Great for a rainy day, or if you are VERY bored! (Manchester Museum)

Member Name: Rosie78

Product:	Manchester Museum
Date:	22/06/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's free!

Disadvantages: It's a bit dull

I've been visiting Manchester Museum with my children for quite a while now, we usually visit at least once during the school holidays.

The museum is free, and there's a lot to see. The most popular with my children is the T-rex skeleton. They also love the vivarium, which has a small selection of snakes, frogs and lizards. There are two floors of stuffed animals and birds, which the children also like looking at.

They have a section for children on the top floor with books and colouring activities. They have child sized chairs and tables for them to sit on, as well as sofas. Sometimes they will have an exhibit there on the table for the children to look at and draw. They are usually under a glass case, but if you're lucky a museum guide will be there to open it so you can touch. Otherwise, on the tables they have collections of things like plastic dinosaurs or pine cones.

There's an ancient egypt gallery with lots of mummies, perhaps not best for children! We don't tend to spend long in there! The usual route for us is stuffed animals, vivarium, top floor for some colouring then down to the dinosaurs and fossils.

There's a special exhibition area on the ground floor, recently they've had Lindow Man. There's no extra charge for this area.

The layout of the museum is a bit of a pain, you often find yourself having to backtrack to get around from one place to another, and I've lost my way in there a couple of times. There are lifts so it's very accessible if you have a pushchair.

Compared to other museums, there isn't a great deal for children to do here, as it's mostly exhibits in glass cases. There isn't much 'hands on'. So we tend to be done in about an hour. The museum itself doesn't have a cafe, but there is a cafe next door. I think it's run entirely separately but there is a connecting door from the museum to the cafe. The food there is pretty average to be honest. They do kids lunchboxes with a sandwich, drink and a couple of other bits and pieces, but I thought they were quite poor quality. The adult food I've been disappointed with as well. It has changed management in the last year or so, and the quality has suffered. I'm taking a picnic next time! There are two shops in the museum which sell a range of items, there are lots of pocket money toys available.

All in all, it's a great place to while away an hour or so, but probably won't keep children entertained for long. You could combine it with a trip to the Whitworth Art Gallery which is just down the road, and worth a visit.

Summary: Take your own picnic!