The Best Museums For Families

a man and child posing for a picture
Fram Museum- Oslo, Norway

When visiting new places, museums are a great way to quickly get some background and learn a little something about an area or topic. On just about every trip, we’ll usually visit a few museums.

I’ve heard lots of people say that they find  traveling with little ones difficult. When it comes to sightseeing, it can mean less time to visit sites & attractions that interest adults and  most of their time is dedicated to finding things to entertain the kids.

At this point we’re still pretty lucky.

Lucas seems to (just about) always be curious and interested in whatever we are doing. He’s been to lots of amazing museums and sites, and he just about always has a good time! Hopefully this will continue to be true in the future.

If we do want to visit something that we think won’t be that fun for him we try to be strategic about it and try to get there when he is napping. Or we just try to make it fun!

Now I’m not saying that we don’t do anything special for Lucas. Being that he is a toddler this could be as simple as stopping for a visit to a park, letting him pick out a little toy or going on one of these fun rides.

a child riding a rocking horse
Fort Worth, Texas

Travel + Leisure came up with a list of Best Museums for Families.

I was curious to see if any museums that I knew of made the list. I think that it will also be a good list to have on hand for the future.

Here are T+L’s choices:

  • Museum of Science & Industry- Chicago
  • Museum of the Moving Image- New York City
  • Ghibli Museum- Tokyo
  • The California Academy of Sciences- San Francisco
  • The Acropolis Museum- Athens
  • Riverside Museum- Glasgow
  • Mutter Museum– Philadelphia
  • Dali Theater-Museum- Figueres, Spain
  • Smithsonian Museums– Washington. DC
  • The Centro de Arte Contemoranea Inhotim- Brumadinho, Brazil
  • Tower of London
  • Grand Galerie de l’Evolution- Paris
  • Egyptian Museum– Cairo
  • Miraikan- Tokyo
  • Centre Pompidou- Paris

I’ve been to 4 of the museums from T+L’s list and could see them being appealing to kids. I’d love to check out the Museum of the Moving Image since it is so close to home. I’ve also heard from friends that it is great for kids!

If I could add a couple of museums to this list, I’d go with the Frist Center for Visual Arts in Nashville and the Fram in Oslo. The Frist Center is an art museum but it is a pretty large kids area with hands-on toys and art projects. I liked the kids area better than the art! The Fram has a huge ship inside the building where kids can climb around and explore. There are also some interactive areas which Lucas loved.

If you have any family friendly museums to recommend please share them with us.

Find out about each of the museums in the article from T+L here.

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