Academy of Natural Sciences Review

Excellent family museum. Rare and interesting specimens (both skeleton and taxidermy). The presentation of these is very nice.

The butterfly room is awesome for all ages. It's like a miniature version of Butterfly World (an indoor museum down in Florida), with live animals flying around as you walk through.

For kids there are some interactive exhibits and some small animals to observe. The "big dig" (a fossil excavation exercise) is particularly great for young ones.

Sometimes the staff doesnt look like they care, but i still love this place.

Solid museum, cool dinosaur exhibit and plenty of hands on stuff for the kids.

My nephew loved it! He us 4 yrs old. Great for kids.

We got in free with our home town science museum pass. We paid extra for the dinosaurs and it was a rip off if you've been to other dinosaur exhibits before. The kids loved the stuffed animals.

There were many things to see and everything was well displayed.

He lacked a bit in his exhibition to be 100% happy.
The extra display of Mythic Creatures was very simple and uninteresting. I expected more of your advertising.
The best, the Dinosaurs sector.

Loved this place great way to spend the afternoon with children

Fantastic dioramas. Really fun, interesting museum. Perfect for kids of all ages!

Good learning experience place for kids. However, the cafe is small and congested; not enough room. We ordered chicken tenders and baked potato wedges. Both the dishes were average.

Never get a old visiting this museum! The exhibits are current, fasincating and very detailed.

The dinosaur exhibit was a great experience for my 3 year old. Saw older children there as well having a good time. We enjoyed the show about hawks and snakes and did a little digging for fossils our selves. Spent about 4 hours. Staff was very helpful.

Had a great time at the harry potter themed experience.

Dino hall was great. Animal dioramas look awesome. Hard to find the cafe, but it s there on a lower floor. Worth a trip to spend a whole day there. Finding nearby parking is the only difficulty.

Plenty to learn and do for all ages. It made a great day trip for the family!

The academy of natural sciences at the Drexel university is an amazing place to rediscover every period of the Earth's historical animals and people.. thr displays we're amazingly well maintained and the boards to explain and give an insight of the display .. absolutely loved it.. learned a lot of stuff which I dint know before..

Small and very pricey, if we're being honest. It was a nice way to spend an hour or so, before heading over to the Rodin Museum when my wife got out of her conference, since it was rainy so walking the city was not an option. But, it was definitely the worst of the museums I went to while in Philly. If you have a busy schedule, just skip this one.

Tho it is on the pricey side it still is a good place to take the family mainly kids under 13 to see all of the exhibits and they have plenty of interactive things as well, like holding animals digging for fossils etc. Overall a fun place to go and they do have overnight experiences as well. Being in the city parking for free tends to be an issue so be prepaird to spend 20 on parking.

Definitely a place for kids. Every exhibit is more orientation for them. As an adult I didn't care much for it but kids sure like it.

Great place to take the kids. Have fun and learn! Always something new and cool

Kids enjoyed it. Call ahead though. Many of the exhibits were being set up for events and we weren't allowed to see the dino exhibit.

Kids liked it here and I thought it was really neat seeing all the dinosaurs and extinct mammals, the live butterfly room was cool too, butterflies flying all around you it was like something I can't fully explain, just beautiful.

Loved it!! Butterfly exhibit was so great we went through twice!

This lesser known museum is one the best paleontology museums in America. While kids will still love it, the educational focus of its exhibit aims higher than I have seen elsewhere (the Smithsonian for example).

The AoNS is a Philly treasure!!
If your kids are in the dinosaur phase, this place is a MUST!

Expensive, but worth a visit at least once. Butterfly exhibit is amazing.

The Academy of Natural Sciences is an excellent example of well maintained and engaging exhibits. It's a great place to bring children of any age, as even a toddler can appreciate the texidermized animals, and the 3rd floor activities for young kids, whereas older children can marvel at the dinosaur exhibits, and the rotating special exhibit of the second floor. A family plus membership covers 2 adults 2 guests and 5 kids, and it's tax deductible, so it's an excellent value for dollar place to take the family, or even a date, through the permanent butterfly exhibit.

Great place. We get free passes from our local library in Gloucester Country.

The "Outside In" on the top floor is where we spend most of our time. Kids can touch all sorts of things: bugs, bunnies, snakes, rats. And there are lots of things to do hands on.

