Where To Eat At The Natural History Museum
The Museum Food Court, on the lower level, has the broadest choice. You walk around to different stations to collect your food, then pay to get to the seating area. There are always kid-friendly foods like pizza and burgers. And there are plenty of vegetarian and gluten-free options. That being said, it can get pretty expensive for a family.
If you want to bring your own food, you have to eat it in the student lunchroom, near the food court. This room is seemingly unchanged since I went to a New York City elementary school. I remember we dropped off our lunch boxes, toured the museum, and returned for lunch.
The Natural History Museum has a cafe for a quick snack on the 4th floor, and one geared towards adult visitors on the first floor. This one has beer and wine.
In nice weather, you can eat in the park next to the Natural History Museum. Hold on to your tickets for re-entry.
Sea Center Group Visits
Hello! We are delighted to be able to welcome prearranged group visits to the Sea Center this summer. We are not able to offer group discounts at this time, but if you are interested in bringing a group to the Sea Center , you will need to make a reservation with our bookings coordinator no less than two weeks before your planned visit. Request a group visit here, or email .
No groups will be admitted without a reservation.
What is a group?
The Sea Center is a fun interactive space to learn about our local marine ecologies, but it is a relatively small public space with limited staff. Because of this, we are not able to accommodate large groups at any one time. A group is defined as:
- 15 individuals
- If this group is a childrens group, there MUST be one adult for every five children. These adults are counted toward the total of 15.
How much is admission for groups?
This summer, Sea Center group admissions are the same price as individual admissions.
Adult $13 Senior $11 Teen $11 Child $10 Child under 2 years FreeSNAP/Cal Fresh $3
When do I pay admission?
Group visits must be arranged and paid in full at least 2 weeks prior to the visit date.
A Lucky Find Chunk Of Gold
Gold still accounts for a huge amount of Australias exports, earning close to an estimated £7 billion last year. This little beauty is a cast of the largest single nugget ever to have been found. Discovered in 1869, it was widely named the Welcome Stranger and weighed approximately 71.4 kg, of which 64.8 kg could be harvested for gold. The largest actual nugget surviving today is displayed on a rotating platform in the Golden Nugget Casino, Las Vegas. It weighs 27.4 kg and is worth about $1.5 million.
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Planning Your Visit To The Natural History Museum
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History opened in 1910 to invoke discovery and education of the natural world. Its green dome and immense size are signatures, as well as the 140 million-plus natural science specimens and cultural artifacts that the museum contains.
The Museum of Natural History is centrally located in Washington, DC on the National Mall. Like all Smithsonian Institution museums, admission is free. Its regular hours are 10 a.m. 5:30 p.m., but hours are extended during the spring and summer with a closing time of 7:30 p.m. The museum is open every day of the year except Dec. 25. The most convenient way to reach the museum is via public transportation. Public parking is scarce, but there are parking spaces available for visitors with disabilities. If using Metrorail, take the Orange or Blue lines to the Smithsonian station and use the Mall exit. If taking Metrobus, use the 32, 34 or 36 routes.
What To See At The Natural History Museum With Kids
As often happens in London during the rainy weekend, my safe port with children is the Natural History Museum.
This is a huge museum very popular for toddlers and children, which covers zoology, paleontology, botany, entomology and mineralogy, with circa 80 million items . So consider to spend here at least 3 hours for a complete visit you will need circa 5 at least.
One of the first time we went to the Museum, my eldest was just one year old, and he loved it.
You can reach the Museum easily by the tube, that stops is South Kensington. This is also called the area of the Museums, in fact here you will also find the Science Museum and the V& A Museum.
This Museum, which embodies all the best aspects of the Victorian philanthropic spirit, is a must see among Londons attractions.
Right at the exit from the tube, you will find yourself in front of one of Londons most eye-catching buildings with its romanesque façade. If you visit during the Christmas period, there will also be an ice rink in front of the Museum, which will immerse you in the perfect Christmas atmosphere. .
The museum opened its doors more than two hundred years ago, thanks to his patron Sir Hans Sloane, a passionate traveler who collected historical artifacts around the world and gave them to the city on his death.
If you find a queue at the main entrance in Cromwell road, I suggest to go to the other entrance on Exhibition road which usually has a shorter line.
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Blue Whale And Hall Of Ocean Life
No trip to the AMNH is complete without a visit to 94-foot-long model of a blue whale suspended from the ceiling of the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. This was always our destination on hot days. It is the most heavily air conditioned part of the museum. And the dim lighting keeps it cool. The coral reef might be the only one your kids ever see.
One of my daughters was terrified of the sperm whale and giant squid diorama. It is the same diorama that give its name to the Noah Baumbach movie, The Squid and the Whale.
