The World’s Best Museums for Science Lovers

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When you’re on holiday, for most people number one in importance is to soak up some sun and gain some local knowledge, enjoy regional cuisine, or indulge in a bit of shopping. When you have time on top of that (or have such bad sunburn you need to spend time indoors), it’s brilliant to spend time exploring museums and art galleries, because they often showcase local innovations and discoveries you would never have known about otherwise. Science museums are especially interesting for the curious, and here’s a list of five of the world’s best.

London, UK

Visitors to London will be heading straight for the world famous Science Museum. Housed in a specially built museum of many floors, the displays are designed to be interesting for everyone from toddlers upwards. In fact, the museum is extremely family friendly, with a free to enter children’s play area in the basement which offers scientific learning through play to tiny tots.

Rabat, Morocco

If you are going to Morocco, a very interesting place to visit is the Natural Science Museum situated in the town of Rabat. Things you must view there include the full Sauropod dinosaur skeleton and the accompanying reconstruction of how it would have looked in life. Well, let’s be honest, it’s hard to avoid as it’s the star display and in addition, at fifteen meters long you’ll come across it whether you’re looking for it or not!

Zagreb, Croatia

When you want to take a break from the beautiful beaches of Croatia, there are some interesting museums to visit. The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts is housed in a beautiful building, known as the Academy Palace. Its sweeping staircase and finely vaulted ceiling is reason to go alone. It is a busy teaching academy but also features regular displays alongside the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters, a collection founded in 1884.

Sydney, Australia

If you’re popping over to the other side of the world any time soon, the Powerhouse Museum is a great place to go with your family. It has a huge program of ever changing temporary exhibits and is interactive, with touch screen displays, science experiments and even a virtual reality space. The museum also offers tours, performances, film screenings, and two cafes as well as an outdoor play area for children.

Ontario, Canada

For visitors to Ontario, a trip to the Ontario Science Centre is extremely rewarding. It’s open almost every single day of the year and offers science related activity for all members of the family – toddlers, teens and adults. Kids can even have sleepovers there! They have an Imax dome cinema, gift shop and café, a special section for kids under eight, and sections on the Earth, the human brain and space travel.

As well as these there are plenty of other science museums to visit on your travels, from tiny, two room affairs to massive world renown ones. It’s worth going to the local tourist information when you get to your destination as they’ll happily hand over a sheaf of leaflets detailing the town or city’s points of interest. Just remember to leave your selfie stick at home!