Great place to spend the day, lots of exhibits to keep kids occupied. Only downside was the cafe- they completely ran out of mac and cheese, 15 minute wait for plain pizza, baked fries were soggy and gross. Next time we'll pack a lunch! Overall a great experience.

Wonderful narural science museum with many exhibits including a butterfly room and bonus exhibit thats constantly changing-was crocodile exhibit when i went. Offer ACCESS cardholder discount($2 entry) making this affordable for everyone!

Weve been here a dozen times and the kids never get tired of it. The special exhibits never disappoint

One on the best places to go in the city. Great place for the family. If you don't learn something here you slept threw your visit.

A very Nice Science Museum. It looks small, but it is surprisingly wide inside. You have to go to all floors. It had lots of attractions. I liked.

My babies had a great first time.. I knew they would because I love the experience here.

Not crowded, "big dig" fun for 5 yr old and 1 yr old, and the big bugs were creepy! They have fun activities for kids 2-5 throughout the year, so we bought a membership. Love that its centrally located so we can make a quick stop to the fountain across the street. Lots of close parking options too.

A fantastic place to go with your family to learn all about the history of life.

Great destination and not overwhelming for the young historian in your family

I went with my daughter and I have to say I was deeply disappointed. The museum was Nothing like it was when I was kid. It only took 2 1/2 maybe 3 hours to see the Whole thing. Only one animal to see, no fossils to dig for or look at. The completely removed all the Egyptian exhibits. The mermaids, and unicorn Special exhibit was so sad I felt bad for my child. You have to go just because you can see dinosaurs, but it's not what it was. Not at all

Best kept secret, seriously, take your kids there. From dinosaur bones to live animal encounters, your kids will love it and you'll love that there are almost no crowds compared to Franklin Institute.

A nice museum with we'll put together fossil displays and dioramas. Tour is kid focused with amazing guides. Note that special displays are an additional fee above the standard entry.

My kids love this place. My daughter especially loves the butterflies. We have a membership which wasn't all that expensive. We try to drop by as often as possible.

Always a fun time for kids and adults alike. Dinosaur skeletons, the butterfly room, animal dioramas, live animal demonstrations, and a great play room.

Definitely an interesting place to visit with friendly staff

Big, fun museum. We went for Dinos After Dark and it was a great family friendly evening. The staff is very friendly and helpful, and we encountered a couple bilingual staff members. Many interactive and hands on activities for kids (and grown ups). Parking can be challenging.
Tons of different things to do and see

Great hands on learning experience for adults and kids.

Ever since I was a child, I loved butterflies. I loved the concept that an ugly caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly. I found this concept to be a metaphor for like. In fact, my husband and I went on our third date here while we were dating and we absolutely loved the butterfly exhibit. I could not recommend the academy of nature science museum enough. Great for young children and for adults! Enjoy!

Sign up for the membership, help maintain the museum and get unlimited visits!
I take my kids here often and it's cute to see them excited about the exhibits. Staff is super friendly and the place is always clean. As an adult, you get through everything in a few visits, but the kids can come back every weekend and be just as excited as the first visit.

I went to the museum with my two and four year olds. They really liked the dinosaurs a lot and had fun doing the dino dig. They have a decent dinosaur bone display and some fun activities with it. The other part my kids liked was the butterfly room. I felt a little grossed out the whole time with these huge bugs crawling around but my kids loved it. My only complaint is everything is getting a little old and run down.

Excellent museum with lots of artifacts and cool dinosaurs!!!

I love the dinosaurs! Learn something new every visit!

Nice collection, but small for the price of admission. My dinosaur enthusiast loved it though!

I had an excellent time, I hadn't been there for over 10 years and it's better than ever will definitely go again.

The special exhibits are a must see. My girls also love just walking around and looking at the normal exhibits. The play area on the top floor is a must see for anyone with kids. Typically there are hands on animal exhibits.

Love this Museum. Great for your kids. Lots of knowledge there. Staff super nice.

It was noisy and a lot of kids running around the place ,its better to go when school is back in session

Live animals for kids on the third floor. Nice dinosaur exhibit. Tons of animal dioramas. Best of all free admission through my public library.

Great place to take the kids. Friendly and knowledgeable staff make every visit special.