Such a great time! The grandkids loved it almost as much as we did. The owners are such great…read morehosts, and you truly will be amazed by all the fun details! So much to see. Don't forget the train ride!

Such a great place for kids (young and old)! I'd recommend planning to spend about an hour there…read more There's lots of buttons to push for the kids and TONS of details to keep the adults busy.

We came here on a Sunday with my kids (5 and 3). It being March, the outside was open so we were…read moreglad to explore outside for a bit but it closed at 4 pm. I felt this time that the place was kept tidier. I saw employees moving from area to area and trying to keep things in place, which seems like a pretty tough task with the amount of stuff in each area. My kids had a lot of fun in the upstairs area. There's lots to do & for $12 each, it can easily keep young kids entertained.

I cannot recommend this place highly enough!! Absolutely killer on every level!! This is fun for…read moreadults to come to too! Obviously you need to be an inquisitive person and still enjoy learning new things.... But if you have some kids to bring it's literally like Disneyland but where they learn how everything works in the universe...... You really need to come here multiple times to take everything in..... If you care about your kids, and want them to be smart, this place is mandatory!

This place is so interesting and it is HUGE. Be prepared to spend a lot of time here. Some areas…read moreare very hot/humid. I do not deal well with heat so I did have to move thru some areas faster than I would have liked. They do have a cafe half way thru so you can have some food and drinks. I did not stop here but it did smell wonderful. There's many things to see and everything is really cool and unique. The house and infinity room are impressive as well as the HUGE whale but all of Alex's inventions and collections are amazing as well. Honestly, the whole reason why I wanted to come was the world's largest indoor carousel. It is beautiful. I definitely sat there for awhile watching it. Side note on the Carousel, they have no horses but they do have a bulldog and as a owner of a bulldog, I literally bought everything in the gift shop that had a bulldog on it. Till this day, they are still uncovering more items in storage lockers so they probably will continue to add more items. I do think this place is worth the price and it is something you won't find anywhere else. I would love to check this place out again and I do highly recommend it. Also, the gift shop is big and had a lot of different items for everyone.

My cousin really wanted to come here and I didn't even know what it was. We drove here from St…read more Louis to come see this attraction. I came in blind, not knowing what it was. It was super impressed. It literally kept going on and on and on. so many fun interesting things. We stopped and got a hotdog at the cafeteria, which was nice because we were getting a little hungry and thirsty on this long walk. I would recommend bringing dollar bills so you can buy coins and put them into the different coin operated machines that they have. They have a lot of those around the entire facility and it's one of the only interactive options. Obviously everything looked really cool. I think that the only thing that would make it better would be to have a more interactive aspect to some of the parts, but I'm not sure how they would do that and I don't think they're gonna change anything. It's still well worth a visit.

Excellent place to visit with or without kids. I really enjoyed traveling through the entire…read moremuseum. Downstairs they have a temporary exhibit highlighting fossils they are finding in the Green River Shale in Utah. From the large bones to the tiny buds of plants. The dinosaur exhibit on the first floor will particularly appeal to kids and vertebrate fossil fans. While I was drawn to the very nice collection of Mazon Creek concretions and my first in person view of a Tully Monster (which is the Illinois State Fossil). 2nd floor is more geology focused than paleontology and the 3rd floor is Biological. I spent some time looking at the different birds they had on display as well as the live reptiles in the education room. Plus a little fox at floor level where young children could Ben down and look eye to eye was a nice touch. We will definitely return. Rockford is close.

We came on a "Donation Day." However, this is for Illinois residents only. Otherwise, it's $10 for…read morechildren 4-12 and $12 13 and up. This museum is too small for that cost. We were in and out within the hour. Veteran/educator discounts ONLY if you buy a membership. Half the 3rd floor was temporarily closed. I think you may have more visitors for what little you have if your pricing for kids was more reasonable. Or if you opened donation day to those outside Illinois. Especially for a museum one is in and out within an hour. Maybe you should offer a pass, tying in with the Children's museum and perhaps the Art museum since they are all located nearby. Such a great opportunity to introduce young children to Natural History and Art if one was offered. Otherwise, $32 for the 3 of us will not have us return anytime soon.

This is pretty amazing to see the Swiss Historical Museum. I can see that there is history like…read moresettling, the American Civil War and World War 2. We visited all kinds of landmarks: the old school house, the graveyard, the fire house and the blacksmith.

Great experience! There were demonstrations for basket weaving, cheese making, Alp horn music, and…read morean amazing native plant specialists. Had cheese samples circulating. Very informative and staff/volunteers were very pleasant!

