American Museum of Natural History, New York City

A great museum. There are lots of regular and special exhibitions all year long and it would be interesting for both kids and grownups. It's very clean and they have added a lot of new and interactive exhibits. It's huge, has many shops, labs, planetarium and a very nice kids discovery room (good for ages 1 - about 10). If you're in NYC and never been , it's a must place to visit, since it's that big I would plan what you're going to see in advanced or check with the nice information desks guys over there before you start. The suggested fee is 12$ but it's donation based so you can leave any amount (especially important for larger groups ).

Such a special & wonderful place we are blessed to have in New York. Have been coming here since I was a child and there are rooms that literally bring me back to my childhood. Particularly the halls with the dioramas of people and animals and the giant versions of a forest floor and sliced section of a Redwood tree. Especially though is the view of the Blue Whale hanging from the ceiling when you walk into the great hall. The thrill I get when I see that never wears off no matter how many times I’ve been there now with my own kids.

Great space, very clean, staff were efficient and friendly. The kids loved the dinosaur bones... They are pretty young so it wasnt really set up for them. I really like taking them to educational outings. My suggestions: and there is a lot of room to upgrade... I would have an interactive room for young kids, dinosaur bones that they can connect, a dinosaur slide... A sand box with the special sand ... With dinosaur bones, fish, butter flies, star shapes to make impressions in the sand. A movie meant for the toddler age. With a mini cafeteria just for the young age group.. sandwich cut outs... Dino's, fish, stars, birds... Gets the kids imagination running. There is really no limit to entertaining kids, and I feel that by starting young will help foster the science mindfulness in kids.

Overall, this is a great museum! I enjoyed my visit here. It has plenty of exhibit halls and special exhibits to walk through or watch. I ended up spending most of my time in the spaxe/planets area and it was fascinating! It's a "pay what you think" admission if you wait in line for the ticket booth. My family went to the ticket kiosk but they weren't "pay what you think" and we ended up paying the suggested admission price, so be aware of this! The food court was okay, but the prices were pretty high (almost $7 for a slice of pizza!!) and it was very crowded and overwhelming.

I would say it's my favorite museum in NY. There are detailed diagrams and models for people especially the kids to understand our nature history. Including biology, cosmology, geology, etc. Definitely fun and very interactive. You can learn a lot with just a day trip there. The only thing I will suggest is that most of them are permanent exhibitions, but I hope for more variety and some more new knowledge and understanding to be displayed.