Indianapolis Children's Museum - Indianapolis, Indiana

The Indianapolis Children’s Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana is not only the world’s largest children’s museum but it is also one of the nations top tourist attractions.  We recently had the opportunity to visit it and were simply amazed by the museum.

The museum opened at 10 AM on the day of our visit and we arrived at the free museum parking garage around 9:30 AM.  There were other families already there and they were walking across the skywalk from the parking garage to the museum.  I wasn’t sure if we would be able to get into the museum yet or not but we decided to head across to the museum anyhow.  The skywalk took us directly into the main lobby of the museum and much to my amazement we were able to purchase our tickets immediately.

Once we purchased our tickets we were able to go through the ticket turnstiles but we were unable to enter the rest of the museum until 10 AM.  A family that arrived before we did were chosen to help open the museum at 10 AM.  Once 10 AM arrived the museum staff did a countdown and we were allowed to enter the museum.

The museum offers planetarium shows, rock climbing, and shows in the Lily Theater daily free of charge.  However the tickets are given on a first come, first serve basis so the first thing we did was to visit the different locations to retrieve our tickets for the shows.  We were able to get tickets to the planetarium and Snoopy The Musical, which was the current show at Lily Theater, but we were unable to do the rock climbing due to the fact that the time slots that were available would not work with our show tickets.

There were a few exhibits that were traveling exhibits that we wanted to visit so they were the first exhibits that we visited that day.

The first traveling exhibit we visited was the Barbie exhibit.  You would think that the Barbie exhibit wouldn't intrest an eight year old boy but he did like being the DJ

In addition to the traveling exhibits, and the shows the only permanent exhibits we were able to visit during our trip was Dinosphere and the train exhibit.  We were at the museum from 10 AM until it closed at 5 PM and were just unable to see it all but we do plan to go back to visit the rest of the museum. 

There is a food court that is located in the museum, and it is very reasonably priced.  For lunch we purchase a large pizza and five drinks for $22.50.  In fact small drinks are only fifty cents each which is very reasonable.

Here's What You Need To Know To Make The Best of Your Visit:

• 
  

  Museum ticket prices are $11.50 for children ages two to seventeen, $16.50 for adults, $15.50 for seniors over the age of sixty, and children under the age of two are free.  Annual passes are available.
• 
  

  Museum tickets can be purchased online, over the phone, or at the museum on the day of your visit.  
• 
  

  The museum is open daily throughout the summer but is closed on Mondays during the winter.
• 
  

  Get there early to ensure that you get the tickets to the shows that you want to see - they go fast.  Also check out the museum's website before going so that you know exactly what tickets you want when you get there.
• There is a coat check available in winter which I think is a huge plus.

Here's How We Rated The Indianapolis Children's Museum

 I absolutely can not say enough about how great the museum is.  We were there the entire day and we weren't able to see it all.  Although the museum is geared towards children it was fun for all of us.  I highly, highly recommend visiting the museum.