The Travel Town Museum is a railroad museum that was established on December 14, 1952, and is situated in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California. The principal focus of the museum's collection is on the history of railroad transportation in the western United States from 1880 to the 1930s, with a focus on Southern California and the Los Angeles region. Young transportation aficionados will be on board for a trip to the Travel Town Museum in Griffith Park, an outdoor train wonderland with locomotives, freight cars, cabooses, and more, and that is one of the best kids museums in Los Angeles. Additionally, you can board the toy train and ride it around the museum's perimeter.

Tickets are available to ride the 16 in (406 mm) gauge Travel Town Railroad in two circles around the museum grounds. This railroad once operated the Melody Ranch Special, a train that belonged to Gene Autry. From the Gene Autry movie Melody Ranch comes its name. The passenger coaches are now covered, and Courage, a chain-driven internal combustion motor housed within a façade resembling a steam locomotive, has taken the place of the original steam engine, which was vandalized beyond reasonable repair. There are three miniature railroad train rides in Griffith Park, and this one is one of them.

Added Bonus: Travel Town hosts groups in its Party Cars, and makes the perfect place to host a kids’ birthday party.

Google Rating: 4.6/5.0

Hours: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily; Closed Wed.

Admissions: The museum is free, though a donation is appreciated.
Location: 5200 Zoo Dr.Los Angeles
Website: traveltown.org

A nonprofit museum called Kidspace offers fun, kid-centered experiences that delight and enthrall youngsters on all levels—emotionally, cognitively, and physically. For its InterActivity Conference for museum professionals in May 2017, the Association of Children's Museums selected Kidspace as the venue. By partnering with AEG's Goldenvoice, the Kidspace On The Road program increased its outreach program offerings and added a kid-friendly component for the recently launched Arroyo Seco Weekend music festival at the Rose Bowl. The $13 million fundraising target set by the Campaign for the Future of Kidspace was achieved. The campaign's final exhibit improvement project, Splash Dance Fountains, reopened in 2018. Opened was Bean Sprouts Café.

Near the Rose Bowl, the indoor/outdoor Kidspace Children's Museum offers children a variety of play-based activities and educational resources. The enormous multi-story climbing towers, the Trike Tracks, an outdoor rope bridge, a miniature beach, a stream, and so much more are highlights. Go to the Early Childhood Learning Center if you have crawlers. Away from the influx of active older children, this area is stocked with age-appropriate activities and climbers!

Added Bonus: In the summer, little ones will love cooling off in the Arroyo creek area—just be sure to bring a change of clothes.

Google Rating: 4.6/5.0

Hours: Tues.-Sun. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Admission: $15 for everyone, kids under 1 are free
Location; 480 N Arroyo Blvd.Pasadena

Website: kidspacemuseum.org

Jewish educational organization The Skirball Cultural Center was established in Los Angeles, California, in 1996, that is one of the best kids museums in Los Angeles.. The Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis Center, which bears their names, includes a museum with frequently changing exhibitions, film events, music and theatrical performances, comedy, family, literary, and cultural programs. The property has meeting rooms, classrooms, libraries, courtyards, gardens, a museum, a performing arts center, and a café. Despite having Jewish roots, the institution welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds.

The award-winning interactive children's exhibit, Noah's Ark, which features animals constructed from recycled materials, is housed in this West LA Jewish cultural center. Children may climb, build, create, and explore (a favorite Ark activity is cleaning up the fake animal excrement!). A Rainbow Mist Arbor, a dress-up area, and an art room with activities inspired by the exhibits are also available to children on the weekends. These features are buried away in the Values and Visions exhibit's Ellis Island portion.

Added bonus: The museum offers plenty of Family Programs throughout the year, including Sensory-Friendly Sun., Story Time in Noah’s Ark and an after-dark Pajama Party.

Google Rating: 4.7/5.0

Hours: Closed Mon., National & Jewish holidays.

Admission: Kids are $7 and adults are $12, kids under 2 are free; every Thurs. admission is free
Location: 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles
Website: skirball.org

The largest natural history museum in the western United States is the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Its collections, which span 4.5 billion years of history, contain close to 35 million specimens and artifacts. This extensive collection includes both onsite and offsite-located research collections in addition to specimens for display.

The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park and the William S. Hart Ranch and Museum in Newhall are two additional Greater Los Angeles museums connected to this one. To fulfill its shared goal of "inspiring wonder, exploration, and responsibility for our natural and cultural surroundings," the three museums collaborate.

Let’s have a show of hands—who has a kiddo who loves dinos? The Natural History Museum’s Dinosaur Hall is spectacular space, and the multi-media stations are informative and fun for all ages. You can also see animal dioramas from all over the world, and be sure to check out the Nature Gardens and Labs. Mark your calendars for the NHM’s after-hours evenings; that just might be the best time to visit. And don’t forget to visit the theater featuring Dinosaurs of Antarctica 3D.

Need to Know: In the spring and summer you won’t want to miss the Butterfly Pavilion, where you can get up close and personal with beautiful winged creatures. In the fall this becomes the Spider Pavilion—a perfect Halloween adventure!Good to Know: The nature garden is a great area to let the kids run around and let off some steam (if they still have any left), so grab a coffee from the cafe, take a seat and let them climb, roam and splash around.

Google Rating: 4.5/5.0

Hours: 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m.; closed Mon. & Tues.;

Admission: $7 for kids (3-12), $12 for teens (13-17), $15 for adults and under 3 are free. L.A. County residents receive free museum admission between 3-5 p.m.
Location: 900 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles

Website: nhm.org

The Cayton Children's Museum was created as a collection of unexpected places that encourage children to learn about and participate in their community by bringing play indoors. By converting a former artisanal food hall into a museum dedicated to the imagination and magic of childhood, the 20,095 SF museum creatively reuses a portion of the upper floor of Santa Monica Place, a shopping mall that was initially created by Frank Gehry.

