarium, inside the Rose Center for Earth and Space. See the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park, and more on your next family trip to New York City!
The Exploratorium in San Francisco celebrated its 50th year in 2019, and the museum, once at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District, is now in its own converted space along the Embarcadero near the port. The Central Gallery is where some of the Exploratorium’s oldest exhibits are located, and they revolve around sight and sound and our perception of both. Perception is expanded upon in the West Gallery, dedicated to human behavior, and requires hands-on learning in groups. The little makers in the group will love the DIY area in the South Gallery, where they can create some of their own pieces of art, such as stop-motion films, and learn about electricity and magnetism (pictured). The Exploratorium should at the top of your list when you take your next Tripmasters vacation to beautiful San Francisco.
(Chicago)
(Amsterdam)
(Singapore)
Boston Children’s Museum, situated on Fort Point Channel between downtown and south Boston, has been in existence since 1913, making it one of the oldest children’s museums in the world. It has grown in over a century from a small local museum with just two exhibits to housing a permanent collection of over 50,000 items. Some of the most popular exhibits at the Boston Children’s Museum include the three-story New Balance Foundation Climb, which you will see as you enter the building; the two-story townhouse of a real Japanese silk merchant; the Construction Zone, where children can experience what it’s like to be on a “big dig”; and an exhibit dedicated to the popular kids’ show Arthur (top left in picture), produced by PBS station WGBH in Boston. Make sure you put this wonderful museum at the top of your to-do list when you book your next Tripmasters vacation to Boston.
The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York is a very unique museum in that it combines the interactive characteristics found at children’s science museums and dedicates the learning experiences solely to the act of play. Kids can play in a kid-sized version of the popular supermarket Wegmans, enter the worlds of Sesame Street and The Berenstain Bears with interactive exhibits for each, and even visit the National Toy Hall of Fame! The goal of this museum is to analyze what it means to play, not just for today’s kids, but also in a historical context leading up to today. The Strong National Museum of Play strives to shape the minds of tomorrow’s leaders, and should be at the top of your list if your Tripmasters family vacation should bring you to Rochester, New York.
The Children’s Museum of Houston is one of the newer museums on this list, only opening their doors in 1984, but in that time the Children’s Museum, located in Houston’s Museum District, has grown to nearly 100,000 square feet of exhibition space and records one million visitors annually. The permanent exhibits are geared toward children of all ages, from the Tot Spot for babies and toddlers to hands-on play areas for older children such as the plant-centered EcoStation, featuring a garden of native plants and a small woodland habitat; DIY areas such as the Inventor’s Workshop and the Maker Annex; and science exhibits such as the Genius Station and Power Science Lab. Those are just a sampling of all the fun activities that the Children’s Museum of Houston has to offer. Make the Museum District the shining star in your next Tripmasters vacation to Houston in the Lone Star State.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum‘s beginnings were rooted in the provincial government of Alberta wishing to open a paleontology museum that is close to Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since opening its doors in 1985, the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s paleontology collection has grown to showcase over 350 different organisms with a permanent collection of 800 complete or semi-complete sets of fossils. The museum is the leading authority on dinosaurs and dinosaur fossils in Canada, featuring impressive skeletal frames of such prehistoric creatures as the woolly mammoth, triceratops, stegosaurus (pictured), and tyrannosaurus. (Fun fact: The Royal Tyrrell’s tyrannosaurus, Black Beauty, is among the most complete dinosaur skeletal sets in the world.) The Royal Tyrrell can be seen as a day trip from Calgary, and is about 90 minutes northeast of the city.
The Natural History Museum is located on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London, and is one of the largest museums in the UK. The ornate terracotta building is called the “Cathedral of Nature” and is home to a number of historically significant pieces, some found by the famed naturalist Charles Darwin. The museum is broken up into four galleries: the Red Zone covers Earth’s changing history; the Green Zone showcases the evolution of our planet; the Blue Zone explores the diversity of life on Earth; and the Orange Zone is a testament to “science in action”. Make sure to see the skeleton of “Hope”, a blue whale that died in 1891; the Ostro Stone, the largest topaz gemstone in the world; a rare dodo skeleton from over 1,000 years ago; and the largest intact stegosaurus skeleton in the world, named “Sophie”. When you take your next Tripmasters family vacation to London, you should definitely visit the Natural History Museum.
