How busy could the Natural History Museum be this Thursday?

[Happyclappy20]

Hoping to take my 6.5 year old on his first trip to London this Thurs. We are a 2 hour train ride away. Will the queues be terrible? Any tips?

We went at Easter once and the queue to get in was huge. There were big queues inside for the different parts too. You can book online enabling you to jump queues if that helps. It's free too.

I went on a Monday in term time and it was completely rammed but we didn’t have to queue much. I’d say it’s always busy.

Thank you- can you book online to get in to the actual museum quicker too?

It’s busy every day, school hols are 10x worse. As it’s a walkthrough it’s still manageable, plenty to see and do. Try and get there for opening time if you can.

Because its free I would say it will be extremely busy especially in the half term. Not the same but I take mine to the london transport museum and its so packed in the half term. Queue for absolutely everything.

I’ve always queued but the queue is fast moving. It’s never felt too crowded inside. Just busy which is all part of the buzzing being in London atmosphere as far as I’m concerned.

I took my godchildren at about 3pm on Saturday afternoon. We queued for about 15 minutes to get in, but then bimbled round quite happily.

You can’t book because it’s free, I’m a nanny I’m London and things aren’t too busy atm.

I’d just skip it tbh. My 7yr old and I were underwhelmed. We tend to go to Science/Natural History museums when we travel and I’d say the one in London is pretty far down the list.

The museum is free so you cant buy advance entry tickets. You can buy tickets for the wildlife photographic exhibition in advance but its timed entry.

The only way to skip the queues to get in is to buy a year’s membership. Obviously far too expensive for just one visit! I went Saturday and the queues only got bad from 11am. If you get there around 10 on the dot, should be a breeze to get in on a Thursday!

Probably very busy that close to Easter. I went at February half term and got there at 9.45am. Theu were supposed to open at 10 bit were letting people in then anyway and there was no queue. We went straight to the dinosaurs. By 11am it was really busy.

You can queue jump if you have booked tickets for one of the exhibitions but you have to pay for those.

Thanks all - is it worth a visit? My ds is animal and fossil mad. Is it really underwhelming?

I love it-so much to do for little ones. Definitely not underwhelming. My 3 year old DD is a fan. You will become very used to dodging all the prams in the way as you walk around though!

Ill let you know tomorrow, we are heading there in the morning!

We went during Easter holidays a few years ago and queued for 2 hours... but it's to be a sunny day so may be less popular. I think the queues are worse in the morning, when we came out after lunch there wasn't much of a queue.

It will be bad. I was passing 10 days ago, before the state holidays had even started, and it was queuing at 10.30 in the morning.
My mum’s been a member for years and when my children were little we avoided it like the plague during school holidays (it’s bad the last week of summer term too, with school trips, though they’ve mostly left by 2pm).

We went on the last day of the half term holiday last year and it was bloody awful!

We queued for ages and then couldn’t see anything when we wrrre there as every exhibit was 4 deep. It was a battle just to keep everyone all together. We ended up leaving after an hour as no one had seen anything and everyone was ratty and hot. We actually spent longer in the queue than we did in the museum!

Thank you - are there any other museums that might be better or any other suggestions? I don't fancy a 2 hour queue, especially on his first trip to London.

we went to Dinosnores a few weeks ago, its where you sleep over in the museum. was about 250 people there but it was amazing being in a pretty much empty museum as we were all spread about a bit doing acitvities! When we left the next day at about 11am it was great walking past the mile long queue of people waiting to get in! pretty pricey way of beating the queues though!

We were there last Thursday (11th) in the afternoon and it was busy but no queuing.

However, when we walked past on Saturday afternoon there were very long lines. The Science Museum was much easier and Wonderlab, which you can book online, is fantastic for kids. Our 6 year old absolutely adored it - we were two hours in the Science museum in total.

The postal museum is excellent but you do need to book some of the activities online

It would be a shame to miss it - especially as your son's fossil mad.

How about the Horniman museum in London? It’s smaller but likely to be not as busy and it’s a great place to go!
www.horniman.ac.uk/