Exploratorium Reviews

Excellent museum for discovering science. Suitable for young and old. Allow a few hours for maximum experience.

This place is definitely in my top 5 museums in the world, alongside the likes of AMNH and Chichu.

A vast playground of interactive science education and science art!

Absolutely an amazing place to hang out as an adult. If you have children, take them with you! Everyone will get something out of this place. Electrical, engineering, magnets, light, everything touchable experiment you can think of. You will be exploring for at least 4 hours, 10 easily if you want to. Go here it's awesome.

The Exploratorium was soooo much fun! Anyone who loves engaging their mind and seeing kids discover wonderful principles of the universe should go here. My fiance and I spent 4 and a half hours here and still didn't finish the whole place. Will definitely be coming back again.

I visited here on a school trip and we had an awesome time. There were so many exhibits that it is almost impossible to see them all in less than a day. You definitely learn a lot about science when you visit and families would definitely enjoy this place.

The most interactive of interactive science museums we've ever been to - brilliant way to spend a few hours, especially with kids. Everything is there to be played with and learnt about. Impossible to try everything, split in to 6 different galleries, we probably spent over an hour in gallery 1 but make sure you leave time for the rest! Restaurant at the far end is ok, smoothies very good but pretty expensive. Whole place felt busy but not packed. I would suggest a must visit if you have kids and want to do something other than most obvious.

Really fun place, great for kids and adults. Went on a free day and it was crowded, but still enough exhibits to occupy everyone.

Lots of exhibits, better for slightly older kids... Our 2 year old had fun but the stuff was a little advanced. Slightly pricey too.

Cool science museum with an after-hours visitation time great for the adults. Has a bar and a lot of shiny distractions.

The only thing I'd change is the signage if you're coming in from the side entrance, as part of the building is basically blacked out at night.

What an awesome place! We only spent about an hour and a half there and only got through a little bit of it. There was so much to do there, and I would love to go back and check it out some more!

Kids had a blast their was so much for them to do. Lots of hands on learning and very nice location.

We really liked it! We couldn't even make it through in 3 hours! My only negative why I didn't give it 5 (I would give it 4 1/2 if that was an option) was the cost. It was almost $100 for our family of 4 to go! That seemed pretty steep, especially since we had to pay extra for parking on top of it!

But the museum was great, the boys loved all the exhibits with sound especially.

Thank you the creator of the Exploratorium! It was a great experience for ME!! I'm not sure how my nephew felt, but I had a blast! There were so many different types of great creations!! Thumbs UP!!

There so many interesting exhibits is almost overwhelming.

Not sure who loves this place more my 1 year old or me

Excellent, you explore many areas to practice that you didn't know, much and very good knowledge. I love it.

Its a huge place, recommended for kids and parents. So boring if you wanna go with friends...

Our 1st grader's parent group arranged all their schedule to meet at the museum to do the activities called "Explorables:Handmade Science" that their website said "for all ages". I took my 2years old boy, 4 years old boy, and 6 years old girl. Then when we all were actually there, we were told that the activity is only for age 8 and above. Some who came all the from Santa Clara and Cupertino area were upset that their kids were so disappointed. We confirmed with their staff by showing their official website and all they said was "Our website is wrong". So disappointing.

Visited on Thursday night for Exploratorium After Dark with my daughter. We had a great time. My only complaint would be that it was crowded. My daughter commented that some of the exhibits seemed different from the exhibits she saw during the day a few weeks earlier.

We noted that there were a lot of exhibits that work best with a partner, so going alone might be a bit of a drag.

Visiting the Exploratorium is worth the trip to San Francisco.

Very different experience going as an adult. It was a fun time, but all the kids got irritating. Next time Ill stick with the "adult only evening" on Thursdays. No kids for me will make it a better experience.

This hands on science museum is so much fun and, after going 3 times, I haven't even seen half of it. I learn something new each time I go.

Amazing, joyous place! Just watching kids' faces here will make you smile! :)

THUMBS UP:
- Playful, welcoming environment
- They hire, train, and decently pay young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to be docents
- This place must inspire and delight quadrillions of kids a year :)
- Even we adults can learn a lot about the world around us from the exhibits here

THUMBS DOWN:
- Can be insanely crowded on weekends
- Like everything else in this darn area, it's very expensive (Note: if you're gonna come with a friend more than once a year, a yearly membership is well worth it!)

Pros: Lots of interactive things to do. This is close to nerd heaven.

Cons: Expensive entry fee even for students.

One of the coolest places, I've ever been to; especially if you're in to science. There is an incredible view from the top floor's balcony in to the bay and Oakland bridge.

I had not come here since I was young. My mom and I decided to go to see the new building, and I am definitely regretting not coming sooner. We loved all the fun and educational stations! As an educator I really enjoyed all the hands on STEAM materials and ideas. I also loved seeing all the kids having fun while learning about the various topics. I would definitely recommend coming here. If you are a teacher you can email them about getting a free day pass.