Why You Should Go
With its thunderous, animatronic dinosaur, riveting displays about planet earth, outstanding Darwin Centre and architecture straight from a Gothic fairy tale, the Natural History Museum is astonishing. Kids are the target audience, but adults will be equally mesmerized.
Go on a journey through the times of dinosaurs with a visit to the Dinosaurs Gallery in the Blue Zone, an absolute must for those traveling with children. It’s packed with specimens from tiny fossils to a colossal triceratops skull, but it’s the animatronic T-rex that steals the show.
Also in the Blue Zone you can learn all about Human Biology, and stroll the Mammals gallery, which is lined with life-size creatures from hippos to horses. A model of a blue whale is suspended dramatically from the ceiling.
Adults will love the intriguing Treasures exhibition in the Cadogan Gallery , which displays a host of unrelated objects, each telling its own unique story, from a chunk of moon rock to a dodo skeleton. Also in the Green Zone, the Mineral Gallery is a breathtaking display of architectural perspective leading to the Vault, where you’ll find the Aurora Collection of almost 300 colored diamonds.
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Natural History Museum In London Uk
Kensington is one of the main cultural centers of London, and is known for major attractions such as Royal Albert Hall, busy high streets and of course, Kensington Palace. The star of this upscale district, however, is the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. This is the sort of place where you could easily while away an entire day without realizing that the seconds have ticked by.
The museum first opened its doors to the public in 1881, beginning with a collection of 71,000 exhibits, a significant portion of which had been donated by the explorer Sir Hans Sloane. Sir Hans was an Irish physician with a keen interest in natural history, and traveled the world collecting historical artifacts that would later be displayed in the halls of the museum.
National Museum Of Natural History
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History virtual tours allow visitors to take self-guided, room-by-room tours of select exhibits and areas within the museum from their desktop or mobile device. Visitors can also access select collections and research areas at our satellite support and research stations as well as past exhibits no longer on display.
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Tring Natural History Museum
Highlight: Eccentric dressed fleas and antique taxidermy
Even regular visitors to the Natural History Museum arent always aware of its small, quaint, and perfectly splendid sister site in Hertfordshire.The Natural History Museum in Tring was built around the private collection of Baron Walter Rothschild. While most childrens fascination with lions and tigers and bears fizzles out with age, Rothschild never wavered from his boyhood dream of building his own wild museum.Rothschilds lifelong collection, donated to the Natural History Museum upon his death, was a motionless menagerie of insects, birds, mammals, and fish and included scientific specimens like skins, nests, eggs, skeletons, as well as the obligatory jarred wonders. Over 4,000 specimens are now on display, just a train ride from Central London. The atmospheric 19th-century building is stuffed full of polar bears, lions, mandrills, poisonous puffer fish, and more. There are even dressed fleas from Mexico, which alone certifies Trings as one of the best natural history museums in the world. Want to see more? Check out some of the best taxidermy at Tring Natural History Museum.
Free Museum Admission Daily For:
- CA EBT cardholders with ID
- CA teachers with ID
- Active or retired military with ID
- USC Students and Faculty with ID
- Children 2 and under
Additional tickets must be purchased to see special exhibitions, Butterfly and Spider Pavilion, 3D Theater, and other special ticketed experiences.
Free Museum Admission tickets are available at any museum ticketing desk by showing your teacher ID, military ID, USC ID or EBT card when you arrive.
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Free Hours For La County Residents
L.A. County residents receive free Museum Admission 3-5 pm daily.
Additional tickets must be purchased to see special exhibitions, Butterfly and Spider Pavilion, 3D Theater, and other special ticketed experiences.
Free L.A. County Resident tickets are available from 3-5pm daily at any museum ticketing desk.
Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum
Highlights: A leatherback turtle and Neptunes cup sponge
Singapores natural history museum has taken many forms, with origins dating back to zoology-obsessed Sir Stamford Raffles and his founding of modern Singapore. In its current home since 2015, the grand facades and ageing halls you expect from the best natural history museums are replaced by innovative architecture and atmospheric lighting.The museum is a goldmine of specimens relating to Southeast Asian biodiversity. Soak up the history of Neptunes cup sponge, which was thought to be extinct until rediscovered in Singapore in 2011. These giants of the seabed were so popular with western collectors that they were all but wiped out within 50 years of their discovery in 1820.Visitors can admire a giant sperm whale skeleton at close quarters in the Mammal Zone, and see every inch of a rearing sauropod across two floors of the Biodiversity Gallery. Theres the only known leatherback turtle ever found in Singapore, jarred specimens native to the region, prawns the size of your arm, and enough spiders to put Ron Weasley into a nightmare-induced coma. Attached to the National University of Singapore, the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum is also a leading institute in Southeast Asian scientific research.
