We came on a free Sunday with family to enjoy the nice weather and learn a little history. Tickets…read moreare usually $10 to tour the museum. Even though it was a free day, both tour guides took time to introduce us to the house and answer any questions we had. It took us just shy of an hour to go through, but we could've spent longer if we had read every piece of material and took in every photo in the collection. The grounds and surrounding park were also beautiful and well maintained. There was ample free parking. A nice way to spend the day!

Place is beautiful with a wonderful Museum as well. My girlfriend and I spent some time here on our…read morelast trip. Park is huge with lots of running trails and lakes. Beautiful nature and trees to get surrounded and lost. Tickets are only $10.00 for a tour of the museum. Nice historical artifacts of the world and art. Delaware historical scenery and sculptures too. Weather was moderate at the time we were here. I love it. I will be back again.

Wilmington, DE - we visited several du Pont estates during our stay in the beautiful Brandywine…read moreValley area, starting with the Hagley Museum, which is the place of the first du Pont family home, built by the French immigrant ancestor who started it all, Éleuthère Irénée du Pont. We toured the house (Eleutherian Mills) and garden, powder yard, saw a small antique car exhibit, a gunpowder demonstration, and strolled around the grounds, which are very walkable and well-shaded in parts, but there is also a shuttle that travels between the main areas (visitor center/museum, house, powder yards) which runs every 20 minutes. The property is impeccably maintained and gorgeous to walk around, bordered by the Brandywine River where we saw some kayakers row by (for paddlers & outdoor enthusiasts: you can do this as an activity in the area). Everything was SO well-organized, and the tour guides & staff could not have been more lovely or helpful. They helped us time-manage our tours (as we arrived late in the day and were in a bit of a rush) and were generous with answering questions and sharing information about the history of the place and of the du Pont family. ======= TIP: If you love museums and historic homes & gardens and plan to visit at least a couple, the best thing you can do is purchase a Brandywine Treasure Trail Passport ($49 for individuals, or $99 for family including 2 adults & 3 children 17yo and under), which grants you admission to 12 area attractions that you can visit once any time between May 24-October 31. (This year is almost over but you can still buy the 2025 pass or wait for 2026 to be released.) There were many enterprising du Pont descendants/cousins, and the multiple grand estates in this area were built/owned by different branches of the family: in addition to Hagley there is also Winterthur, Nemours, Mt. Cuba Center, and Longwood Gardens - all of which are included in the passport. I find these properties to be more impressive than the Newport RI mansions, and highly recommend visiting as many as you can!

We did not have this museum on our radar until we learned about it when touring the nearby Nemour…read moreEstate. It helped that with our reciprocal museum membership we got free admission! It was already 2pm when we arrived so we had limited time. We walked the road to see the machine shop demo and the powder rolling demo by Bob. Both were quite interesting especially the big bang finish of the powder rolling demo. Learned a lot! Given it was late and way too hot to walk up the hill we skipped the house tour which looked interesting. We opted for the AC in the visitor center and the very educational two floor exhibit on patent models. Nerdy. Overall a big thumbs up for this museum.

I'm a Delaware Art Museum member so I must say it is one of the best decisions that I have made in…read morerecent years joining. I have visited the museum many times over decades but in the last two years since joining, I've probably visited just as much as I did in all the time prior. There's quality diverse program on top of the standing exhibits in the galleries and visiting ones. I am a born Wilmingtonian and have always enjoyed culture and the arts, which again is why I have frequented this museum many times before, but I think it's a jewel that many locals neglect to appreciate. You don't have to go to the larger regional cities for acclaimed artists as many are here. The proximity to other places of interest in the area, can allow you to enjoy this and many others during a day or weekend trip if you're not local or live outside of the city. Join the mailing list and check the events because there is always something going; the images on my review are from a few of them. I keep saying I'm there so much I should join the team, but this is my way of supporting in sharing this review.