This place was great and is good for all ages. We spent quite a few hours looking at everything we could. My favorite though was DEFINITELY floater theater though. Overall lots of fun and very educational!

A really fun and interesting museum. It's aimed more at a younger crowd, I say 12 or younger, but it's a really fun place to visit.

Went on a Thursday night for adult night and it was really cool! The drinks are a bit overpriced, much like everything else down on the piers, but the exploratorium was awesome, filled with a bunch of hands on experiments and opportunities to learn and test yourself on the stuff you learned in high school or college chemistry and physics :) it does get pretty busy after a couple of hours on adult nights, so if you aren't a huge fan of crowds it gets a little stuffy!

Very cool. Went with my 17yo and they enjoyed it too.

Very nice visit, everything is clearly explained. It helps to understand and visualize complex concepts easily. Only drawback : it's quite expensive...

Great for kids and adults of all ages. No great food options.

Very interactive learning of science and maths centre. Very interesting to visit. Make sure to visit this place if you're nearby.

Great for kids and adults. Everyone can have fun and learn. Food is overpriced, bring a bag lunch.

The Exploratorium is an interactive science museum, full of tools to experiment with the various phenomena of physics and biology. Designed for children, which, however, do not have the knowledge to understand what they see, the result is a museum-park games where schools take the students on a field trip, but without apparent preparation to the theoretical basis.
Not recommended for adults, chaos does not allow us to appreciate the potential of the museum.

Inspiring place, lot to learn, huge arrangement for hands-on experience, worth going. Just loved it.

The biggest and best I have seen! Genius execution. Totally amazing. Love the use of historic pier buildings too.

Does (or is it?) Really great fun as an adult. There's a lot to discover.

Budget a full day to actually dig into everything. So many cool things to explore!

Delightful activities, all with scientific explanations! It made me feel like a kid again.

It had a lot of things and its a good place to cheer people up.

Really fun and really interactive place to go. There's lots of activities for all ages and the staff is always really friendly, too!

Great place for kids and adults to go to. You will learn more here than you would of think. It's also a get date activity since everything is very interactive. I really enjoy their nightlife programs too. I went to one called "The Science of Sex". Mary Roach spoke and they even had a smell attraction exhibit. It was so much fun and very entertaining.

A lot of fun experiments makes this THE museum to visit while in San Francisco.

Sensational! I went with my kids and they loved it. My 9 year old enjoyed it very much. It is part of the Citypass, so the ticket amount is already included.

Great for prople who love science it makes learning it fun becayde you actually learn how it works

This is an AWESOME museum! I love the hands on interaction that is everywhere, it's a much more fun way to learn! It was great fun for both kids and adults, my inner child was beaming in here! It's a bit pricey, but it's a place you'll want to come back to and the membership is great value!! Just one extra visit will make it worth more than what you paid!! It's spot right on the Embarcadero is perfect, and the interactive exhibits are amazing! I'll definitely be back!

Brilliant in it's simplicity. Great destination for kids and adults alike

Everyone in my group had fun at this place. Very interactive. Worth the money if you spend at least two hours in there.

Prepare to spend a lot if time there. There's so much to see.

I brought a date here on a Sunday afternoon, and the place was really crowded. The line for the tickets stretched out the door! Luckily, we had a corporate pass and were able to skip the line. The museum is filled to the brim with little bite-sized exhibits, each demonstrating a strange and wonderful scientific phenomenon ranging from physics to psychology. I wish I could have come as a kid and looked upon each exhibit as a new mystery. However, even as an educated adult who was very familiar with majority of the phenomena, I had a lot of fun getting hands-on with each exhibit. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to check out the entire museum despite spending two hours there.

Amazing, experience orientated science experiments. Could of spent days in there

A great place to spend an afternoon. They have amazing views of the bay.

Great exihbits. Gained half an IQ point during that visit. Recommend going with a +1, since there are a lot of activities that need a partner

This place is just wonderful for children and adults! I remember growing up and going to this play whenever i came to SF. I remember when it use to be by the Golden Gate bridge. Fun activities to learn, play, etc. I remember where the staff would draw you a picture of the movements you make with 2 markers. Camera shadows were also fun. Great place to learn and explore.

Beautiful venue. We had our holiday party here. It's very unique for SF, and definitely worth a visit. They made it super special for our holiday party, although it got incredibly packed. For the after dark hours, it was also a blast, but got so packed that we weren't able to exhibit much.

Would love to visit on a normal day and really dive into exploring new concepts!

The hands-on exhibits are well thought out, this place is really not for anyone over the age of 15. We explored it during a free admission day, and while I see the appeal, I found that it was not for me. Four stars still, as I highly recommend bringing kids here.

Need at least 5 hours so kids can explore all possible exhibits with interest.

Great place for science geeks to bring a date. Creative exhibits that demonstrate all kinds of things, and a space for hands-on tinkering.

My three year old son loves this place. I love it too.

Ideal for younger children families to learn SF wharf history and break by for lunch.