How to Spend Winter in the City with Kids

Unless ice skating in Central Park or the Boston Common is part of your family’s plan for traveling in the winter, you’ll probably be looking for warmer things to do. Even zoos, a perennial kids’ favorite, can be uncomfortable – and disappointing when all but the polar bears and penguins have retreated to their cozy caves.

As with any trip, planning ahead is important. Find out what indoor attractions and activities are open and be sure to check winter hours, which are sometimes shorter. Check also to see if any require advance ticketing, especially if you travel during school vacation weeks.

While most museums may not seem good choices for younger kids, science centers and children’s museums are an exception. Most science and natural history museums are well attuned to kids’ interests, with hands-on activities and interactive exhibits. Dinosaurs are always a hit, with insects a close second.

In Philadelphia, for example, kids can have both in one place. At the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Bug Hall, kids can immerse themselves in bugdom, with dioramas of insect habitats and videos showing how bugs move and other details. At the same museum, in the Kamin Hall of Dinosaurs, creatures from the Jurassic Age are shown in detailed reconstructions of their environments. Dinosaur species are exhibited together with others who lived at the same time, often interacting with them. Older kids will want to see the museum’s RobotWorld.

Most major cities have science centers or museums, such as New York’s American Museum of Natural History and Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. Some lean more toward technology and engineering, including the Michigan Science Center in Detroit and Chicago’s Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum contains the world’s largest collection of aviation and space artifacts, a hit with older kids.

Children’s museums are more broad ranging and usually designed for younger kids, encompassing a wide range of subjects in creative and innovative exhibits that are all about discovery and interaction. The Exploratorium of San Francisco, Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul and Children’s Museum of Denver are among the best known.

You might be surprised to find kid-friendly programs and gallery guides in art, history and other city museums. Egyptian Collections, such as those at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, are a hit with kids (think mummies). Many art museums include special children’s galleries with hands-on activities, such as the large Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.