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Natural History Museums Of Los Angeles County
Highlight: Live excavations at La Brea Tar Pits
It might not have the fame and prestige of its East Coast peers, but the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest of its kind in the western United States. The Gold Rush exhibit boasts more carats than Aladdins cave and Smaugs hoard combined its one of the largest gold collections in the USA.Other hidden gems include the skeletons of a pregnant Plesiosaur and her unborn baby, the largest known Ammonite on Earth , and a nature garden thats home to snails that smell like chocolate . But what really sets the museum apart as one of the best natural history museums on Earth is the La Brea Tar Pits, a 15-minute drive away in Hancock Park. The park sits atop a trove of Ice Age fossils, perfectly preserved by bubbling, oozing asphalt. Its an active archaeological site, right in the heart of urban LA. Mammoths, dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, and hundreds of other finds have all been discovered there since excavation began in 1913.There are guided tours and fascinating live excavations where visitors can watch scientists as they reveal super-ancient fossils. There are also epic 3D shows immersing visitors in the stories of beasts from 50,000 years ago in the Tar Pits movie theater. La Brea Tar Pits is so cool that Weezer even wrote a song about it. How many museums can say that?
The Natural History Museum Of London Private Guided Tour
- Instant confirmation
- For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours in advance of the start date of the experience.
- For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours in advance of the start date of the experience.
- Tour Guide Exclusively For You
- Duration 2 hours
- Wheelchair Friendly
- Tour price does NOT include hotel pickup or drop-off
- Tour price does NOT include gratuities
- Temporary exhibitions NOT included
- Natural History Museum / Cromwell Road , South Kensington, London SW7 2DG, UKMeet your guide by the red telephone booth across the street from Exhibition Road entrance of the Natural History Museum
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Tickets And Other Practicalities
It’s free to enter the museum, although donations are welcome. There is a charge for special exhibits. Book well ahead for Wildlife Photographer of the Year and ice-skating.
The best time to come to the museum on weekdays is after 2pm when school groups leave at weekends arrive as soon as it opens. More than five million visitors come each year, so lines can often get long, especially during the school holidays. If the main Cromwell Road entrance is looking congested, head to the Exhibition Road entrance round the corner. Entrances at Queen’s Gate and Exhibition Road are wheelchair-accessible.
Fascinating Facts About The Palace Of Holyroodhouse
The Natural History Museum in London hosts a wide variety of specimens from different times in natural history. It is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, a district just West of Central London in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
The museum is home to life and earth science models, with over 80 million items contained in five different collections: entomology, botany, mineralogy, palaeontology, and zoology.
Unsure what all of those terms mean? So are we. But, we took that as a sign we needed to go see what all the hype was about. And we figured out the best ways to go visit the Natural History Museum.
So take the tube to South Kensington and bring a few pounds for the donation box were going to take a half-day trip to the museum on this rainy London afternoon.
Big Bus London Hop-On Hop-Off Tour
London Uk Bus By Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / London , Bus 2010 6 / CC BY-SA 4.0
The first thing is first if you are only in London for a few days or a couple of weeks, then you might be trying to pack in everything to your trip. We totally understand. In such a big and exciting city, there must be a lot on your list.
Check out the current exhibitions online
Natural History Museum London By jhlau a.canvas.of.light / CC BY
If you are unsure if youre going to find anything of interest when you take strip to the museum, you can do some research beforehand although were pretty sure youre going to love it regardless.
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The Blue Whale Skeleton
Youre not likely to miss this feature. The central hall of the Natural History Museum has been dubbed the cathedral of nature and its currently dominated by the huge skeleton of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling.
Nicknamed Hope the colossal 25.3m-long skeleton is the star of Hintze Hall and aims to show how humanity is affecting nature and the environment. Its breath-taking size means that youll marvel at the skeleton as you walk beneath it.
Dotted around the hall are ten other star specimens to explore, including a skeleton of an American mastodon, one of the most complete dinosaur fossils discovered in the UK, and a slice of a 4.5-billion-year-old Imilac meteorite.
Natural History Museum Admission
The American Museum of Natural History is pay what you wish for access to the permanent exhibitions. But there is a catch. You can only pay what you wish at ticket counters, and on weekends and at holiday times, you can wait two hours or more.
Children under age two are free, and kids ages 2-12 get discounted admission. If you have a teen, make sure he has his student ID for discounted admission.
CityPASS lets you skip the line. You can buy CityPASS ahead of time, and show your mobile ticket to get in. CityPASS includes general admission, the Hayden Planetarium Space Show or an IMAX movie. And you save money, depending on how many attractions you visit.
Another way to save money is through the NYC Explorer Pass, from GO City. This includes general admission to the museum, and there is a digital ticket.
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