This non-profit museum in St. Petersburg focused on hands-on learning for children especially those under 10 years old. It features creative play areas like a pretend city, pretend supermarket, vet office, climbing structures, fire department, city map with vehicles on the wall, art stations, and a few animals. They offer stimulating learning through creativity, play and exploration. Cost is $12 for adults, $15 for kids 1-17, free under 1. Next door to Sunken Gardens. A fun day for the kids. read more

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This was not what I expected - I thought it would have more interactive and educational exhibits. I also thought for the price we would get access to the sunken gardens (right next door) as well. Overall it was a good way to kill a few hours but for the price I am not sure it was worth it. Also - for as many kids and families come through here i would suggest more bathrooms and to clean the ones you have more frequently. Our favorite exhibit was the grocery store, and the room with all the reptiles. read more

Definitely a smaller children's museum than we are used to but it is jammed packed with fun for all ages. The staff were friendly and helpful land constantly watching/cleaning to ensure a safe and tidy place. Even had a break in the middle of the day to have bubbles and live music for the children. Will definitely be back. read more

Nice children's museum with lots of activities for kids and free parking. I have to admit this museum is much much smaller than other museums we have visited in Florida (Orlando, Miami and Tampa) but our son had fun anyways. read more

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This place was fantastic. Super clean, staff walking around actively cleaning and ensuring the space was safe for the kids. A good variety of engaging activities for my advanced 1yo to explore. Absolutely love this place! read more

A lot smaller than the Glazer in Tampa, but more manageable if it's not super busy (which it was when we went on a cool and rainy day). If it weren't so crowded, we could have sat to the side and let our kids just run around. The little side exhibits were a nice reprieve from the craziness. I'd come back but on a day that wouldn't draw such a crowd. read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Crowd - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

The place is cute but it got boring for the kids after 15 min tops. I feel like there needs to be some upgrades. Definitely overpriced for what they're offering. Idk who was in charge of the music that day but the vibes were gloomy. We decided to take my 2 year old here on his birthday just to get away from the Tampa life. We should've gone to the children's museum in Lakeland. It was wayyy better and i guess my expectations were on that level. A lot of the stuff seemed outdated. But give it a try at your own leisure. I definitely feel like it may be overhyped though. The staff were friendly. They should really make it to where you can have access to the botanical gardens right next door. That'll give u the most bang for your buck! read more

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This place is so clean and has a multitude of stations. The treehouse is fun and they have a large operation game. Plus a giant set of teeth. Not to mention a publix for kids to shop. My two year old loved this. I'm especially impressed at the cleanliness. The only con was that it's a bit small. Highly recommend. read more

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We were gifted a membership here from family and it's been great! I would recommend going during the week, the weekends are busy so if you are a SAHP this would be a great weekday/rainy day activity. Afterwards check out the Gardens and flamingos! read more

I actually LIKE that it is small, as kids don't need something too huge as long as it's engaging. I think that the concept of the exhibits is good in theory. However, I literally can not stand to be in the space, because it gets next to zero natural light, and the lighting is so garish it makes me bleary. Acoustics also need to be addressed; it's extremely loud and chaotic-feeling in there. It's echo-y, and just makes it difficult to have a conversation if you're there with another mom, or even with your own child. My throat always hurts after being there.. It's not a place I can really stand to spend much time. It also feels pretty stuffy in there, like it needs better ventilation out of the bathrooms, and in the space in general. It doesn't open to the outside (it's like a sealed box that opens into the lobby), so it doesn't get any fresh air which I think is important. Another important thing, is that half the exhibits are either confusing, or broken in some way. I couldn't figure out how to get a quite a few of the exhibits to work properly. And/or I wasn't sure what the real intention of the exhibit was. Either that or they're dirty. The legos all need a good scrub brush with soap and water, to get the caked grime off them. (dipping them in sanitizer won't do it!!) Overall, it's ok, but the lighting is really the worst part for me. Switch to a lower Kelvin higher quality LED instead of the blue with subtle flicker. Add some sound absorbing panels. Fix the broken stuff. Deep clean... then it would be good. My son is a bit old for it, at age 5. The best part is the large climbing structure, which he still enjoys, but I think he's getting a bit old for the rest. read more

Pleasantly surprised by our local children's museum. It was full of creative centers and had both educational and physical activities. Our son loved so much of it. It certainly could use a little refresh. I'm sure it is a tricky place to keep fresh and parts/pieces stocked but it needs some of that. We went during the week (took off work for our sons birthday and made it his birthday outing) and it wasn't terribly busy. I would visit again on a weekday if it worked out. read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

