Exploratorium Reviews

The location accessible by BART is a plus. It's impossible to explore everything in a day with such a wide variety of exhibits grouped in different themes. The Tinkering Studio was a disappointment as they mentioned of some things not working on the day we visited. Overall a must see for anyone visiting San Francisco who are fascinated by Science and the way it works.

Lots of exhibits. I though it was a bit expensive, it shuts at 5pm on the dot and it can be hard to tell if you have to pay extra for some of the exhibits. If you book online you can get a discount. Otherwise it has a very wide variety of exhibits, a fascinating aquarium and is very interesting. I wish I had more time to look around before it shut.

This place is very cool. Tons of interesting exhibits, i recommend the adult only evening on Thursdays, they sell beer.

Everyone of all ages and education levels must see this museum

Most excellent for families of all ages. Hands on activities, something for everyone. Lots of places to sit and take a break or reflect next to windows with great views of the bay.

This museum is unique in that curious adults can enjoy the playful exhibits just as much as children. In school and at work, I occasionally learn interesting things about how nature works; the Exploratorium provides these experiences in very high concentration. I left the place slightly overwhelmed, like a student after a long and fascinating day at school.

Much larger than the old Exploritorium, so many displays - even on a busy Sunday - there were a lot of people enjoying the displays and interacting with the exhibits. Quite impressive!

I've learned something new every time I've been! Love this place! And the views are amazing, too!

Went for the nighttime event and had an absolute blast!

Such a fantastic and beautiful way to present science! Totally recommend for ANYONE, no matter the age. I went with my parents and my brothers, and we had an amazing time. My siblings and I are almost 20, and still found everything really interesting. There are many small exhibitions that range in topic, from biology to physics to environmental science. You will definitely learn something while having tons of fun :) The whole museum will take you around two hours to complete. There are many games you can play, microscopes you can use, and so much more. It is a must, and I will definitely come back to this museum.

This place is great especially if you have e children

At other science museums, you read or watch about how other people discovered things. And that's great. But at the Exploratorium, you discover it yourself. Hundreds of exhibits, and every one is a hands-on, interactive, often mind-melting experience. Accept no substitutes.

Amazing - you will need more than one day to do the whole thing

Overall we really like this place, but the food they offer very expensive and low quality, very long waiting time and messed order. They used bare hands to put together our butgers, which looked not hygienically.

Amazing place with multiple themes and massive wave of kids.

Great for kids, fun for adults on Thursday nights where it's adults only and they serve alcohol.

Great sensory museum for kids of every age, even fun for adults

Exceptional for children. They can touch almost everything!

Excellent place to visit, especially with children, they enjoy it very much. There are a lot of experiments to do, excellent.

Automatic 5 star for the Exploratorium. I grew up on the one at the Palace of Fine arts. Make sure to check out the water exhibits on the way in. Your 2 year old too can control a 1000lbs buoy going up and down into the water. New sand exhibits along the piers, show what sediment is like in various parts of the bay. Nevermind the fact they have 1000 displays that are interactive inside. Go before 3pm, it takes a bit to get through the whole thing. Really neat stuff. GOGOGO!

Wow, I can see how this can influence kids lives! Love it!

I am amazed at the sheer number of exhibits they have, and almost all of them actually work!! If you love science, you would like to live in there, believe me!!! I have two kids, one 4, another 10, they just love it. I have been there twice already, and still couldn't even try out even 30% of the exhibits.

Great place to take the kids. This place has a lot of interactive materials for them to get into. I highly recommend taking anyone of all ages here to discover and explore!

Went for a couple of hours during the weekday. Very interactive exhibit with lots of places to learn about various aspects of science. Great for kids, and adults too

The exploratorium was very interesting. I visited the "after dark" session which runs on Thursdays 6-10pm and it was loads of run. Lots of interesting activities and learning opportunities. Would recommend to anyone, if you have 1 hour or 4 you'll find something fun to explore!

Absolutely amazing experience start to finish. You could spend a full day or three mornings to see it all. If you are going in with one of those multi attraction passes, show them right at the "Front Desk," not the ticket counter. The front desk scanned our passes and printed our admission tickets.

Came here a couple of months ago with my nieces, ages 8 and 11. We arrived around 1:30pm, and with closing time at 5pm I figured we had plenty of time, there was no way the kids would want to be there for 3.5 hours. Well, I was definitely wrong! We stayed until 5pm and we're 'kicked out' as we were still trying to explore.

I've been here before, once as a kid myself in elementary school (probably 18ish years ago!), and once for the Yelp elite holiday party in 2008 (Pley!). I remember loving it both times, but this time around it was a completely different experience. Bringing kids of your own (or in my case, my nieces) was awesome because not only did I have a great time exploring and learning, but I got to see them do the same (which made the experience that much better for me!).

Our favorite exhibitis were the bubble wall (you pull a string of bubble wand up and try to keep the bubble wall from bursting) because it was so full of color with the reflection of the light. We also had a lot of fun with the light wall (a white wall that reflected neon lights when you got near it/moved). We all learned that steel is a much stronger magnet than brass or aluminum, and we had a ton of fun playing with sand and sound waves.

I'd love to come back with the kiddies again, maybe once the exhibits change. I wonder how often they change? I remember some cool human body exhibits that were there when I was young, I was a little disapointed there was nothing like that this time. Maybe next time!

On a bit of a sad note, I am really bummed the Exploratorium is moving away from the Palace of Fine Arts in the spring. What a great and beautiful location for this museum, the Palace's awesome architecture only adding to the magic of the museum. Hopefully the new local lives up to the high standards the current one has set!

