Houston Museum of Natural Science
add photosAll tickets are for single entry, except the Main Exhibit Halls. You are allowed exit and re-entry privileges only in the Main Exhibit Halls. Admission to the Main Exhibit Halls is free on Tuesdays after 2 p.m.
Butterfly Center is open Monday through Sunday from 9 am to 5 pm (last entry at 4 pm).
15 Reviews for Houston Museum of Natural Science
20
00 families found this helpful
"Lots of family fun!"
The most awesome thing about this museum is the dinosaur exhibit. There is a giant fossil that is really amazing, as well as many other incredible, and artistic items. There is a cafeteria, or you can bring your own lunch. Either way, it's a wonderful place to teach your kiddos more about the world God made.
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0 families found this helpful
"Ya gotta see the dinosaurs"
The most impressive part of this museum is its dinosaur environment exhibit. The scent and feel immerses patrons in a real life setting which makes the event believable. Take time to see the crystals display if geology is your thing. Also, ask a docent for a tour through the oil exhibit for a very educational experience.
0 families found this helpful
"Houston museum is really scientific museum"
Houston museum of natural science is a source of information for all ages.My kids love the dinosaur fossil,very huge one.Its really a great exhibit.There is also demo showing the water distillation procedure which I explained to my kid.We also enjoyed the drilling ground for oil demo.My kid got somewhat scary with the sounds though.The gem exhibits are great,they are too attractive pieces.The entry tickets are somewhat pricey.Many useful scientific information is presented as visual charts inside the museum.
0 families found this helpful
"Awesome place to visit!"
We visit the Houston Museum of Natural Science every year with our kiddos. The whole family has a great time. They have a Palentology exhibit which both of my kiddos love. And the Museum's Gems & Minerals exhibit is awesome! Don't forget to visit the butterfly exhibit and the planetarium!
1 family found this helpful
"Good for older kids."
My nephews are 8 and 5. The eight year old loved the whole experience while the five year old was a bit bored halfway through the day. The HMNS has many different exhibits traveling through during the year and also has the permanent exhibits that stay there all year long. The permanent ones can be a bit boring for kids/adults who have been often as they've been there for over 15 years usually. However, this was their first trip and they loved seeing all the dinosaur bones and the mummies. They loved going into the gem vault and looking at all the awesome diamonds and gems.
On the bottom floor they have an area for kids to participate and get sort of hands on with science and history. The five year old had most of his fun down there where he could get his hands on things. We spent about 30 minutes just watching the pendulum hoping it would knock over a peg, and luckily for me it did or else I'd have been there even longer.
Great trip to educate the kids but maybe wait until they're a few years into school. Oh and don't forget to check out the butterfly exhibit and the Imax, the boys loved those although the Imax can get a bit nauseating for some due to all the motion.
A tip for any Bank of America customers, the first weekend of EVERY month you can get free entry into the permanent exhibits at the HMNS just by showing your Bank of America card. If you've never been to the HMNS, the permanent exhibits are really great and entertaining so it's a great deal.
There is a McDonalds in the museum and the lines move pretty fast there. The prices are inflated at this McDonalds but you pay for convenience. If you'd rather you can plan on having lunch/picnin in the nearby Hermann Park. It's literally right next door and has a few things for the kids to do.
0 families found this helpful
"Take Me Out to Ballgame...."
I have been attending Astros games my entire life. Despite how well the team is doing, I have always enjoyed going to a ballgame. Astros games are definitely family friendly and you can normally get family 4-packs of tickets for a reduced rate. The family packs generally include some type of food (i.e. hot dog, nachos, and drinks) with the cost of tickets. If you go to a game on Sunday, parking in Downtown Houston on the street is free. It is also safe to park downtown. Instead of eating at the park, I recommend eating at Frank's pizza downtown. It is an awesome pizza joint and it's not far from Minute Maid Park. Enjoy the game!
0 families found this helpful
"An world class attraction!"
The Houston Museum of Natural Science brings artifacts and displays from the farthest corners of the world to Houston, Texas. Recently, I attended a Pompeii exhibit, Body Worlds, and a Magic Exhibit. Some of the exhibits should be reviewed before taking young children (i.e. Body Worlds), but most of the exhibits are family friendly. The dinosaurs can be kind of scary, but again, be mindful of what your children can handle. There is an awesome IMAX theater attached to the HMNS and a pretty cool gift shop. The exhibits change frequently, so you don't want to miss out! Family days are advertised often, and prices are reduced or free on those days. Parking is not normally a problem. The Houston Zoo is very close, so you could combine the two attractions into a fun filled weekend. There is a restaurant located inside the HMNS, in case the kiddos get hungry!