The museum's non-linear design relies on a network of freestanding, tactile objects that are purposefully placed to frame portions of the five exhibit neighborhoods while not immediately revealing the entirety of the museum's total offerings. The museum was conceptualized as an inclusive space for free and safe discovery. With the support of the more than 30 displays aimed at enabling kids to play their way to a better world, each visitor has the ability to create their own "Path of Awesome" thanks to the free plan approach.

In the summer of 2019, the 21,000 square foot, vibrant, and entertaining Cayton Children's Museum opened on the third level of Santa Monica Place. Children can climb through the ceiling-mounted Courage Climber, a mesh web of ropes; plunge into the recycled Coast Guard rescue boat-filled To the Rescue! ball pit; be amazed by the Rube-Goldberg-inspired All Systems Go! Ball Machine; board a fire truck; express themselves in the art studio; and so much more.

Google Rating: 4.5/5.0

Hours: Open daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (members can go an hour early, at 9 a.m.)

Admission: $16 for adults and children; free for infants under 12 months; pay-as-you-wish for all residents of L.A. County.
Location: 395 Santa Monica Pl.Santa Monica
Website: caytonmuseum.org

A museum in Los Angeles, California, called the Autry Museum of the American West is devoted to studying a comprehensive history of the American West. The 1988-founded museum offers a wide range of public programs, including talks, movies, plays, festivals, concerts for kids, and music, in addition to doing research, scholarship, and educational outreach. It draws roughly 150,000 visits a year to its two websites.

The Irene Helen Jones Parks Gallery of Art and the Gamble Firearms Gallery in its main building underwent a thorough overhaul and renovation in 2013. The new structure allowed material to be exhibited in relation to themes rather than chronology, and paintings were shown next to crafts, photography, video, and other components in new relationships in its linked opening exhibit for the Parks Gallery, Art of the West.

It's a great idea to take youngsters to the Autry Museum in Griffith Park to learn about California's past. This place provides children with an overview of the history of what made the West so wild and how it was tamed, from early settlers to the era of sheriffs and gunslingers, Annie Oakley to cowboy flicks, Chinatown to the Gold Rush.

Google Rating: 4.6/5.0

Hours: Tues.–Sun., 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Admission: $6 for kids (3-12); $14 for adults; kids under 3 are free; admission is free the second Tuesday if of each month.
Location: 4700 Western Heritage Way (across the street from the LA Zoo)Los Angeles
Website: theautry.org

Website:Urban Los Angeles is home to the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, a location of ongoing paleontological research, that is one of the best kids museums in Los Angeles. Hancock Park was built around a collection of tar pits where natural asphalt, also known as asphaltum, bitumen, pitch, or tar, or brea in Spanish, has been seeping up from the earth for tens of thousands of years. The tar preserved the animal bones for many centuries. The George C. Page Museum is devoted to learning more about the tar pits and showcasing samples of the dead animals that perished there. A registered National Natural Landmark.

Gilsonite, a type of heavy oil fraction that seeps from the Earth as oil, is what makes up tar pits. From the Salt Lake Oil Field, which lies beneath much of the Fairfax District north of Hancock Park, crude oil seeps up along the 6th Street Fault. As the lighter petroleum parts biodegrade or evaporate, the oil rises to the surface, where it collects in pools and turns into asphalt. The asphalt typically forms stubby mounds when it solidifies. The park's pools and mounds can be seen in a number of locations.

This historic Los Angeles Museum on Wilshire Boulevard is a kid favorite. Aside from the open grassy area where youngsters may roll down a sloping grassy hill and climb on animal sculptures throughout the park, the bubbling tar pit is a popular sight. Titans of the Ice Age 3D is a must-see.

Google Rating: 4.6/5.0

Hours: Open 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Tues.
Admission: $7 for kids, $15 for adults, tots under 3 are free; L.A. County residents receive free admission to the museum between 3-5 p.m.
Location: 5801 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles
Website: tarpits.org

One of the best kids museums in Los Angeles is Discovery Cube LA. Invention Cube More than 100 interactive science displays at Orange County, formerly known as the Discovery Science Center and the Taco Bell Discovery Science Center, in Santa Ana, California, are intended to pique children's natural curiosity. With its ten-story solar array cube that towers over Interstate, it was created by the architecture company Arquitectonica with structural engineers Carl Johnson and Svend Nielsen.

Science of Hockey, Dino Quest, Rocket Lab, Air & Space, Eco Challenge, Dynamic Earth, Quake Zone, and the Showcase Gallery, which displays visiting exhibits, are just a few of the center's themed sections. Dino Quest, an interactive exhibit that debuted in 2006 and features life-size dinosaurs, is one of the available exhibits at the museum. Another is Science of Hockey, which debuted in 2009 and uses the Anaheim Ducks franchise to highlight the various scientific principles underlying the game of ice hockey.

The inventive "aquavator" at Discover Cube LA simulates an elevator ride into a subterranean aquifer and features a miniature climbing wall, a 70 MPH wind tunnel, a simulated helicopter ride, and more. In the Science of Hockey LA Kings upstairs display, kids will also enjoy a garbage-sorting game and the chance to ride a Zamboni.

Google Rating: 4.4/5.0

Hours: Thurs.- Sun, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Mon – Wed.
Admission: Adults $16, kids (3-14) $14
Location: 11800 Foothill Blvd. Los Angeles
Website: discoverycube.org/los-angeles