Academy of Natural Sciences Reviews

Great time, liked the animal talk with owl. 4 yo loves the T rex bones

We had a conference reception on the first floor with the dinosaur hall. Great exhibits, beautifully organized. I was here with a professional organization, but I would definitely recommend it for other travelers.

My daughter loves "The Dinosaur Place" and/or "The Butterfly Place". My favorite parts are indeed the dinosaurs and the butterflies. The elevators are slow, but that is a tiny quibble.

My son loves this museum. Honestly, so do I! Not only do they have dinosaurs (hard to beat that) but the staff is amazing! They make this place amazing!

I had an absolute blast here! It has all of the classic natural history museum staples: Dinosaur fossils, taxidermy dioramas, insects.
Everything in the museum is displayed in well thought out and visually interesting ways, with a bit more flare than I have seen in other museums.
They have a butterfly conservatory that has a fantastic variety, is well maintained, and not as unbearably humid as others I've been in.
The dioramas had more character to them than any I've seen before, and the taxidermy is of better quality as well.
The dinosaur fossil exhibits were put together nicely, and there's even a place to observe paleontologists at work.
The staff here are all lovely, the gift shop has a great selection, and it's both a great place for kids and adults alike.

Took the grandkids to see dinosaurs. They also got to dig for fossils and loved it !

Lack of stairs makes it a little confusing. Cafe food not great for kids. otherwise great place to visit and great dioramas

The kids loved seeing the dinos! The worker in the fossil room gave my son lots of info about what paleontologists do and how to become one.

Great exhibits and the staff is very knowledgeable. My family loves going there it is a great place.

I was there for a private event after hours. What a great space for a social event.

Decent museum. Parts of it need updating but good overall

Incredible selection of animals from all across the world, many of which I had never even heard of before!

Very cool place. Only 4 stars because I got earrings from the souvenir shop and they broke in only a week.

My granddaughter had a blast w/ her class and learned alot

Nice place to visit. Butterfly conservatory was fine

Informative, staff knowledgeable when asked questions, fun friendly place.

It is a great museum for children. Some exhibits arent reality, and very few real life experiences. If you have kids, this is a great places to learn about mammals and different animals on different continents. They have 3 levels with different exhibits. Overall, a nice experience

Lots to see, but for the price I would rather do the Franklin Institute which is nearby

Lovely museum that we strongly recommend you to visit. Now they have the dinosaur exhibition which is really good. Don t miss that one!

A wonderful place to visit. Very well kept attractions are interesting the layout is accommodating. Watch the live animal demonstration it was Absolutely amazing. So when in philly this is a must see.

Perfect place for my children! Everything about Jurassic World. That is so interrsting!

Pretty good museum, Butterflies were fun but I have to say I was kind of expecting a bit of a larger display something more garden-like

Lots of hands-on experiences for the kids, but it was NOT accessible. The elevators (if they even worked) were extremely slow and hard to find, and there were 4 levels with a lot of stairs.

Dinosaurs alive is a great exhibit for preschoolers and early elementary school kids. Great outing for grand parents and family

My kids could probably spend all day just with the dinosaur exhibit. We also got to see butterflies this time! There's plenty to see, and so much of it is hands on for kids to get to experience. Being right on the Ben Franklin parkway, there's a ton of stuff within walking distance. Parking isn't too difficult but it's in Center City Philly so it isn't super cheap either.

Very nice place to take your family children will love it alot to learn about

Special exibit "Crocs" was very informative and fun for all! Many families were there and it was packed. I can't wait for the next exibit.

Had a blast learning about all the dinosaurs. The kids enjoyed the big dig! Outside in room was awesome and petting the animals was tons of fun. This place is great for field trips or nice way to spend a rainy day. Admission is reasonable and there is a cafe downstairs .

Nice museum, the kids enjoyed it. There was a live animal show in the auditorium that you should see if you are there.

Fun 1/2 day for the family. The Dinosaur exhibit was worth it, the stuffed animal displays not as much. There is also a small interactive area for kids on the top floor.

The museum is just ok. Some interesting exhibits but some are kind of tacky in how they're set up. There were no staff walking around to answer any questions that we had :( The dioramas of the animals in their natural habitats was really neat though!

Three years ago had a wonderful Birthday party there. We went for a repeat. This year was horrible. The hostess was completely inexperienced, with no common sense. From the first couple of minutes, she broke our pitcher, skipped on the tour, brought us back to the party room 35 minutes before the planned time. She was pushing us to finish and leave so she would have time to clean the room for the next party,...For once in my life I called the next day to tell them how disappointed I was and her boss said: "Thank you for your input, we need to know about these things!". .... Really?
We won't use this venue again! That's for sure!

