Best Science Museums for Travel

With Harvard and MIT in the same city, it’s no surprise Boston’s got more in its favor than winning sports teams. Follow the lure of the iconic orange dinosaur out front into the hallowed halls of the Museum of Science, where the butterfly garden chases away the chill of notoriously brutal winters, the planetarium is enough to make one Sheldon Cooper drool, and the five-story-tall IMAX movie theater makes the floors shake, rattle and roll. Longtime favorites include musical stairs and lightning shows in the Theater of Electricity.

Ontario Science Centre celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019, and more than 52 million visitors passing through its doors. Set in the city but in an area that still feels remote (there are bird and squirrels darting about floor-to-ceiling windows and lots of wooded land with wildlife sightings), a visit here is worth at least a whole day. Astronomy, animal behavior, food science, hands-on activities like coding and weaving, and sections for kids as young as toddlers all the way through your budding engineer are waiting in one of Canada’s most diverse and dynamic cities.

Visitors interact with the exhibits at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center in Seattle, WA. Photo: Visit Seattle

While the Pacific Science Center is a great excuse for any anytime getaway, February is especially prime to take advantage of Seattle Museum Month, which offers half-price admission for your brood if you stay at one of several family-friendly hotels in city center. Final Fridays each month include virtual-reality events for all ages with a beat saber competition, and a Science in the City lecture series includes hands-on activities and planetarium demos on topics like climate change and the art of healing. A 100-square-foot model brings the science of Puget Sound to life, there’s a hands-on Pollinator Garden, calorie-burning bikes as part of a Wellbody nutrition series, and Tinker Tank for design and engineering challenges.

Visitors interact with the exhibits at the BMGF Discovery Center in Seattle. Photo: Visit Seattle

It’s a two-fer in the City of Brotherly Love. The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia even hosts a free Science Carnival (April 26–May 4 this year), with energetic experiments, geeky games and “electrifying” family entertainment on theBenjamin Franklin Parkway. Inside, kids can learn about trains, the working insides of mammals’ hearts, enjoy interactive athletic experiences like pitching and surfboard balancing, and a new exhibit opening April 13 even brings the artistic world of Marvel superheroes to life. At the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University, there are mammoth dinosaurs, a butterfly-filled tropical garden, fossils to uncover with a Big Dig exhibit and sea monsters in the Mythic Creatures exhibit.

Seattle Children’s Museum. Photo: Visit Seattle

The Bay Area brings on the best with two amazing options. California Academy of Science combines an aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum all in one, including a four-story rainforest with birds flying free, butterflies and plants. There’s a towering T. Rex skeleton, starfish you can touch and more. At the Exploratorium, kids can taste, touch, dance and hop on all of the exhibits and experiments, all along the scenic waterfront.