Decided to visit this museum this past Thursday as it was later in the day and a search revealed…read morethat they were open until 8pm on Thursdays (photo attached). Approximately an hour into our visit we were ushered out of one of the exhibits on the first floor and told that exhibit would be closing. Thought it was odd that a particular exhibit in the museum would be closing early, but we complied, simply moving on to other exhibits. At approximately 4:20 we were in a room on the second floor and the lights suddenly went out (pitch black, can't see your hand in front of your face, darkness). We were stunned for a moment before using our phone flashlights to safely exit. We were then met at the door by a confused staff member who stated that the museum had actually closed at 4pm. We began making our way toward the exit, explaining that the website listed that the hours were until 8pm on Thursdays. We were then stopped by a second employee who accused us of having entered the room *after* the lights had been turned off (because, as everyone knows, the best way to view art is in total darkness). She then said that we had already been informed that the museum was closing. ("Exhibit" and "museum" mean different things.) We explained once again that the website listed Thursdays' hours until 8pm. Rather than appreciate the confusion (much less apologize for the communication error), she insisted that we must have been looking at the hours for the following week (not true) and added a superfluous directive to leave (as we were literally stepping toward the exit). Up to this point, we had been enjoying our visit. However, this rude encounter certainly marred our experience

A 2 1/2 hour sailing trip on the Delaware on Labor Day afternoon sounded wonderful, peaceful and…read morecalming. I imagined sails unfurled taking us in the replica sailing vessel under the Delaware Memorial Bridge towards Philadelphia or perhaps southward towards the merge with the ocean. Two and one half hours sailing ... 150 minutes of sails billowing perhaps music playing and history being shared. Casual entertainment on the Delaware. We pulled out of New Castle under the ships motors at 3pm and were back unloading at 5pm. By my calculations that was exactly TWO HOURS not the promised 2 1/2 hours and no sailor, the seas were not rough nor the skies stormy. Two hours ... shortchanged by 30 full minutes of "sailing" time. Oh wait, we actually did not sail but several of us were called to duty to pull up the sails only to watch them billow for a couple of minutes before they were brought back down. And, those of us who helped really had to put our muscles and our backs to work to pull those sails upwards. We we're motorized for these 2 hours and actually we sat almost still for about 15 minutes. We never reached the Delaware Memorial Bridge (we headed north for this trip) and actually we did not cover much of the Delaware River on this 2-hour experience. The ship itself is awesome but perhaps some music or entertainment other than having to help the amazing volunteer crew with the sails would have made the cost/trip more worthwhile. We were handed a sheet with a scavenger hunt hinting that we and our shipmates should start searching for the answers but they never provided the answers to the scavenger hunt and there were no winners nor losers. It was as if it was an afterthought. The history narration was interesting but most on board either missed the announcement or couldn't find the docent providing us with insight on the Kalmar Nyckel. The extremely excessively large American flag kept hitting people on the foredeck wrapping itself around them, which was not a pleasant experience (You would think by now they would have purchased a smaller flag ). I felt worse for people with children because there was no energy in this TWO HOUR cruise ... it was calm and peaceful and I burned a few calories pulling ropes. Yelp asks ... "What could improve?" ... MUSIC, MORE INTERACTION by crew leaders, being truthful about how long the trip is, actually using the sails to move the boat, and travelling up or down more of the Delaware, which might lead the trip to last the advertised 2 1/2 hours.

We visited the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation Museum and Shipyard yesterday, and it exceeded my pretty…read morehigh expectations. We are visiting Sweden later this month on vacation, and (somehow - I don't remember how), I learned about the Kalmar Nyckel and thought: "Now that is the perfect thing to do leading out to our vacation in Sweden!" So off we went. We booked a sail on the boat - 9:30 a.m. on their opening day of the season. We arrived a few minutes before 9:00 to check in (as instructed when we purchased the tickets). That was great, because the Foundation's building is also home to a surprisingly great museum. The museum is on the upper floor of the building, and you can learn about navigation, sailing, the original Kalmar Nyckel, the replica of the Kalmar Nyckel, the colony of New Sweden (founded just a few minutes walk away from where you stand), and more. I knew nothing about the Kalmar Nyckel (had never even heard of it) and almost nothing about the colony of New Sweden. I got so much out of my visit. The Kalmar Nyckel was built in 1625 and eventually came to be owned by the Swedish city of Kalmar. When Sweden decided to establish a trading colony in the New World, the Kalmar Nyckel was one of two vessels selected to make the journey. The colony of New Sweden was founded in what is now Wilmington when the Kalmar Nyckel and the ship that accompanied it landed at the rocks just next to where the Kalmar Nyckel is docked now in 1638. The ship was sunk in 1652 off the coast of Scotland, but it made three more journeys to New Sweden and so was instrumental in the founding of the colony. In 1986, a group of Wilmington citizens established the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, which designed, built, and launched the replica that you can see or sail on if you visit. After learning as much as we could in half an hour, we boarded the Kalmar Nyckel with around 50 others (lots of children and families) and went out for a sail on the Christina River on the ship. The ship is beautiful, and I spent a lot of time taking in the details (see my many pictures). The sail was lots of fun. The staff volunteers were amazing, answering lots of questions and providing lots of information throughout (there was a pirate story for the kids and a history talk for everyone during our 1 1/2 hour sail). There are opportunities to help the volunteer staff pull some ropes (sorry I can't provide technical language for what we did; not a sailor!). Important info: The Kalmar's sailing season is May-October, but it docks at some other East Coast locations throughout the season. So definitely take a look at their schedule on the website to ensure you're visiting on a day you can see and sail on the Kalmar! This was a wonderful experience. I learned a lot and had tons of fun. And it just felt so unique to this region and to Wilmington. Where else can you go for a sail on a 17th century replica of a Swedish vessel?! Definitely an activity to add to your to do list if you live in or are planning a visit to Wilmington. I was really glad we made this day trip up for our sail.