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My 4 year old had so much fun running and exploring. His favorite was the climbing wall and slide. He went "shopping" at Publix, was a dentist, a vet, a fireman and a doctor. He even made a pizza! The place is a little on the small side but I like that it's compact so I can't lose him. We spent about 2 hours here but he could've stayed longer climbing. We came on a Tuesday and they have many discounts available! There could be more seating for the grownups. We had a great morning down in St Pete! read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

Great Explorations is very similar to the Glazer Children's museum with many of the exact same areas - mini Publix, milking a fake cow and planting a garden, the "doctor" and "veterarian" stations, etc. All in all that makes this place feel like a mini version (one big room as opposed to 3 floors) of glazer We did enjoy their "sand pit" filled with a bouncy eraser like material instead of sand and the center area with the build it yourself blue blocks. The museum was also a bit more dirty/grimy than most of the others we have visited. Overall a good half day of fun with a little one, especially using a Groupon for a 2 for 1 ticket. read more

I have 4 kids aged 10, 7, 5 and 2. We got here at 11am and 6 hours later none of them are bored. Each one has been completely occupied for the whole time. There is something for each age range read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

TLDR: Currently under renovations, existing experience is limited and not well maintained. Busy on the weekends, higher on the grime factor than I prefer. Currently on Groupon. We love children's museums and will always check them out when in new places. When comparing this one to others it is definitely not as well kept as others we have visited. It is also quite small and more to a scale of an indoor play place rather than a learning experience for children. The highlight for my kids was the pizza making station and the grocery store as other areas were missing parts or broken. Some of the exhibits are under renovations and I am hoping they will help to improve the overall experience. I would also hope they increase the number of hand washing stations as there was only 1 in the entire museum and most of the free play items appeared to be well loved. read more

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Great place for kids! Especially for toddlers! So many great things a toddler can explore!

Greate place for the kids and had lots of fun. Very focused on family interaction with fun projects. Staff was very nice and helpful. The only way it could get better is to serve free ice cream. read more

Cute place but not well monitored. The space designed for 4 year olds and younger had older kids running wild and behaving inappropriately.

Great place to bring your children, especially toddlers. My son who is 2 had lots of fun interacting with most of the play settings.

This spot is a great place to bring your toddler for an hour or two, but definitely not a place you could spend a whole day at. Due to Covid19, many of the exhibits didn't have all of the toys operating which was a bit of a bummer since we traveled all the way from Orlando. I understand though. The main reason I'm only giving this 3 stars is because I felt like the design of the space was a bit overwhelming. All one giant room. So you walk in and don't know where to begin. It's hard for a toddler to focus on what they wanna do when they can see it all at once. read more

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This children's museum is awesome for 2-6 year olds! It has a tree house with slide, Publix play supermarket, play vet office, play nurse station, "sand" pit, baby/ toddler fenced in play area, play fire truck and other fun activities. My two year played there for 3 hours and I had to drag her out of there to go to lunch. That was my only issue with the museum... no place to eat snacks or lunch. Food and drinks are not allowed in the museum and there are picnic tables anywhere. There is a panara across the road and other eateries around. I will definitely take my two year back when the weather is inclement. read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Baby/toddler area and "sand" pit. - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

We loved it, it was perfect for our 5 and 3 year old boys. They had lots of fun. The staff was very nice and friendly. read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

Our favorite indoor play place! Great for ages two-eightish. Not only is there a ton of activities but they are also all educational. Being in Florida during the summer, this place is a gem, gets my son moving and learning while I'm not sweating my behind off! There is a new exhibit where kids can climb on a jungle gym type thing without the risk of falling off. There is also a tot area for smaller children with a gate. I highly recommend getting a pass if you live locally, each entry is $10 where a year pass for a family of four is $100 and there is a reciprocal program for other places around town. My only disappointment would be that the only bathrooms are in the lobby so you have to wrangle your kids if you need to go! read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Longos cove - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

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Amazing place for my 5yo granddaughter! She likes this place so much and every weekend wants to ho back)))

Super cool place for kids to run around and let their imagination go wild! Very simple concept and priced okay. I think the adult ticket is a little overpriced since there is nothing for adults there but if you have EBT or medicaid is only $3 each person. read more