We had a very knowledgeable tour guide; I believe his name was Ted. My wife and I just by chance…read morearrived at 10:55 just before the first tour of the day started and paid and started right away. Several reviews say the tour is 30 minutes... but our tour group asked many questions - and Ted took the time to thoroughly answer - so we went over 45 minutes and kept engaged in the story the whole time. Gives a true sense for life in Galena's heyday as a major bustling city in the 1850s!

Ya knowwww I question a lot of the facts from this tour but either way, it was very fun and…read moreinformative. I felt claustrophobic at 1 point but it just goes to show the progress in properties from 1800-now. Our tour guide was awesome, she was friendly and kept me focused on what she was saying the entire time. She gives off great energy and is perfect for this position. Well done! Tip - get the combo option as it saves you a few dollars. They do have a 4% service charge if using a CC.

What a gem I never knew was here! My extended family and I were looking for something to do on a…read moreSaturday in winter and checked out the Geology Museum. It was free and super fun. Surprising amount of cool stuff packed in a small-ish venue. From the adults in our group to my preteen nephew, everybody had a great time. We spent at least an hour in there. Whether you're into rocks, fossils and meteorites or not, this is just plain cool and well worth your time!

Free museum in the Geology Sciences building on campus. A quiet place to stroll around for about 20…read moreminutes alone. I did not expect to see a dinosaur area with a giant armadillo! There is a built-in seat for pictures. There is some interactive parts like the blackroom (view rocks under UV light) and a place to "smell" prehistoric times. Before walking into the museum, there is a small cash-or-checks-only global rock collection for $20-100 along a wall, where funds support the museum! Walk out with some treasure and more appreciation for what rocks can reveal.

Historic Attractions Museum - This place is WORTH THE VISIT!! It is absolutely packed with…read morehistorical facts and other fun things like a Super Heroes room, Elvis display, the Hall of Presidents, Gangsterland, World's Lowest Car, Big Foot 4x4, the time capsule car, Gone With the Wind, Tallest Man/Shortest Man replicas, a 9/11 Memorial room, a Last Supper room, JFK's motorcade, TV Land & Customs... Hitler's car, Stalin's car... TOO MUCH to cover in one visit! This would be a great field trip for homeschoolers, scout groups, schools... if you have a large group and you want to schedule presentations for them, call Tony Farrell, Chief Historian at 608-751-2065 or email him: tonyfarrellsr@gmail.com.

There is truly something for everyone here! Came on a Wednesday which is apparently discount day so…read moretickets were $20. This is an incredibly accessible experience. Mobility scooters available to borrow at the entrance, and also more in the back for those who might change their mind. Benches are located throughout. Maps are available at the front, and in several places throughout. Even though it's a huge building, it is really well organized and easy to navigate through. It's very close to the highway and worth the hour or so stop if you want to see something quirky and different!

Wow this a gorgeous place to bring your Family relax look at…read morethe beautiful buildings the museum and the little house now that the weather is nice come take a walk around the house you will Love it and so will the entire family will Love it

Definitely recommend touring the Ellwood House. Very beautiful and interesting history. We had an…read moreolder gentleman for our tour guide who was very knowledgeable. Don't recommend touring Ellcourt House because it's not that different from a normal house.

Great museum. We'd…read morevisited here last, about 20 years ago. Memory fades and it was time to revisit on this trip. All exhibits are housed inside on 2.5 floors. There is also a gift shop and restrooms. I found no elevator. We paid (senior rate saves $1 each) and went into a seating room where there used to be a video projection (no longer working). The staff member there today, Les, led everyone into this room to be seated. Les spoke about the rich history of Galena and he was quite detailed. We found this worthwhile. After the speech, we looked around this room at mostly US Grant artifacts, then we headed to a very large back room that has many displays, dioramas etc. on Galena. Lead mining had a rich history here for a few decades, so there was a lot of mining history on display. When we were done downstairs, we walked upstairs where there is a smallish room on the 2nd floor and a much larger room on what I'd call floor 2.5. Floor 2.5 had mostly wartime history while floor 2 had a variety of history on display. Note that the stairs are fairly steep. The first set also has a 90 degree turn near the top. There is a low, wooden banister-style handrail on one side. To access floor 2.5, there are another 6 or 8 steps to get up to it and there's a metal handrail for them. All in all - it's a pretty well done history museum for a small community and it was worth the time. I'd recommend this useful to anyone who wonders, "why does this town exist, how was it formed and what does its evolution look like". We enjoy museums like this.

What a great little museum! We didn't know what to expect, but I can honestly say we were blown…read moreaway! The ladies that welcomed us were so friendly and knowledgeable about the museum! There was so much packed in! It wasn't only about Grant but about the whole settling of Galena and all the way back to the ice age! I have to say this is a gem of a place and definitely a must see! It's clean and reasonably priced! We will definitely come back when we come to visit again.