FREE worthwhile museum, open until 6pm most nights!…read more I had exactly one hour (not enough time) at this museum before we needed to leave for a 3:30pm showtime at the State Theater NJ, which is an easy 15-min walk away. While a great stop to pair with theater, an hour is not enough time to see the full permanent collection let alone the temporary exhibits. I recommend at least 2h for this museum. The Soviet art was very exciting to me. I love Russian 20th C writers as well as those of the two centuries before. But this collection focuses on the times of Solzhenitsyn and just after Chekhov / Tolstoy. It was so wonderful to see the visual art counterpart to the literary works of the era. The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University offers FREE admission to everyone (as does nearby Princeton Art Museum). However, in both cases, you need to research parking because this is all overwrought university town systems, designed to nickel-and-dime, wasting your day navigating garages for available spots, adding apps to pay, or keeping track of tickets. I digress for this nuisance that really beats fun out of the experience. Nonetheless, the museum itself is a worthy stop if you are in the area. I highly recommend pairing with a visit to Rutgers Gardens (see my other reviews), just a 7min drive away, with free admission and a free parking lot!

Beautiful free to the public art museum on the campus of Rutgers University New Brunswick campus…read more There's a very nice selection of art and sculptures and also rotating exhibits when I went it was Andy Warhol. It's definitely worth a visit and there's plenty of parking and restaurants in the area around the museum. Plus the whole area is a nice place for a walk. It's definitely worth a visit it's one of my favorite museums

This place was pretty interesting. I remember going here a few years back just for kicks! The…read moreplace is pretty old! Just like a fellow yelper Lauren T. said here, Indiana Jones must have an office here. The place has a couple of exhibits: Museum exhibits include a wide variety of anthropological, geological and natural history of different specimens of animals and humans. Some of the highlights of the museum collection that I remember was: A dinosaur trackway from Towaco, NJ, with a model of Grallator, the small carnivorous dinosaur. My favorite was the big mastodon from Salem County, NJ. this was found in 1869. The skeleton was mounted in 1896 and remounted in 1932. Pretty big elephant if you tell me! An Egyptian mummy. This 2,400 year old mummy was brought to Rutgers by a missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church. This was awesome! Mineral exhibits featuring the zeolite minerals of Paterson, NJ, and the zinc minerals of Franklin, NJ. Oh yeah they also do birthday parties here for kids. They do three Saturdays a month. Kids get to learn about historical remains! And I hear they get goodie bags at the end of the party. Check this place out. You may actually enjoy it.

This is a small museum and great for kids, but I was really concerned with the safety of the top…read morelevel of the museum. You enter it through a small spiral staircase that's hard to maneuver. The top banister is decades old and very shaky. I was there with three young kids - which is what the museum is best for - and I was very nervous on that top level. It was also difficult to get to the museum itself because there's no elevator.

Small museum with larger than life personal tour guide to walk you through the interesting life of…read moreThomas Edison. Known for 1 of the 1st inventors of the light bulb and phonographs Edison had over 400 patents. A few of his original inventions are located in this museum and the grounds are lit up at night. Worth the $ 7 entry and discounts are available for active military.

This place was tiny, but powerful! Filled with a lot of history. So close to home and never knew it…read morewas there. It took a half hour with the guided tour and she was very knowledgeable about the things of Thomas Edison. The museum is a little small but holds lots of facts About who he was. I recommend it to anyone that wants to learn more history about people that were part of New Jersey.

Museum always a has interesting things on exhibit. Exhibits change throughout the year so it's…read morealways nice to come back and see what's on exhibit. Right now it's Treasures of Middlesex County. Very interesting to see all the objects

After passing the Cornelius Lowe House virtually every day for the past 6 years, I finally made a…read moreconscious decision to try and visit. About 6 months later, based on my gf's suggestion we finally visited. I expected that this historical house would be full of historical furniture or reenactors or something old timey. However, this was not the case. The house actually serves as a small rotating museum exhibition space. During our visit, they had an exhibit on NJ Diners. There are only two floors of the house so it isn't a huge museum by any means. The exhibit took about an hour for me to read through everything and I though it was pretty interesting. I'm not sure how often they rotate the exhibits out but I'd certainly come back when they do. The house was unexpectedly air conditioned. The self guided tour was totally free. Also, the workers seemed really friendly. The only hitch is parking is confusing. The main driveway is a super narrow and scary road right off of River Road. Don't go in here. Parking is actually plentiful behind the house, which is in the lot of the visitor center on Rutgers Busch Campus. Some signs showing where to park would have been helpful.

