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Camping, Kids Camping, RV, RV Life, RV Tips, RV travel, RV Travel with Kids, Tips for RVing With Kids, Travel
When our son was younger, we would make a point of visiting children’s museums wherever we went. Now that our daughter is old enough to appreciate these museums, they are making their way back into our travel plans.
In this article, we will discuss the best children’s museums we’ve seen so far. Choose one from this list when planning your travels, and you really can’t go wrong!
The Magic House
St. Louis, MO
St. Louis is home to a number of great attractions. There is a free zoo that is amazing, as well as a free science center, a history museum, and an art museum. The city is also home to the incredible City Museum, which should be on every traveler’s must-see list. Another favorite St. Louis spot of ours? The Magic House.
I have fond memories of visiting the Magic House when I was little, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the museum met my expectations all these years later. The place plays host to climbing structures, sand- and water-play areas, an outdoor play area, and the crown jewel: a kid-sized city where kids can try out different occupations for a while.
Houston Children’s Museum
Houston, TX
Houston is another city with lots of wonderful museums to choose from. The Health Museum is fantastic, as is the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Of course, you definitely don’t want to miss the Houston Space Center, nor do you want to skip the amazing Houston Children’s Museum.
The latter museum features one of the bigger kid cities I’ve seen, and the city is complete with currency, meaning kids can get “jobs” and earn “money” to go spend at the businesses in the tiny town. Other cool things in this museum include a huge outdoor play area, an awesome indoor climbing structure, and a super fun maker space where kids can create new inventions.
Children of Gettysburg
Gettysburg, PA
One of the more unique children’s museums we’ve seen, Children of Gettysburg is small, but it has a very specific purpose, and it does its job well. The purpose? To present the story of Gettysburg in a way that kids can understand and appreciate.
The museum follows a set of children from various backgrounds through the events of the Battle of Gettysburg. Everything is explained in a way that kids can connect with and digest, and there are plenty of hands-on activities to engage young visitors and help them dive into the world of the 19th-century children they are learning about.
My kids especially loved the last room where they could care for an “injured soldier” and make a speech as President Lincoln.
Bay Area Children’s Museum
San Francisco, CA
Bay Area Children’s Museum may be a lesser-known children’s museum, but we thought it was absolutely magical. In fact, we loved this museum so much that we returned for a second round of fun a couple of years after the first.
The museum is set up in several different buildings, which I appreciated, as it helped my busy little guy focus on the thing he was doing rather than being distracted by all of the other exhibits. There was a lovely outdoor space between the buildings with the coolest “natural” play area. We really loved the art room at this museum and probably could have stayed there all day long.
How to Save on Children’s Museum Visits
One of the things I don’t love about children’s museums is how expensive they can be. Fortunately, we have found some ways around that:
- Many children’s museums offer free or cheap days each week or once a month. Look for these days and try to plan your travels around them if you can.
- Additionally, some museums will offer coupons or Groupons. Search for these before paying full price; you never know what you might find.
- Lastly, a lot of children’s museums are part of reciprocal museum programs. ASTC is a science museum reciprocal program that offers members free admission to all member museums. ACM is a children’s museum reciprocal program that offers cardholders half-off admission to the museums in their program. Both include plenty of children’s museums all across the country.
As you can see, there are lots of amazing children’s museums scattered across the country, and really, these are just a handful of them. Hopefully, this article inspires you to check out a few of these super fun spots for yourself!
About the author: Chelsea Gonzales
Chelsea has the amazing opportunity to take part in full-time RV living and traveling with her tiny tribe. She homeschools her five-year-old son as they travel, and takes full advantage of their unique situation by using the entire world as her son’s classroom. A group of total Disney fanatics, Chelsea and her family often find themselves in the Orlando area in order to visit the Disney parks, but they have also visited over 25 of the 50 states with plans to see many more along the way. No matter where her travels take her, Chelsea enjoys riding bikes, gazing at beautiful sunsets, finding new coffee shops, Irish dancing, and sitting around a campfire with her family.
You can join her adventures through her blog, Wonder Wherever We Wander.
Last but not least, we highly recommend handing each kid 
Before you hit the road, you need to measure your rigs height, width, length, and weight and have it posted somewhere in the cab where you can see it when you approach a tight situation. Keep in mind, the numbers posted in the brochure are not exact for every unit. You need to measure the actual height, width from the outermost point such as mirrors or awnings, and the height. Jot these numbers down on a label or even masking tape and put them on the dash or somewhere visible for that moment you come across a low clearance warning and do not want to guess! I can guarantee if you have a 10’ 6” travel trailer or motorhome and you go through a 10’4” bridge or tunnel, you will come out with a 10’4” rig!
It’s important to sit in the driver’s seat and set your mirrors, seat position, and then get acquainted with all the functions of the rig before hitting the road and trying to find where the wiper functions are when it starts to rain! Sit in the seat and adjust the position of the seat to ensure you can see the mirrors, adjust the steering wheel to see the speedometer and critical gauges. This may seem elementary, however, I have driven dozens of units that I could not see the mirrors due to the “A” pillar, could not tilt the steering wheel and see the speed on the dash, and other issues. If you have a truck and trailer, your mirrors need to be wide enough to see the side of the trailer. It is also a good idea to install a rearview camera on the back of the trailer to help see what you can’t!
Having a list to verify your TV antenna is down, steps are in, electrical and water is unhooked and everything is secure before you leave will help reduce headaches and save you money not having to fix or replace things! Create a customized checklist for your rig by adding your personal items and accessories, follow it every time before heading out and then hit the road with confidence.
Tonya has been with Coach-Net for four and a half years. For the past two years, she has been responsible for our Accounts Payable and Compliance. She and her husband have four teenagers at home and they love to travel, explore new places, and spend time in the outdoors. They make sure to take one trip a year without the kids each May to celebrate their anniversary. This year, for their 19th, they decided to take the RV out for the first time. Read on to see how her trip went!
Our goal was to see Garner State Park, but camping there is usually booked far in advance so we booked a site at a local RV Park, Camp Riverview RV Park in Concan, TX. I highly recommend this place. Our site had full hook-ups and sat only a few hundred yards from the Frio River. The staff was awesome. They greeted us upon arriving and even had people available to help us pull into the site and set everything up. I’m not ashamed to admit, we let them. It was hot! Thanks, Bill!
We went on Memorial Day Weekend, so it was four days and three nights. After our whole family being together on shelter-in-place orders since mid-March, we were well ready for this trip! We spent time at the RV park of course, but we also visited Garner State Park, the Frio Bat Cave Tours, and did a half-day float on the Frio.
Yes and we truly enjoyed the experience. My parents had a really nice Dodge Conversion van growing up. That was as close as I ever got to RV’ing. Neither of us had pulled anything that size or set up an RV before. We took turns driving the 350 miles down south and I think I did a pretty good job pulling it.
I would most definitely go again. We plan to! We like to camp with the kids several times a year. We all enjoy hiking and swimming. My son Noah especially loves to fish and build campfires for us. They are super excited to take the Airstream on our next trip.
The first and most obvious option is to visit campground laundry rooms or local laundromats along the way. This is what we recommend for those who are 1) staying near cities or in RV parks with facilities, and 2) will be in their RVs for the short term. It’s the cheapest short-term option and is rarely complicated by the challenges that tend to come our way while adventuring on the open road.
While many laundromats are now accepting cards, there are still just as many that require users to have quarters. Because not all laundry rooms necessarily offer a quarter machine, it’s a good idea to keep a good stash of quarters on hand at all times.
