Top tips for Natural History Museum with kids

[Snappyteabread]

What tip tips do you have to make the most of a visit to Natural History Museum in London? Kids age 10 and 7

Go one an inset day. Don't even think about going in school holidays

Choose a couple of sections each person is interested in. Don't try and do it all

Try and get there for opening time. We found the doors tend to open a few minutes early we've been a lot. Do the dinosaurs first while it's dead quiet.
The toilets and picnic area in the basement are usually quiet. There's a hands on room next to it, kids can use microscopes and touch various items.
Garden is surprisingly calm and full of wildlife considering it's central London.

There’s a side entrance on the same road as the science museum

The biology room with the bacteria and bugs was fascinating - kids loved it.

If you go outside the school holidays it may well be full of school trips instead. We went on a Monday in term time at opening and it was still absolutely heaving. We queued to get in (although it was quite quick) and stuck to some of the quieter bits. Dinosaurs was ridiculously busy to the point of not being enjoyable.

Get there for opening and go straight to the dinosaurs

If there is a huge queue at the main entrance on Cromwell Rd (the Life Galleries part of the NHM), go to the Earth Galleries entrance (formerly the Geological Museum) on Exhibition Rd. The Earth Galleries and Life Galleries join up.

All great tips. Thank you. Keep them coming! I'm thinking to ask the children what their top 3 things they'd like to see each and then everything else is a bonus.

We usually end up buying tickets for whichever exhibition is on, which means we get to skip the queues.

Leave the dinosaurs till 4 or so when it gets quiet. Start in the Exhibition Road Earth galleries which are quieter. Book for the Clore (free) hands on activities in the basement. Make sure you go in both lots of geology galleries (some amazing rocks and jewellery in both and also The Vault). Enjoy the earthquake room and the insects. Body galleries are also fun. Did this SO MANY times with the kids and we always found something new.

THe mineral displays in the Earth Galleries are what made me want to be a geologist. I went to school on S Kensington, and I went to those museums a lot as a child. I‘m now a Chartered Geologist.

You can book the dinosaurs in advance so you don’t have to queue inside (you still have to face the queue to get through the front door though...)

We've lowered our expectations to seeing ONE room next time we go...last time I think we spent longer in the basement picnic area than looking at the exhibits. I'm hoping for a slightly longer attention span this half term .