Went with the wife after having a pre-art falafel at Mamoun's. While there I read some yelp…read morereviews where a small percentage of the reviewers were complaining about the quality of the art and giving negative reviews. Regardless, we decided to forge ahead with our visit! Primed with filling and inexpensive falafel, our first surprise was the really cool mosaic at the entrance. Our second surprise was the free admission. Free! We were off to a good start! We got the map from the delightful person behind the counter who refused to take our money, and headed up the stairs to the second floor where the majority of the art awaited us. Entrance to the stairs was included with the Free admission. Nice! The art on display runs across myriad regions and periods. The map will help you find your favorites, as the organization didn't seem to follow any particular theme. It might have a theme, but I didn't worry about it much. I had a map and it was free. Give yourself at least a couple of hours to view the second floor. There are a lot of small rooms, and many of the works have detailed information that helps explain their origins and history. If you want to look and not read, don't sweat it. It's not like it wasn't free to visit. Last of all, in case you missed it, it's Free. Every other museum in the region charges $20 just to walk in the door. This place is Free. Zero $. Gratis. How the heck can you get upset when it costs nothing! I'm glad I didn't get upset because my favorite Monet wasn't the one on display (They had a water lilies painting, and it looked great!) Go. Enjoy the place. Afterwards, take the money you saved with the free admission, and go get an inexpensive falafel at Mamoun's!

What a gem hiding on the campus! Can we talk about the artwork in the entranceway. That alone is a…read moreshowstopper. It's like two stories high and just beyond fabulous. If you go into the art museum and go upstairs, you can actually view it from the second floor as well, which is pretty cool and get a closer view of what's up higher. No, we showed up after closing. So we didn't actually get to see the whole collection, but they do have a number of pieces that are out and under a protective glass plane. We saw pieces from Andy Warhol, Singer Sergeant, Rothko, Lichtenstein just to name a few. I cannot even imagine what's in the main collection. If you are visiting Princeton or in the area, you owe yourself a visit to this museum.

We have been members of the museum for several years. Our three grandsons there to enjoy the wide…read morevariety of exhibits . This is one of the best interactive museums for children. As adults, we have gone to the gallery many times in the past to enjoy the artworks and special events. We enjoyed watching the cartooning workshop by Zach, who was a real hit with my grandsons ages 10 and 8. You can always depend on kids liking this place and away from screens and see the real environment around them as a fun place to explore. (August 2026)

Cute little museum for kids! My daughter (15 months) really enjoyed interacting with the various…read moreexhibits. For $15 I think it is an affordable excursion, there are a few rooms to do crafts/color and four open exhibits to play and learn in. The staff was kind and the museum was relatively clean for what it's worth. The one thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the "nursing room" aka the bathroom. There is a pink plastic dirty chair in the corner of the bathroom and they call that a "nursing room". For a place geared towards children this is disheartening to see. They should either have an actual room, separate from the bathroom, or no dedicated space at all.

I checked this place out because of a recent Civil War reenactment event, and I was incredibly…read moreimpressed. It could have been an all day event and I wish I had come earlier because I missed some things like the weapons demonstration. Aside from the regular buildings, there was a camp set up with soldiers, nurses, doctors, cooks, and other professionals that would have been part of a civil war brigade. The reenactors were extremely knowledge and informative with various props and photos from the era. We did get sucked into the singing presentations at the tavern featuring the Libby Prison Band and Matthew Dodd singing period stories and telling comical tales. They alternated presenting on the hour with new songs each hour. For a free presentation, it was thorough, entertaining, and thoughtful. There was plenty of parking and a small gift shop (not too many site specific souvenirs though). I will keep an eye on the calendar and return for future events.