Unbelievably crowded, and I mean UNBELIEVABLY!! I'm not sure how this place is rated so high? We arrived at 10 A.M. to an already crowded play area, that just got worse as time went on. We were greeted by an employee that just didn't want to be there, but by the end of my review you will understand why. The play area overall is a nice idea. It is like an indoor gym for toddlers to about 5. Any older and there isn't much to do. Most of the play displays were missing items or just broke. Plus each area was just torn to pieces because of the disruptive crowd that was tearing through the place. There were so many people, you could hardly move or play. The entire time there consisted of tripping over VERY young and unattended kids, wandering around with NO parent in sight! Most of the activity's were over run with kids destroying things and screaming, while parents used the time to catch up on work or use social media. There were staff on floor, that I really didn't see much of a use for. They did gather the kids for some "show" they must do. I didn't go over because it was absolute nightmare, of misbehaving kids. There must be a preschool (?) that uses the same building? We saw many large groups of kids being lead through the play area that seem to come from a back room. Overall young kids will love the open play, if they can get near anything. Parents, if you are someone who cares about your child's, and are looking for them to just play, I would advise skipping this place and find a park and play for FREE! The $10 price per person (kids and adults) is outrageous! read more

Used to take my kids to this every year and it's just disappointing now! They were completely bored. We stayed 15 minutes. Waste of $50.

This place looks ginormous from the outside, but it's really not that big when you get in. I was actually a little disappointed considering the prices. It is apparent that this place gets a lot of traffic. Everything is heavily used, somethings (grocery) even destroyed. Also, some things are additional charge (hurricane tunnel) that other children's museums offer for free. That being said, my daughter really enjoyed herself! It was superhero day when we went, and my daughter was the Green Lantern. She likes seeing all the other people in costume, and everyone was really nice. My favorite part was the reptile display beside the cave. Speaking of which, the cave was... I don't know. I don't even know how to explain it. Crawling around in a dark tube is an activity here. Overall, it's an okay place, but a little expensive compared to other Children's Museums. read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Superhero day! - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

This place is fantastic. We have a children's museum membership in Chicago, but visiting St. Pete with two small kids and already having enough sun, we wanted something indoors they could enjoy. Enter, Great Explorations! We found that it was about 1.5 miles from our hotel at the Vinoy Renaissance and went for a walk. Not too cheap for a day pass- ages 1-55 is $10 and $9 for seniors. We paid $30 for the day. Memberships for families up to 5 people are $150. It's air conditioned! Can I get an AMEN? And spacious but lots of open space to see the kids. It's engaging and I thoroughly enjoyed playing at some of the exhibits, too. Across the street from a Panera Bread where we had lunch before heading back into the museum. This place is top notch. They had a "sand" area that was beige rubber pellets (no mess!) and a blast to play in for kids and our 3-mo loved the texture. There's just so much to explore. A grocery store with carts and working registers! News station to read the news on camera! Pet hospital. Tree house with an enormous slide (I went down, ha!). They'll love it all and not want to leave. bonus: Next to the Sunken Gardens attraction and you can get a discount for buying admission to both. read more

We had fun during my time here, so far we've come once a year right around the holidays and we enjoyed all the areas. It encourages the imagination and can be educational yet fun. She felt so independent and in charge as she did some grocery shopping in a tiny store made for kids her size. She also liked pretending to cook daddy a meal in her little tree house dining room, looking like a scene straight from a fairy tale like Peter Rabbit. We will definitely come back next year, but if we were to come here more regularly I think she would not be as entertained. read more

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The area is quite small, but there are a good amount of things to do for young kids. We went once and didn't feel like there was enough of a draw to make the trip again. Lots of staff around to assist and keep kids safe. read more

Great Explorations is a wonderful learning experience for children. I was actually a volunteer here as a young teenager. Their events and exhibits change regularly so you never know what you'll be coming back to. They have educational experiments and shows throughout each day. A gift shop with toys that inspire knowledge and after school and summer camps. With one of the summer camps I participated in, children disassembled computers and pretended to build their own space capsule to sail into the universe. They were encouraged to try new things, meet friends and have a good time learning. Afterall, it is a HANDS ON museum. There's plenty of moving parts, musical instruments, blocks, climbing walls and even wind tunnel experiments to check out. All ages would enjoy this place, toddlers to teens, adults as well. Everyone will be inspired by science and education here. I love it! It's located next oor to Sunkin Gardens, so if you're in the area and want to walk through that park after wards, I suggest that as well. read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

