Manchester Museum, Manchester

Manchester Museum has recently undergone somewhat of a revamp making the FREE attraction even more appealing to families with children of various ages. Our latest visit took place during a term-time Friday, which meant that although it was an INSET day for us, we viewed the displays alongside a number of excited school children. In the morning we took part in one of their regular Magic Carpets events in the main natural history hall. The event, as always, was very good. Inside the hall the displays are both interesting and artistically shown, appealing to a wide range of audiences, and also looked very contemporary. Oh yes, Manchester Museum also has it’s own app you can download to your mobile phone - very useful for techy dads and sulky teenagers. Throughout the museum it’s buggy friendly and the toilets and very clean and child friendly. There is a fabulous picnic area in the top gallery. This space not only has tables and chairs it also has a chill out space with additional tables set-up for colouring and drawings, and comfy sofas with books for the children. In the basement, Manchester Museum still has its number one attraction – the dinosaur skeleton. If you’re a fan of the Natural History Museum in London you’ll love Manchester Museum. Always worth checking out the website for details of their events, talks and workshops.

We have visited the Manchester Museum several times with our two young children. The museum is on several levels and although it means taking a slightly different route, there are lifts for buggies and wheelchairs so everything is accessible. My son (almost 5) especially loves the gigantic T-Rex on display on the ground floor - that always seems to be the starting and ending point of our trip every time we go. There are loads of lifesize animals from days gone by which is the part of the museum that interests our two the most. They seemed to pass through other sections of the museum with little interest. I suspect to an older child other sections such as the money or egyptology section would prove interesting. There is an aquarium section too where we could get up close to the glass and see snakes and lizards for example weaving their way through the leaves. There is a cafe on site which does smoothies, coffee and snacks etc. We thought it was a bit expensive but on the basis that admission to the museum is free, they need to draw in some revenue from somewhere I guess. There is also a decent little gift shop which my son adores because he invariably comes away with a plastic dinosaur to add to his collection. I'm not sure what the deal is with baby changing or bottle warming, as we never needed to make use of it. We usually park in the NCP nearby which is about a 5-6 minute walk as there is no parking on site. The up-side of this is there is a Ferrari garage across the road, so a trip to the Manchester Museum always includes a mooch around the Ferraris too - great for my 4 year old boy and Daddy! The Manchester Museum is ideal when money is a bit tight at the end of the month and the weather rules out trips to the park. In fact, we haven't been for a while, might be something to do this weekend!

The Manchester Museum is a bit like a mini version of the Natural History Museum in London. There are displays of stuffed animals, mummies and dinosaurs which are very interesting, the fact that it is smaller than its London counterpart is a advantage in some respects as it means that younger children are less likely to get bored when walking around it. The museum is buggy friendly and has a café adjoining it with friendly staff and good food, there are also plenty of toilets and changing areas. The Museum does not have its own parking facilities but there are a couple of public car parks nearby in easy walking distance.