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is the result of the merger of two museums, the Museum of Scotland, the museum of history, culture, and archaeology, and the Royal Scottish Museum, which focuses on science, technology, and art. It is Scotland’s largest museum and the most popular tourist attraction in the country. A 2011 redesign saw changes to the exhibits at the Royal Scottish Museum, featuring new additions such as the taxidermied body of the first cloned sheep, Dolly. The “Window on the World” exhibit in the Grand Gallery (pictured) gives visitors an idea of the vast collection to be found in the complex. The Museum of Scotland tells the history of the country through artifacts dating from prehistory to Medieval times. You can spend days here so make sure to add a few extra nights to your next Edinburgh vacation with Tripmasters.
The Science Museum in London, like the Natural History Museum, is also located on Exhibition Road in South Kensington. The Science Museum consists of two buildings adjoining each other, the main building which dates from 1857, and the Wellcome Wing. The main building has four floors and has exhibits dedicated to the Industrial Revolution, space, the evolution of creature comforts in the home, the history of medicine, and a gallery dedicated to flight. The Wellcome Wing is where the IMAX Theatre is located, as well as exhibits like “Tomorrow’s World”, which tackles contemporary science questions as they relate to the environment. London (and England in general) boasts so many great museums which your little ones will love. Book your trip with Tripmasters today! (Pictured: The Apollo 10 command module, located on the main building’s ground floor.)
CosmoCaixa in Barcelona is considered one of the best children’s museums in Europe, and there are so many fun options for children to learn and experience facts related to the studies of biology, geology, electricity, magnetism, and the history of evolution, among other topics. Popular exhibits include The Hall of Matter (pictured), which discusses not just evolution but also intelligence, mobility, and gravity. Additional fun exhibits include Clik and Flash, where younger children can learn about science hands-on; the Geological Wall, featuring rock formations native to the Mediterranean; and Touch, Touch!, where kids can learn about the plants and animals of the Mediterranean region and around the world. There is also a planetarium for those visitors who are young and young-at-heart who love learning about the stars. Your next Barcelona vacation needs to include a stop at the fascinating CosmoCaixa.
(Gatineau, Quebec)
(Oslo)
(Lisbon)
The Deutsches Museum in Munich is a museum you need to visit, and here’s one good reason — it is the world’s largest science and technology museum, where 28,000 objects are presented at any given time across 39 different permanent exhibitions. The most popular exhibits include interactive displays on everything from paper-making to blowing glass, demonstrations on how coal and salt mines used to be run, and reconstructions of such legendary cave paintings as Altamira, which were painted 36,000 years ago in a cave in Cantabria, Spain. There is even an exhibit on the nearly 120-year history of the Deutsches Museum, originally called the German Museum for Masterpieces of Natural Science and Technology. On your next Tripmasters vacation to Munich, take the kids to the fascinating Deutsches Museum, you won’t regret it!
Junibacken in Stockholm is interesting in that it is not a traditional museum — there are no permanent exhibits, and no collection of artifacts. What Junibacken does do well, however, is introduce children to hands-on experiences relating to Swedish children’s literature. Astrid Lindgren, author of the legendary book Pippi Longstocking, is particularly well-represented, as adults and children take a ride on a special locomotive through the world of Lindgren’s books and characters. Kids will also really like Storybook Square, where they can enter reimagined constructions of the houses of their favorite characters, such as the farmer Pettson and his cat Findus. A world of wonder awaits you at Junibacken, which should be included in your Tripmasters vacation to Stockholm alongside such family-friendly sights as Skansen open-air park.
The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is the newest museum on this list and the most futuristic. Opened in 2001, “Miraikan” (meaning “Future Museum” in Japanese) offers such fun exhibits as the Geo-Cosmos (pictured), an LED globe which shows weather events around the world in real time, and ASIMO, a humanoid robot developed by Honda. There is also a very cool collection of seismometers which show you in real time which parts of the country are feeling vibrations or earthquakes, a very interesting display considering Japan is one of the most seismically volatile countries in the world. Another fun exhibit is Geo-Palette, which takes a spherical rendering of the countries of the world and places it on a flat surface while still maintaining proper proportions. Visit Tokyo on your next family vacation and take a trip to this fun museum, located in Odaiba, just across Tokyo Bay from the heart of the city.
Now that you’ve read about the top children’s museums in the world, which ones would you like to take your loved ones to? You can make that family vacation dream a reality by heading over to Tripmasters.com, where you can peruse the destinations discussed above, as well as our destinations in 120 additional countries and territories throughout the world. For more museum inspiration, check out our blog post on the Top 12 Museums in the World.
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