Our kids love museums. Philadelphia isn’t too far of a drive but we’ve only been there with them a few times to go to the Philadelphia Zoo. For a while, I’ve been wanting to take them to the Franklin Institute so a few weeks back, I decided to surprise them with a trip. What was the verdict? Read on to see!
Trip down
For us, the kids have about a 2.5 hour trip max but an hour? An hour is pretty much their sweet spot — long enough for a nap if they choose but not so long that their tablet or coloring gets old.
General visit
We ended up there for around 4 hours in total. We missed a couple of sections but that was also around as long as the kids could handle as they started to get tired and hungry. (Note: we did not do this, but it sounds like you can leave the museum and come back if you wanted to venture out for lunch and resume your visit.)
There are a couple of food options within the museum. There is an actual restaurant on the main floor that’s called The Eatery with all the family faves — burgers, chicken fingers and salads (ok, the latter probably more for the parents.)
There is also a café with snacks by the main ticketing area, which we found super helpful. It was honestly the only way we were able to last as long as we did for our visit. The kids had a few snacks I brought with us and we split a few of the Philadelphia Pretzel Company pretzels they sell at the café.
Exhibits, shows and demos
There were so many of the permanent exhibits that the kids loved. I was really impressed that the planetarium shows at the Fels Planetarium are all included with your admission so yon could technically watch as many as you want during your visit. Our son loved the movie but our youngest did not. I appreciated that they have rooms off to the side of your kids need a break from the stimulation of the film.
They have other events throughout the day. These change up over time but typically include dissections (for older guests) and science experiments, like their “Liquid Air Show” which is all about liquid nitrogen. These are listed at ticketing. Suggest you take a photo of the day’s schedule with your phone so you can refer to it throughout the day of your visit.
Our kids were fascinated by the section on electricity since they’ve never really learned about it. And the heart and brain sections were also a hit. They loved climbing inside the heart and doing the big brain puzzle together.
Special exhibit
I don’t know if we would have done it otherwise but since their temporary exhibit is Disney100: The Exhibition, I couldn’t resist springing for the tickets. It’s currently open and runs through August 27th. It significantly increases the cost of visiting, but I think it was totally worth it.
We loved it all. There was a look at Disney history over the 100 years — going back through the early days of their cartoons and into a lot of their recent hits (and remakes as live action). The kids really loved all the interactive elements throughout it.
Franklin Institute – 222 N. 20th Street, Philadelphia
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