Best museums and experience centres for kids in Oxfordshire
Entertaining the young ones can be quite the task! Likewise, sparking their enthusiasm and curiosity for learning about new facts and histories can often pose a challenge.
Discover the best museums for kids and and the best kid-friendly experience centres in Oxford and across Oxfordshire – ideal for igniting their fascination with the past, present, and future.
Whether your children are drawn to history, art, science, or sports, or they simply have an interest in the world around them, check out our selection of family-friendly museums and experience centres spread across Oxfordshire.
University of Oxford Museum of Natural History
Founded in 1860 as the centre for scientific study at the University of Oxford, the Museum of Natural History on Parks Road houses the university’s scientific collections of zoological, entomological, geological, palaeontological and mineralogical specimens accumulated over the last three centuries.
The museum regularly hosts family-friendly events where young ones can meet scientists to investigate real natural history specimens from the collection. Families can also enjoy activities and games at the museum during school breaks, with several trails and activity sheets to download and print at home or pick up from the Help Desk.
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is a world-renowned museum of art and archaeology, and it is one of the top cultural attractions in the city. It was founded in 1683, making it the oldest public museum in the UK, and it has an extensive collection of art and artefacts from across the world, from ancient to modern times.
The museum offers several family-friendly events, such as FREE volunteer-led family gallery tours where you can listen to stories and hunt for history while you explore the galleries. There’s also the Ashmolean Adventures, a digital guide for families to share a family adventure as you explore some of Ashmolean’s most intriguing objects.
For those with younger kids, the museum has monthly social and learning activities in a subscription package. The Baby Bundle caters to new parents and carers with babies under one year old, while the Toddler Time is for parents and carers with toddlers.
The Story Museum
The Story Museum is a most unusual museum in the heart of Oxford that highlights the human need for stories and celebrates the many ways people can benefit from them. Through immersive exhibitions and gallery spaces, events and outreach work, the museum celebrates stories in all forms and explores their enduring power to teach and delight.
Begin your adventure in the Portal, the information bureau for travellers between story worlds, where friendly Story Guides will help you plan your journey through the fictional universe.
Enter a mysterious indoor forest where every tree has a story to tell and a secret to reveal. Visit the The Enchanted Library and discover a magical world of stories. Head over to Small Worlds – a patchwork land of picture books, nursery rhymes and traditional tales for the very young. The Story Museum’s studio theatre – The Woodshed – allows audiences of all ages to experience the pleasure of story and the power of live performance.
Didcot Railway Centre
Didcot Railway Centre is a former Great Western Railway engine shed and locomotive stabling point set in 25 acres alongside Didcot Parkway Station in Didcot, which today has been converted into a railway museum and preservation engineering site.
For anyone who loves steam trains and railways, Didcot Railway Centre offers a unique collection of Great Western Railway steam engines, coaches, wagons, buildings and small relics based around the original 1930s engine shed. Its exhibition days are great fun for young and old alike – even if you are not into trains or history.
Science Oxford Centre
The Science Oxford Centre is a new experience for children, families and adults where all you need to get started is a little curiosity. It is the public-facing part of The Oxford Trust – an independent charitable trust founded in 1985 by entrepreneurs Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood.
Science Oxford runs workshops and clubs at weekends and during the holidays for children and their families. They also put on some evening events for grown-up science explorers.
Explore, discover and play in the Exploration Zone, where children and grown-ups alike have fun experimenting with interactive exhibits – create and test flying designs at the Air Table, build a giant magnetic ball run, and see what’s hot and what’s not with the Curious Camera. Experiment at the Live Lab with hands-on activities. With 15 acres of woodland and ponds, there’s plenty to explore outside, too. Pick up an Explorer Backpack and trail map and see what wildlife you can spot.
Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens
With over 260 different animal species in 160 acres of parkland and gardens, with a train (April to October), adventure playground, cafe and gift shop, Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens is one of Oxfordshire’s top attractions and one of the most beautiful wildlife parks in the country.
The mix of animals, landscaped parkland, and gardens appeals to all ages. Many of the animals are rare and endangered. Visitors can walk through the Madagascar enclosure with free-roaming lemurs and see meerkats, penguins and tropical birds in the exotically landscaped Walled Gardens. This is particularly colourful in mid to late summer.
From hands-on experiences and animal adoptions, there are exciting opportunities to get involved with some of the animals at Cotswold Wildlife Park and meet their keepers.
Roald Dahl Museum
The Roald Dahl Museum is a great little family attraction in the heart of Great Missenden in neighbouring Buckinghamshire, where Roald Dahl lived and wrote for 36 years. The museum and story centre has three fun and fact-packed galleries packed with activities perfect for 6- to 12-year-olds and their families.
Find out about Roald Dahl’s school pranks, peek into the author’s original Writing Hut, and discover how Roald Dahl’s real-life adventures inspired his stories. The Museum puts your imagination centre stage to help you and your family create your own swashboggling stories – just like Roald Dahl did.
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