We’re incredibly lucky in Oxfordshire to have the wonderful Oxford University Museum of Natural History. With free entry, it makes a great value day out with the kids.
The Natural History Museum is very family friendly. It’s bright and airy with lovely wide aisles which means younger kids are happy to wonder up and down while older kids will enjoy the exhibits. The Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum were the joint winners of the Family Friendly Museum Award in 2005.
Just next to the Welcome Desk, you can find their family friendly trolley, packed full of a variety of museum trails for different age groups, plus paper and pencils for museum sketching.
They also have touchable specimens which is perfect if you have kids like mine who love to touch anything and everything they can. Give Mandy the Shetland pony a stroke, touch a real dinosaur egg or tickle a wallaby’s chin! There are lots of special specimens in the Museum that can give you and your family a multi-sensory experience.
The absolute highlight for my kids are the dinosaur skeletons. They’re absolutely stunning. However, the museum is beautifully laid out over only a couple of floors and you’ll find a lots of different collections that will interest both you and your children.
Toilets & Baby Changing
As well as male and female and disabled toilets near the entrance, there is also a very large ‘family-sized’ disabled toilet at the bottom of the lift, near the Museum Annexe. There are baby changing facilities in both disabled toilets. Please ask if you need directions to find them.
Café
CAFE CLOSED (LAST UPDATED MAY 2021)
The Museum now has a beautiful, lively café on the upper gallery. There are child-friendly options available and families are always welcome. Why not enjoy a break while over-looking the dinosaurs!
Unfortunately they can’t allow any eating in the Museum, other than in the café, because crumbs attract pests, which eat the specimens! But they do have a lovely big lawn outside, which you are very welcome to use for a picnic and a run-around.
Buggy access
You are welcome to bring your buggy into the Museum, as the wide aisles (built for Victorian ladies in crinolines!) make it easy to get around. If you require lift access, you can enter at the right hand side (South side) of the museum and use the lift there. Once inside, you can use the lift to access the upper gallery. Please ask if you need any help at all.
