7 Tips to Visiting Museums with Kids

As our family trekked across Europe, visits to museums became a more frequent occurrence.  At the beginning, our museum trips weren’t that enjoyable as our kids became restless quickly and flew through each place like it was a race rather than an experience. We quickly realized we needed to become more creative with our approach to make our museum experiences more fun for everyone. We hope these tips help you and your little ones no matter what museum you are visiting.

• Kid Activities – Ask the museum when you enter if they have any kid-friendly activities or special kid event days. Even museums you may not think are geared towards kids may have a kid-friendly audio guide, activity book, or tour.  Many don’t advertise these services well, but it never hurts to do a quick Google search or ask.

• Goodbye Energy – Get their energy out, before you enter the museum.  Unless you are going to a hands-on or childrens’ museum I recommend taking your kids to the park for a bit beforehand to get their wiggles out.

• Pack Snacks – This is the golden rule to any activity with kids, but definitely if you plan to spend a few hours at a museum pack some snacks!

• Create A Plan – Depending on the size of the museum you are visiting, you may not be able to see everything, but can at least see what matters most to you if you create a plan. Yes, that means you may rush past some beautiful pieces, but you will at least see what you wanted before the kids lose their attention.  Do some digging and research what matters most to you so you can do those areas first and be less disappointed if you miss out on other things the museum has to offer.

• Utilize the Museums Map – Our kids love when a museum becomes a scavenger hunt where they lead us around. When you arrive snag a map and circle your areas of importance and have them help guide you there.  They will be so excited they got you to the attraction they may let you enjoy it a little longer.

• Make Up Stories – When at Angkor Wat, we pretended we were tomb raiders and came up with stories about life in our lost village. And when at the Munich Residenz, we pretended we were moving in and had the kids pick which room was theirs and made up what we would cook on the fancy china we saw.  Get creative with them and spark their imagination.

• Give Them a Camera – Kids love pretending to be photographers.  Whether you give them your phone or a cheap camera to carry around, you would be amazed at how occupied that keeps them as they feel so grown up.

We hope by implementing some of these tips you can have an amazing day out exploring a variety of museums with your kids.  Don’t forget to stop by the childrens’ museums as well which require less planning and tons of fun!