56 Best Sights in USA

You know you'll have found the country's second-oldest children's museum when you find the giant Hood milk bottle structure. This museum has always been ahead of the curve with creative hands-on exhibits, cultural diversity, and problem-solving. Some of the most popular stops are also the simplest, like the bubble-making machinery and the two-story climbing maze. At the Japanese House, you're invited to take off your shoes and step inside a Kyoto silk merchant's home. Children can dig, climb, and build at the Construction Zone. In the toddler PlaySpace, children under three can run free in a safe environment. There's also a full schedule of special exhibits, festivals, and performances, and Children's Wharf out front is a beautiful place to walk or rest.

"Hands-on" is the operative concept at this brightly colored Navy Pier anchor. Kids can tinker with tools, climb through three stories of tunnels, play at being a firefighter, dig for dinosaur fossils, and create a masterpiece in the Art Studio.

This is one of the finest museums of its kind in North America, with constantly changing hands-on exhibits that engage children up to about age 10 in discovery. A three-and-a-half-story climbing structure soars through the center of the museum, complete with a bridge and gondola, along with a water area featuring geysers, pumps, and a 30-gallon structure that replicates a toilet flushing. Also among the 16 indoor playscapes and an outdoor area are a teaching kitchen where kids can cook real food; an art studio staffed by artists in residence; a grocery store; a veterinary office; and Fire Station No. 1, a real fire hall with a pole and kitchen. One of the biggest attractions is the Center for the Young Child, a 3,700-square-foot playscape aimed at newborns and toddlers and their caregivers; or little ones can enter Bubbles Playscape, where science and soap collide in kid-made bubbles up to 6 feet long.

The state’s best and largest museum for kiddos is set inside a LEED-certified 1920s armory with big windows overlooking downtown Dover's Henry Law Park and Cocheco River. In this bright and colorful space, well-designed interactive exhibits on submarines, river ecosystems, dinosaurs, and music are geared to kids up to around age 12, and storytelling sessions are offered regularly.  Across the street there's a great toy store, Noggin Factory, and candy and ice cream shop, Lickee's & Chewy's.

One of the top children's museums on the West Coast, this handsome, modern building just off Marine Drive overlooks East Bay and contains more than 150 imaginatively designed interactive exhibits—including a train depot, a cargo ship, a fire engine, an art studio, and a tree house—along with a half-acre outdoor play area. There's also a café serving healthy lunch fare. During the city's First Friday art walks, the museum is open late and offers $1 admission after 5 pm.

This interactive science park on 84 acres is packed full of attractions designed to spark wonder and curiosity for children of all ages. There’s a two-story science center, one of the largest butterfly conservatories on the East Coast, and 60 species of live animals in its outdoor exhibits. The Hideaway Woods exhibit features eight tree houses, a flowing stream, and fanciful nature sculptures. Earth Moves invites visitors to climb a large formation of Tennessee sandstone or explore a cave underneath it and control the flow of water from a 20-foot freestanding waterfall.

The NCM blends contemporary art with unstructured play to create an environment that appeals to children as well as adults. The 50,000-square-foot structure was constructed from recycled building materials, operates on solar energy, and is convection-cooled by an elevator shaft. It also features a gift shop, a nutritious and eco-conscious café, and as of 2024, 8,600 additional square feet of new gallery space, an Education Commons area, and an expanded art studio.

Interactive exhibits include designated areas for toddlers and teens, as well as plenty of activities for the entire family. Several art workshops are offered each day, as well as hands-on studios where visitors are encouraged to create their own art. The studio projects change frequently and NCM regularly hosts events such as author visits, workshops, and a variety of other activities. The adjoining 1-acre park and playground is across from the convention center trolley stop and limited underground parking is available for $20.

Philadelphia's deservedly popular interactive children's museum, aimed at children ages eight and younger, instills a sense of wonder and fun from the get-go with a towering entrance hall that has a 40-foot-tall sculpture of the Statue of Liberty's torch as its centerpiece. The museum occupies a majestic beaux arts–style building constructed for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, one of just two public buildings still standing from the event. It fills 65,000 square feet with more than 15 themed exhibits, including areas designed for toddlers, where kids can learn through hands-on play. Some popular areas are Food and Family, a mock supermarket; River Adventures, a water area; Wonderland, themed to Alice's adventures; a Makerspace and a Creative Arts Studio for inventing and creating; and a Rocket Room for space adventures. Another highlight is a circa-1908 Dentzel Carousel ride with 52 colorful animals. The 2025 season finale of the TV show Abbott Elementary, about the school's field trip, was filmed at the beloved museum. From fall 2025 through fall 2026, Please Touch will present a special exhibition, Discovering Democracy, as part of the nation's 250th birthday celebrations.   All visitors require advance reservations. Allow about three hours for a visit; weekdays are less crowded. The museum has a café, and there's some free parking in the park.

