Plan Your Visit to the Perot Museum

On December 1st, 2014, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science celebrated its 2nd birthday. If you live around Dallas, I *know* you’ve at least heard of the Perot Museum…it’s a Big Deal, and for good reason. This place is amazing! Here’s everything you need to know to plan your trip to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas.

We spent several hours exploring the museum, and that is with young children…and we could have easily spent another several hours there. 

Start at the top of the museum, and make your way down.

The dinosaurs are at the top, and that kind of sets the mood (AWESOME) for the rest of the visit. As you work your way down the different floors, you’ll meet dinosaurs, visit the Solar System, learn about human anatomy (and get a chance to see your own veins…super cool!), get a lesson in oil and minerals, and learn about some animals. Depending on the age of your kids, this can take all day or a couple of hours.

You can expect tons of hands-on activities for the kids. Here, Claire is trying to pick up some “food” (pom poms) with her “beak” (tongs) as we learn about birds.

Check out the movie schedule before you go.

The museum has a National Geographic theater where you can watch 3D movies. These are short – 20-40 minutes long – so you don’t need to worry about getting the kids to sit through a long movie. We watched a movie about the Galapagos Islands, and it was SO GOOD! Halfway through, Jack leaned over to me and said, “WAIT! Is this place REAL?!” 

The museum plays a few movies throughout the day, so check out the schedule in advance so you can plan your visit around the movie you’d like to see. The theater is incredible. You’ll need to get tickets when you arrive, which is another good reason to have a plan for what you’d like to see.

There is a cafe at the museum if you want to grab lunch while you’re there!

The cafe serves lots of healthy foods that will appeal to everyone, and this is a good place for a pit stop before heading to the bottom floor, which is where you’ll find the Moody Family Children’s Museum. This is where my kids would have spent an entire day if we’d had time!

If you have toddlers, plan on spending most of your time in the Children’s Museum.

Show my kids a water table and they can be entertained for hours. Seriously! Kids will love the water table, giant building blocks, a pretend grocery store, and an arts and crafts center. There are guided activities taking place throughout the day in the Children’s Museum, too.

You might need to buy extra tickets to see the special exhibits.

On the bottom floor, the museum has a space for traveling exhibits. These are really, really cool (we’ve seen many of them) but usually cost an additional fee. One of our favorites was about the Mayans, but the kids also really loved one about sports. 

Check out the parking situation before you go.

If you’re like me, you’ll want to see where you’re going to park (or maybe it’s just me that can’t handle driving downtown unless I know *exactly* where I am going!). You park in a lot off of the museum grounds and then cross a street to the museum. There can be a lot of construction and activity around that area, so just check it out before you go.

Have you visited the Perot Museum? What was your favorite part?