We saw dinos, sea creatures, dragons and so much more. Had A really good time walking around looking at all the displays. There was a dino dig place for the kids. made a little red light at the star chart science lab. Best part is my kid walked so much he was so sleepy. Try the tacos the best.

Always an awesome place to bring my sons. Just don't freak yourself out thinking about the dinosaurs coming to life and running amuck in Center City. The staff doesn't seem to appreciate all the yelling, screaming and waving your arms around.

Huge work from Jason Poole in the paleontology lab.

No crowds (went on a Monday though). Very friendly staff. Plenty to see. Good for toddlers.

A hidden gem overshadowed by the Franklin institute, but not to be missed.

The animated dinosaurs have returned to the courtyard in front of the museum. They occasionally roar at each other. Fun and educational display for little and big kids.

Great variety of displays and informative museum staff. Our kids enjoyed the animals, and several employees offered them fun facts and encouraged them in their learning.

We love the Academy of Natural Science and it is getting an update so everything is starting to look fresher and newer. Parking can be difficult but the website has great recommendations within a few blocks.

Great for kids, and adults. The Dinosaur Exhibit is very well done blending interactive displays for kids and scientific information to keep adult minds occupied.

A little pricey but good exhibit. Extreme bugs is definitely NOT worth the upcharge

A space to visit in a timely fashion to enjoy every corner of stories and curiosities about the natural sciences.

I love The Academy of Natural Sciences, highly recommend!

Became a member and my family and I attended the night at the museum on 4/1 ( price $50.00) where you get to spend the night . Don't do it!!!! It's just a free for all for the kids , no planned activities to engage them and no organization to sleeping areas . The scheduled listed for events are untrue .

For the live animals show , there was only one showing of an animal. One !!!

The offering of what's a snack and breakfast thats not continental... Sucks!!!

Apparently there are organization that routinely attend (girl scout's, camps,etc ) and they aren't very nice to those attending with families. They block sleep areas and push you out of common sleep areas.

There should be more creative and interactive things to do for night at the museum , where you get to sleep over.

Just come in the daytime, enjoy the time and go home to sleep in your comfortable bed. This experience of night at the museum wasn't worth the
$$ ... I'm giving 2 stars for this event, just for the history of the place .

I had a great time and it's a great place to take the kids to learn science

This science museum was interesting but it didn't really blow me away. Maybe it's because I visited the Franklin Institute the day before but for the price (I paid $21 per person I believe) it's not very big or overwhelmingly interesting. Children may enjoy the extra dino exhibit which costs a little more and there is a lot of interesting dinosaur bones to look at in some sections but the majority of the museum is animal dioramas. They do look cool but you could see most of those animals at the zoo a few minutes away for less money.
The butterfly section was definitely my favorite section even though it's understandably hotter inside to accommodate the butterflies. The top level has some interesting live animals as well and a great space to take kids to play and learn about animals and bugs.
Overall, I would recommend to families with children but it was a bit underwhelming for me personally.

Fun and very educational. Information is simplified greatly to accommodate children and families.

My husband works there and when I go to visit him I take my children and they seem to really enjoy it and so do I

A really nice little museum with lots of fascinating information and helpful employees.

Is a classic. Better for younger kids. When kids were under 7 they liked it more than when the were over 9.

My kids love going here to explore, especially when they have special event.you can always learn something new

Wow!!! Sad we just missed the newest dinosaur exhibit. Guess that will be a reason to go back. This is a fantastic little museum.

A nicely organized small museum with plenty for the whole family. There are plenty of exhibits geared towards younger kids: the big dig, outside in (where the kids can touch some reptiles), and butterflies. Great place for a toddler play date. I was surprised how much they were interested in the dioramas.

Great place to hang out with your friends and family

Wonderful experience for old and young. Eye-opening replicas of dinosaurs based on bones found. Kids love this place because they can play as much as they want while they learn. A really great thing to do is to spend time talking to volunteers who may be working on the reconstruction of a dinosaur model based on nothing but imagination!

Great place for a family. Kids will really enjoy their butterfly exibit as well as the programs in the auditorium. Some of these programs include live animal interactions. The food court had plenty of options to incude healthier options.

Fun place for kids. Smaller than the New York Natural History Museum but offers great interaction program with live animals, including an live exhibition that kids can pet and daily "animal encounter" in the auditorium. Currently running "Dinosaurs of the World": it's a bit stretch as there are less than a dozen Dinosaurs in it for $7 per person. Free walkable parking on Sunday.

Such a fun place! My kids loved coming here, the dinosaur areas were pretty cool. We really enjoyed the butterfly room. It's a bit warm in there be prepa6if you dont like heat, but it's amazing seeing so many butterflies up close. The price is reasonable for how long we were in there. The only thing I'd do differently next time is take Septa, parking was a bit pricey, but that has nothing to do with the museum.