We spontaneously decided to stop in on our way back to the DC area from a weekend in Philadelphia…read more Hours are 10am-5pm Wednesday-Sunday. Parking is free in the lot across the way. Admission is $15 and id say it was reasonable for the 4ish hours we spent. My kids loved the climbing/sliding cocoon that is at the front area upon arrival. The roadway with scooters was unique having never seen that at a children's museum before. The fitness exhibits with basketball and baseball were fun. Those tests at the beginning brought me back to the Presidential Fitness test era (IYKYK). The water play area probably was where we spent the most time, but that's always where we do at museums with a water play area. Another cool feature was the hollowed out redwood tree for climbing. The sections toward the back are designed for the youngest visitors but still have some fun stuff-like a mock farmers market and tire shop- for older kids. While there were no events on this day, it does look like they are listed as they come up on the website. Also, no food sold here (snacks are chips and candy) but there are two places across from the building to eat or you can BYO. While it is a smaller children's museum, it was still nicely done and we would definitely pop in again!

Great museum and good interactive space for kids ages 3 and up, featuring a variety of activities…read moreincluding water play, a cafe for pretending to buy fruits and vegetables, and dress-up as pirates. Kids can enjoy a reading nook, a mechanic shop, basketball, and pitching speed tests. There's also a mini-golf area on the boardwalk behind the museum. However, the gift shop is small, and the free parking lot is a bit of a walk, especially on hot days.

I went here for free on Thursday night and had such a good time! The pirate paintings are my…read morefavorite!!

The Wilmington & Western Railroad is a non-for-profit primarily weekend and holiday tourist train…read moreoperation that runs on ten miles of track along the historic Red Clay Creek from Greenbank to Hockessin Delaware. The line started serving the area since 1867 and became a tourism line in the 1960s. The RR is mainly operated by volunteers and enjoys strong community support. After having to be rebuilt as the result of two devastating hurricane-related floods (1999 and 2003), the W&W resumed full operation in July 2007. The 2003-07 rebuild cost more than $10 million and was designed to help prevent future destruction from high water. The railroad operates two steam engines, two diesel-electric engines, and a self-propelled railcar (The Doodlebug). Two passenger rides are offered (with commentary on the outbound trip). The shorter one goes from Greenbank Station about half-way up the line to the Mt. Cuba picnic grounds, which are furnished with tables that are available free to riders. You can get off the train, picnic, and then catch the next train back to Greenbank. The ride each way is about 30 minutes. The longer ride, offered periodically, goes the total route to Hockessin and terminates next to the shops at Hockessin Corners for a total ride of about two hour and a half hours. Special themed rides are frequently available all season long from February until December. Any of their cars or an entire train is available to charter for private parties whether on a regular operating day or on a day when you could have the entire place to yourself. Looking for more of a unique experience we have chartered one of their three cabooses here just for the fun of it. It was a good call as the caboose had a cupola that all 4 of us were able to sit in. The views from up there were great you can control whether or not to have narration in the caboose. You will have one of the volunteers riding along and he was truly a wealth of information about the history of the line and of the area as he was obviously able to give more information than just what is told to you off of the script. Overall the W&W is a solid tourist train ride that while a little on the expensive side, is well worth the visit to support the work that this dedicated group does to keep the line going. http://www.wwrr.com/default.aspx

We had a wonderful trip full of color, history and wonderful staff. Tucker and Conductor Barb were…read moreso nice and knowledgeable. They made the trip so much fun. Do yourself a favor and take a ride on this amazing train!