We needed a place to entertain the kids on a chilly day during a recent vacation. It did the job but the museum itself is small and tired. The price was ok for what you get but nothing spectacular or all that engaging going on here. read more

I love it here and so did my daughter. There's a little bit of everything to do here and the kids really enjoy it. The have a "Publix", pizza making station, firefighter, news crew, vet and so much more. My only concern was the sanitation as somethings looked really really dirty, and even sticky. For the price I feel like it should have more things. This location is very small compared to the children's museum in Naples, FL read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

My kids love going to Great Explorations. We've had a family membership for 4 years now. It's only $150 and gets you into lots of other places like the Glazer Children's Museum, MOSI and the Mote Aquarium for free all year. Plus you can get into the Florida Aquarium and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium for free 2 months a year, April/October for the former and April/November for the latter. We use it all the time. Great Ex is a lot of fun for kids under 8, but after that there isn't much to offer. My kids (ages 3 and 6) absolutely love the mini fire station. They like to get dressed in firefighter gear and drive the fire engine. They also love the big treehouse in the middle of the museum. They dash up the stairs and race down again on the twisty slide. They had a lot of fun in the Publix pretend grocery store when we were there last. I would tell them what we were cooking and they would rush around filling their carts with the ingredients. I enjoy the newer exhibits too, like the crocheted coral reef and the art section. My 3 year old likes to build things with the magnetic blocks while I sculpt clay unicorn horns on the busts. We also like making pizza together in the pretend pizzeria. Though, I think they could probably add a couple of informative signs in this section to make it bit more educational. I love going through the Touch Tunnel with my boys, if I can convince them to join me. Most of the time they'd rather look at the snakes and lizards in their terrariums at the tunnel exit. Warning: The Touch Tunnel isn't open all the time, so you may want to ask about it when you arrive. There's to do more upstairs, but it's not too exciting. There's a doctor's office and a cafeteria but my boys have never shown much interest in them. Older kids might enjoy the Dance Dance Revolution game upstairs, though. We play here a few times a year, but what we really love is using our membership to go to lots of different places around Tampa Bay, especially the aquariums! read more

Great Explorations Children's Museum - There's lots of fun stuff for your little firefighter. - Children's Museums Near Me - Saint Petersburg, Florida

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Had a good time a this museum with the kids. We went on a Sunday afternoon and the place was reasonably busy. There was a main room and some side areas with different activities available to the children. The kids had fun for about 2 hours and then were done (they are ages 4 & 7). They did do a show on the small stage about different topics so that was about 30 minutes of the 2 hours. It seemed small for the price that was charged, but we did have fun and it was reasonable clean for having a lot of children in and out of the location. read more

First time here and was very nice, as per covid your visits are cut down to a two hour limit. Many different things to do, they have a small play area for toddlers. Definitely would recommend for toddlers read more

Great place for small children! Interactive and fun for little ones to explore, this place is decked out with a small dance and theater stage, mock mini grocery store, news & weather station, mini firetruck, veterinarian clinic and more! There's also a touch tunnel (which is super exciting) where kids can crawl through a safe maze to get to the other lighted side. All of the employees are very helpful and work to keep a watchful eye over each area to ensure safety and cleanliness. I would recommend to parents and educators of smaller aged children. read more

This place is great! Talk about hands on learning! So much to do for the kids and a few little knick knacks for the adults. I caught myself playing with some of the kids toys! Lots to explire. If you live in the area I would say its worth the membership for a rainy day! read more

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It's a fun place and the membership is not that expensive when you consider what it cost to get in. However, I feel that there isn't enough effort put into maintaining the exhibits, there is a need for better cleanliness , I feel it can be better lighted and that certain areas should be properly closed off; examples in order : there are items missing in some if the exhibits , there are areas where it is so obvious that it needs better cleaning such as the lab coats in the doctors office , the chair in the dentist office , the stuffed animals in the veterinarians office, he counters and grocery items at the Publix and pizza oven area and by the elevators, any child can get in by simply pressing the button . I don't know what they do when they clean but it's lacking . I took my nephews there twice in one week and once a week prior and they developed a cough with a fever , and so did their little friends whom also attended. I'm not too sure if it's because of our visits but I don't belief in coincidences. I did bring my concerns to the manager . On a better note, the staff is friendly , and there is much to keep the children happy and curious . read more