At this interactive museum, adults are encouraged to play every bit as much as children. A favorite attraction is the three-story KidWorks, a futuristic jungle gym on which the adventurous can climb, crawl, slide, and swing their way through stairs, slides, ropes, zip lines, and tunnels, and even across a narrow footbridge. Learn about the Earth's atmosphere as you splash around in Wonders of Water (rain slickers and shoes are provided). Cook food in Tiny's Diner, an interactive restaurant. A soccer field becomes a stage for dance-offs and virtual races. Changing exhibits allow for even more play.

The vibrant, interactive, hands-on learning environments here are geared to children ages 1 to 11 and their families. Favorite exhibits and activities include Water Ways, ThinkSpace, Maker Studio, and Coming to Rhode Island, which encourages kids to imagine the experience of immigrating to the Ocean State. Littlewoods, for toddlers, has a tree house, bear cave, and a slide. Kids can also explore an outdoor climbing structure and imitate burrowing creatures in Underland.

What looks like a giant block of yellow cheese is actually the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, an interactive space where kids can run, touch, and play with abandon. Exhibits include a greenhouse, a rooftop play space, World Brooklyn—a warren of rooms dedicated to various NYC cultures—and the new Air Maze, where kids can insert objects into a topsy-turvy pneumatic-tube system. Check their calendar for ongoing programs, including their Drag Story Hour, which celebrates gender diversity.

A long-running community outreach program that used to operate a mobile children's museum out of a purple bus has now found a permanent home within the cavernous, former Powerhouse building in Mill Pond Park. Kids can play and create in this bright, colorful, and bilingual space (English and Spanish) with two arts and crafts areas, a learning area about local nature, a flowing water play table to learn about boats on the river, and "The Block"—a kid's version of a neighborhood street scene. Programs, like story times and animal encounters, are scheduled regularly.

Ranked among the best in the country, the Buell Children's Museum provides fun, interactive experiences for kids of all ages. The 12,000-square-foot facility has innovative exhibits on art, science, and history. It's in the same complex as the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center.

A life-size walk-through replica of a 60-foot sperm whale greets patrons at this museum. Located in West Hartford, the museum also has a wildlife sanctuary and a planetarium with real-life images of outer space beamed in from NASA, as well as a hands-on puzzle exhibit that introduces kids to various scientific and mathematical concepts and optical illusions.

Kids can pretend they are lobstermen, veterinarians, shopkeepers, or actors in a play at Portland's small but fun Children's Museum. Most exhibits, many of which have a Maine theme, are hands-on and best for kids 10 and younger. The indoor climbing features a toddler crawl-through and a birds’ nest viewing tower. There's a maker's space that sets tykes up to conjure up all kinds of creations—from art to engineering masterpieces. There's a water center called "Go With The Flow" that gets everyone experimenting with water (and a little wet).

Good on a rainy day or to burn off extra energy in the kids, this museum is basically a large indoor playground, with educational games and interactive exhibits such as a grocery store, a kid-size TV news studio, a bubble exhibit, and a health exhibit.

In this colorful and joyfully noisy museum for children ages eight and younger, kids can build sandcastles, watch themselves perform on closed-circuit TV, operate a giant ball-moving machine, and get inside an imaginary waterfall (after donning raincoats, of course). Other exhibits rotate every few months.

In this five-story exploratorium, children ages one to seven are invited to paint their own masterpieces, float boats down a "stream" (seasonal), rescue animals with Dora and Diego (in an exhibition created in collaboration with Nickelodeon), and walk through or crawl under larger-than-life contemporary sculptures at Inside Art. In the immersive, comic book–inspired Superpowered Metropolis exhibit, a trio of lively pigeons—Zip, Zap, and Zoom—guide you through a 1,500-square-foot space equipped with interactive features like a climbable, two-story tree house. Special exhibits are thoughtfully put together and fun. Art workshops, science programs, and storytelling sessions are held daily.

The CMA encourages children ages 1 to 15 to get creative through a variety of mediums. Along with the requisite children's museum offerings like pencils, chalk, and paint, you'll find a clay bar; a media lab with mounted cameras and a recording studio; a small slide and colorful ball pond that kids can play in; an airy exhibition space with rotating exhibits (and workshops inspired by exhibits); a permanent collection of children's art from more than 50 countries; and classes in ceramics, origami, animation, filmmaking, and more. Check the website for a busy calendar of events.