Great place, very educational and fun. 2,000th reviewer.

Expensive. If you have EBT, it's free. Not sure of the full details. Interactive, but a bit crowded, I went on a Tuesday.

This is a place to visit children and adults, one hundred percent interactive and you enjoy it from start to finish.
The only drawback that I see is that the entry is very expensive

Definitely a very spacious place very fun for the children a lot of science the guides were kind to us we definitely had a lot of fun

Young and old.. Lots to see and learn. Many hands on exhibits too. A definite must see!

A very fun place for people of all ages, although kids and people in groups have a better time. There are many things to do, they are like mini experiments in which you can see how things work from which posters explain the theory. There are even parts that speak of racism, the discomfort of having different names from the common, and even all the different genres. It also has a part outside with beautiful views, and there are lockers to leave backpacks and other things, leaving a coin.
To avoid the groups of boys on excursion it is better to go early in the afternoon.

Amazing variety of interactive science exhibits - great place for all ages!

Love it for kids. Touch it, smell it, feel it! Best place for kids of all ages...

Awesome place
Great education resource
Kid friendly
Promotes kids interacting with everything

Nice place to go with kids or even get to know some curious science experiments. The price is very high

Super fun place. Went here when in college. Fun to bring my kids in new location

I came for Exploratorium After Dark. Booze and cool science is an awesome combination. I had a fantastic time here. During the day it would be a great place to bring younger children.

Hands on science and art in am amazing space. Great for kids of ALL ages, and all of the exhibits are well explained. Love this place. Tasty food in the cafe as well.

Much better in the new location. Fun for all ages. We got a membership and live an hour away.

My kids could have spent the entire day here! It's great when they are learning while having fun, too. Admission was relatively expensive, I thought, even for a good museum, and beware that parking is extra. It was fun to splurge once but I doubt we will ever go back.

So much fun to be had at this hands on science museum. Great standing displays and wonderful events like their late night Thursday affairs.

Lots of interesting hands on exhibits. Was slightly crowded (was a sunday) - however was not too annoying. Tactile dome is an interesting experience.

Pricey (but hey, its the US and what's not...), interesting concept

Amazing museum, techno style but much much more .....
Suitable for children and adults interested in science, laws of physics and technology.
Instead of affordable food options.
We spent (family) somewhere about 4 hours!

Science exhibits are off the hook. You need a week just to see them all and the store's inside have some really cool take home gifts to buy the curious kid or adult

Huge museum that doubles as an amusement park! Very hands on and kids will love the place because they will be able to experiment with science in a very visual way. Experiment stations were clean and functioned well. Figure at least four hours to make the most out of the museum.

Original, a host of experiences to do. The little ones manipulate and are amazed, the big ones, like my son, a student engineer, are delighted to see the practices put into practice.
For me, non specialist, a universe full of surprises, in many areas: sound, vision, mechanics, etc ...
We arrived at 1pm and did not have time to explore everything before the 5pm closing time.
Do not miss it in your visit to San Francisco!

This place is totally awesome. You could easily spend an entire day here and not see it all. So much interactive stuff to play with, and everything is educational

Great for kids and teens! Learning science subjects in a playful way, seeing, touching, feeling and listening. To spend at least 04 hours. Worth the trip.

Fun for all ages! It's a joy seeing a place like this creating a lot of interactive experiences using science. The Exploratorium isn't a place you should restrict yourself to going with just kids.

A place were kids can have an hands on experience with science. It's great that the place is divided into different galleries which enables visitors to target their favourite galleries first. At least 5-6 hours minimum are required to experience the exploratorium.

This is more than a science museum. It's a place where both kids and adults learn many science concepts through the interactive exhibits. It's fun and educative. Plan to spend an entire day here. Fun for the whole family. Possibly one of the best science museums in the country.

Highly recommend to join museum tours. Amazing science museum!!

The children enjoyed it very much. The corner for making Pythagora switches was also popular and I was happy.

Fun stop. If you are without kids you should checkout the adult hours on Thursday starting at 6pm. You pay only $15.00 for the ticket and won't constantly interfere with kids.

One of my kiddos is a budding scientist, and she wants to go here a few times per year. We always do a pretty routine circuit of the exhibits, and we are predictably amazed and awed every time we go. The new location on the piers is terrific for East Bay folks like us; we usually make a day of it by taking the ferry across the bay from Jack London Square or Alameda and then walking the few blocks to the museum from the Ferry Building in SF to the museum. The 20-30 minute ferry ride is the perfect length to enjoy the boat ride but not get bored, and the 10 minute walk down the Embarcadero is the perfect amount of SF people watching and invigorating salty air before you arrive at the museum. We wander around for a few hours, head on back, and occasionally browse around the Ferry Building markets before heading back to the East Bay. It is about as good as it gets for a little educational adventure with science minded kids and adults.

5/5 would not come here again without an industrial sized container of Purell.

This is truly one of the most inspiring and intellectually interesting places you can take a child in the Bay area. The breadth of hands-on exhibitions is simply stunning. The creativity involved in developing each of these stands as a testament to the talent available in San Francisco.

Abundance of experiments and exhibits. Almost everything is hands on, making for a much more engaging learning experience. Fun and educational for kids and adults alike.

Lots of interesting things to do, very interactive.

Amazing place to visit if you appreciate science, physics and laws of nature. Interesting setups and demonstrations. Just keep in mind, it is very, very busy and kids run rampant so you may not get to even mess with a majority of exhibits because of this. Recommend you go on an adults only day and start as the doors open for the best bang for your buck. Great museum.