I recently visited the East Jersey old town Village based on an invite from a dear friend. I walked…read morearound and went in and out of the historical homes and exhibits that were available. The experience was pretty cool because it was like I had stepped back in time. As a person of color, I can say candidly that I was apprehensive and a little skeptical about appreciating this part of history. History is not always pretty however, I was pleasantly surprised to see that people of color were positively represented here. I was able to speak in depth with a group of re-enactors that were representing the black soldiers during this time. These individuals not only dressed the part, but truly embodied their roles. They were very knowledgeable about the many contributions that people of color, specifically, Black people, made in this era, despite the cruelty, they faced. It was as if I was speaking directly to the soldiers during that period. One fun fact that we learned was that Barack Obama was not the first US president of African descent. Don't believe me, look it up! If you are interested in learning more, please visit and see for yourself how special this place is.

LOVED spyscape! Amazing for family or group event. Clean facility and well coordinated from staff…read more It was a nice break from the hustle! The staff was beyond helpful finding a lost piece of jewelry! Forever grateful for their professionalism and diligence with recovery!!

This was such a fun and unique experience! I surprised my boyfriend with this for his birthday, and…read morehe absolutely loved it. The challenges, puzzles, and games really make you think--you definitely have to process the clues carefully! There are multiple levels to complete, and throughout the experience you're asked questions that determine what type of agent you are, which was a really cool touch. It was challenging, but in the best way. Now that I understand how everything works, I definitely want to go back and do it again to see if I can do even better! If you're looking for something interactive, different, and a lot of fun, I highly recommend checking this place out. We'll definitely be back!

Kevin was an outstanding tour guide. Being an artist and a professor, what else could you ask for…read morein a guide at the Metropolitan Museum? He tailored the tour, answered all questions, and was so insightful. I will be touring with Kevin again, and I would definitely send my friends and family here to have them take KEVIN's tour. He is a great person and a great tour guide. My mother and I had a fabulous time.

From ancient artifacts to the wonders of the world, there are numerous museums that meet all the…read morecriteria. There are a lot of things NYC does well, particularly its museums across the five boroughs. There are 80 museums, 32 of them in Manhattan. Opened in 1880 right next to the iconic Central Park, where New Yorkers call it Museum Mile, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, better known as the 'Met,' is one of New York's premier museums. It's considered the second most visited art museum in the world, slightly behind the Louvre in Paris, containing over 1.5 million pieces of art, some dating back thousands of years. My partner and I decided on a visit after 9 years and booked our tickets online. Once we stepped inside, the Great Hall was breathtaking, and from there it just feels like the museum goes on forever. It's impossible to see everything in one visit. We started out at the Costume Art, moving to a recently open exhibit, Rediscovering Della Robbia, Fabergé, revisiting the European sculpture, Arms and Armor & our favorite, the Impressionist at the 19th Century Paintings. The entire museum was welcoming, featuring spacious areas that allowed large crowds to navigate comfortably without crowding each other. The staff we encountered were all very professional, courteous, and knowledgeable about the areas of the museum. The Met offers something for everyone, whether one's a first-time visitor or a lifelong art lover.

Amazing property, it is a hidden gem. Went with my family for the tour and everyone enjoyed it!read more

Wow. What a unique, random gem and historic property. What is Fonthill and why is there a castle in…read moreDoylestown, Pennsylvania? Fonthill Castle was the home of archeologist and tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer. (Also in Doylestown are two more Mercer buildings you can tour - the Mercer Museum and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works building, the business Mercer ran and where most of the tiles in the castle were produced.) Henry Mercer seems like he was an interesting guy, and you can see that in his home - 44 rooms, 18 fireplaces, 200 windows, who knows how many staircases...! And designed and decorated in a way I've never seen anywhere else. The castle is an early example of poured-in-place concrete building and is a mix of Medieval, Gothic, and Byzantine architectural styles. And there are, of course, Moravia tiles (and some historic and international tiles that he collected during his life) throughout the house - almost more than you could imagine. We visited last Saturday to experience their "Fonthill Castle Holiday Lights Meander Experience," which allows you to visit the castle through a self-guided experience (there were staff in various rooms who were happy to answer questions) and enjoy a series of Christmas trees on display throughout the home. I definitely enjoyed the experience but am definitely planning a return visit to see the castle in better light (not at night in the dark - which was perfect for the Christmas tree experience) - they offer 60-minute guided tours though the house for most of the year! The castle is pretty wild, and I look forward to visiting it again and experiencing it in a new way. If you are interested in architecture, art, crafts, the Arts and Crafts design movement, or just quirky, unusual places, definitely add Fonthill to your list and check it out!