This 80,000-square-foot facility is packed with hands-on exhibits that cover everything from science and music to construction and race cars. There are also special areas for kids five and younger.

Youngsters are encouraged to touch and explore the science, language, and history exhibits here. They can examine a patient in the Bodyology Center and care for (stuffed) doggies at the PetVet exhibit. Investigation Station has air-pressure tubes where balls and scarves whiz around, and there's a Discovery Garden for all ages to climb, slide, and burn off steam. Admission is free on Thursday evenings from 5 to 7 pm and on second Saturdays.

The state’s largest children’s museum, a two-story brick building, has been keeping kids 12 and under entertained (and educated) since the mid-1990s. Kids love the Bone Dig, Lego Zone, Little Falls Parkour, and Kim’s Crafty Corner (call ahead to make sure Kim is in) where they get to make souvenirs to take home. Parents love the museum’s coffee shop which also sells snacks.

One of Crayola's five "experiences" in the country is a 70,000-square-foot haven of color at the Florida Mall. The two-floor center contains an overwhelming 27 interactive stations, including painting and modeling stations, where tykes can create animals out of clay and melted crayons. Don’t miss the younger set’s favorite: You Design, a virtual studio for coloring and digitally accessorizing a car or fashioning a wardrobe and then seeing the design projected on a large screen. Also be sure to check out the Crayon Factory, where live demonstrations show crayon creation—from wax to wrapper. Purchase tickets online and save $3.

The DISCOVERY Children's Museum is one of the most technologically sophisticated children's museums in the entire country. The facility comprises nine theme exhibition halls, all of which are designed to inspire visitors—both children and adults—to learn through play. The star of the show: a 12-story exhibit dubbed "The Summit," with education stations on every level and a lookout that peeks through the building's roof. Parents of the smallest visitors will also love "Toddler Town," an area designed for those who are still crawling or just learning how to walk. "Fantasy Festival," another exhibit, comprises a life-size pirate ship (yes, really), and ample clothes for kiddos to dress up.

The region's premier children's museum, geared toward kids ages 2 to 10, has three floors of lively hands-on experiences. Kids can participate in a television newscast, learn about dinosaurs by seeing what it's like to be a paleontologist, tell stories through pictures or radio, climb into a Life Flight helicopter, or revel in a kid-size town with grocery store, vehicles, a house, and a construction site. The family-friendly restaurants of the surrounding Gateway Center, including the HallPass food hall, are steps from the museum.

If your kids are bored with the Alamo, head to the DoSeum, where they can explore 68,000 square feet of interactive indoor space in galleries connected to STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) learning and discovery, along with the arts and literacy. Exhibits are geared to ages under 11, but even grown-ups will get a kick out of the Semmes Foundation Spy Academy and the beautiful Big Outdoors section, with WaterWorks and wheelchair-accessible treehouse. Visitors 18 or older without children are welcome, but will be asked at entry to present a valid driver's license and to submit to a brief automated background check. The DoSeum Store features apparel, books, gifts, and educational toys and games.

With more than 90,000 square feet for climbing, exploring, painting, playing, building—oh, and learning, too—this museum is a full day of hands-on fun. Eddie, a 40-foot-tall statue of a boy that can be climbed on (and in) by children and adults, is the centerpiece. Each of nine galleries has a theme, such as My Backyard, World of Work, and the Aha Factory Maker Space. Kids can shop in their own grocery store, act as firefighters in a full-size fire truck, and pretend to be newscasters.

Rotating exhibits and interactive permanent displays—which include Waterways to the Future and Montana Outdoors—are the main attractions at Helena's beloved children's science museum.

Celebrating the life and the inventions of A.C. Gilbert, a Salem native who became a toy manufacturer and inventor, this museum is an amazing place to let the imagination run wild. There are themed interactive rooms along with a huge outdoor play structure. In addition to the children's activities, many beloved toys created by A.C. Gilbert are on display, including Erector sets and American Flyer trains. The wide range of indoor and outdoor interactive exhibits will appeal to children (and adults) of all ages.

It's all about play here, and, with 53,000 square feet, more than a dozen themed areas, and over 170 interactive exhibits, there's plenty of opportunity for it. In areas designed to nurture imagination and strengthen confidence children and families can experience everything from flying an airplane to shopping for groceries. Kids can also create art, control the weather, navigate a mini-shipping channel, and "drive" a miniature (stationary) fire truck through Tampa. The Water's Journey Tree mimics the water cycle and lets kids climb to the second floor.