Museums

What do the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, Prospect Park and the Prospect Park Zoo all have in common? They're wonderful NYC cultural institutions that you almost feel guilty for not going to more often (or ever). You know they're great, they're just a little...inconvenient.

But now, they all have something else in common too...they're all stops on the brand new FREE Heart of Brooklyn cultural shuttle. The Heart of Brooklyn Culture Shuttle is a free hop-on hop off service running three different programs: Read more »

The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum just opened up again this weekend after a five year renovation. A lifelong New Yorker, I admit I had never been to the Intrepid before. Roaming around a big ship and looking at airplanes had never appealed to me. But since they took the trouble to redo it, and I now have a five year old son, I figured it was worth going to check it out and I'm glad we did.

The people at the Intrepid Museum obviously took families into consideration in their planning because they've created a whole new kid-friendly section called the Exploreum. In the Exploreum kids play their way through exhibits that teach them about the inner workings of the ship and life on the ship, plus the Intrepid's role in the Space program. Read more »

The bankers and the artists may get all the press, but NYC is a great city for science too. There are many wondrous places in New York where kids can soak up, explore and create scientific knowledge for themselves. From Science Museums, Programs, Shops and more, we've rounded up the best places for kids to get scientific in New York City. Read more »

On Halloween , the monsters take over the streets of NYC, but New York is always full of monsters, if you know where to look for them. We've put together some cool ideas for finding monsters in NYC with kids. Perfect for a Halloween weekend outing or monstrously fun any time. Read more »

Don't miss out on taking advantage of all the great museums NYC has to offer just because the admissions are higher than a skyscraper. Our guide to NYC museum free times will give you the inside scoop of when to visit your favorite museums or try out a new one with our listings of free museum hours in New York City.

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There may be less and less ice at the North Pole for polar bears to skate on, but Manhattan's getting a new ice skating rink this winter. This year, for the first time in 140 years, The American Museum of Natural History will be opening its skating rink. Opening on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008, here's what the press release says: Read more »

Take advantage of the amazing fall weather this weekend with our pick of the best free outdoor kids events. Find out where you can hear They Might Be Giants, the coolest weekend activity for four-year-olds and why now is the time to hop on the Roosevelt Island tram. Plus, keep reading to get a special discount code for half price tickets to Goody Two Shoes kid-disco where you can party like it was 1999. Read more »

This weekend is going to be great zoo weather. Nice and sunny and cool, but the big summer crowds are gone. We visited the Bronx Zoo and had a great time. It made us wonder why we don't go there all the time.

The impetus for our visit was the new Madagascar exhibit. (I can't imagine where I got that idea from). And it was definitely worth the trip. While Madagascar isn't as dramatic as the Congo exhibit with it's amazing gorillas, it was fun for everyone and I gathered some tips for visiting the Bronx Zoo along the way. Read more »

This weekend is the Grand Reopening of the Brooklyn Children's Museum after an $80 Million renovation and expansion. I got a sneak peek today and am excited to share lots of pictures and details about this amazing new space, plus grand opening events and special pricing information.

For the past year the Brooklyn Children's Museum has been closed while undergoing an $80 million renovation and expansion. The Museum officially opens to the public on September 20th with twice as much space and three times the programming. It is now also the first museum in NYC to go Green. The building is certified as a green building and the Museum will be offering programs to teach children about the building and it's systems as well.

I was incredibly impressed with the new museum's exhibits. They have turned the old, somewhat rag-tag museum into a new world class cultural institution, but one that stays true to and celebrates it's Brooklyn roots. Particularly the World Brooklyn exhibit, which is like a combination of old school Sesame Street and Disney's Epcot Center. Read more »

Sometimes the streets of NYC can be the most magical place in the world. This will become true for the next nine days when Bhutanese ritual dancers will be appearing throughout the city every day to perform their mesmerizing ancient Tantric Buddhist demon subjugation dance, called Cham. The elaborate costumes of the 13 monks who will be performing are enough to make this event spectacular, but the performance, a kind of danced yoga, makes this a once in a lifetime occurrence.

Bhutan is a tiny, secretive and isolated kingdom in the Himalayas, with very little outside influence and extremely limited tourism is allowed, making the opportunity to see the Bhutanese monks dancing on the streets of our city, for free, an absolutely not to be missed opportunity. Read more »