1 family found this helpful
"Kids Love This!"
This museum is fantastic! Everytime the kids visit the museum theirs jaws are literally on the ground and they do not want to leave. There is a lot to see and do. The Dinoasaurs is a favorite of my kids and also the gift shop. The kids also love looking at the different colored/shaped diamonds. It's a great place to go to take your kids to have fun and learn at the same time!
0 families found this helpful
"Great museum!"
This museum really has so much to offer for all ages. My kids never get tired of looking at all of the dinosaur bones and watching the pendulum clock count down time (although I don't think we ever catch one fall!) :-) The gem exhibit is nice, but a little small - still very neat to see. There is also an IMAX and planatarium which are really neat. If you go at night they have laser light shows in the planetarium which are amazing! It can get kind of pricey if you go to all of the exhibits, but if you are just visiting the main museum it is $15 for adults and $10 for kids last time we went.
0 families found this helpful
"Good for older kids"
My seven year old enjoys visiting the dinosaurs, the 4 1/2 year old is too young for this museum. Many of the exhibitions cost extra to see making this museum a not so great value. I do enjoy taking the kids to the 3 D educational movies in the attached theater.
'10
2 families found this helpful
"Houston Museum Natural Science"
My kids like this place. It has a dinosaur fossil and prehistoric hall (big Diplodocus fossil and play at sorting fossils). The other exhibits are less good to me but provide some diversity - gems exhibit (for my 5-yr-old princess), seashell collectiion, wildlife exhibit (not living ones). There is an early american culture exhibit but I think that one is long overdue for an overhaul - wordy, colourless and dimly lit (and usually deserted). They also have a butterfly garden and IMAX/planetarium exhibit (the observatory is seperate, outside HOuston). We like the butterfly garden - very pretty and lots of butterflies. Can get quite hot and humid in there and strollers would be a bit of a struggle (can leave at the door). The on-site food is MacDonald's.
0 families found this helpful
"Butterflies"
We have an 18 month old daughter and thought that walking around in an area filled with butterflies would be great for her and for our pictures. Well she liked it enough. The tropical atrium where the live butterflies are at is nice but can get crowded and the butterflies were not quite so abundant so they were hard to spot and no landing on us or her. The rest of the exhibit is great with lots of info on insects but it is really meant for kids who are at least 3 or 4 and up. Good fun but we'll wait a while before returning and not make a special trip just for this.
1 family found this helpful
"Fun with the Family"
The Houston Museum of Natural Science is a first-rate collection of science museums tucked into a bucolic park setting in the middle of the city. Included are the following:
• The Burke Baker Planetarium is a sophisticated and entertaining place where your family can travel through a black hole or zip around constellations.
• A six-story glass house is home to the Cockrell Butterfly Center (713–639–4600), where more than 2,000 butterflies live in a tropical rain forest complete with a 40-foot waterfall.
• The Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals displays a collection of more than 750 rare minerals and hundreds of gemstones.
• The Wortham IMAX Theatre shows exciting films projected onto a six-story-tall screen with incredible surround sound.
• The John P. McGovern Hall of the Americas is a 12,000-square-foot series of galleries with exhibits designed to explain the ways humans inhabited the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years before Europeans dropped in. The hall has one of the best collections of pre-Columbian art and artifacts in the country. Many, such as the full-size Aztec gateway, are breathtaking.
• Also in the park are the Japanese Gardens, a golf course, the Houston Garden Center, miniature golf, a 4-mile hiking trail, paddleboats, a miniature train that runs around the park, and playground facilities.
3 families found this helpful
"Decent, but nothing special"
The Museum of Natural Science looked great from the website, but was less than impressive upon arrival. The exhibits are probably more interesting for kids who are learning about dinosaurs and animals on the savannah. The gemstone exhibit was beautiful for women like me who can admire a nice looking rock. There's no real hands-on exhibits which was a real downer for my little toddler. All the fun exhibits like the Butterfly Center and BodyWorlds required an extra fee unfortunately. Our son liked looking at the stuffed lions and other creatures of Africa, but other than that, it was hard to keep him interested in museum.
4 families found this helpful
"Have low expectations"
The museum was disappointing to us, but perhaps because we've been spoiled with other natural science museums that were so wonderful elsewhere in the US. This museum could not keep my 20-month-old engaged for even an hour. There were few, if any, interactive exhibits. You had to pay extra money to enter the butterfly hall. To top it all off, the only food onsite was McDonald's (yuck). There is an outdoor train ride nearby that we discovered on our way out that looked fun, but by them my son was so cranky that we decided just to go home.
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