A great little museum ( not that little ) to spend a few hrs. enjoying . They have nice bathrooms…read moreand gift shop . The museum presents a historiclal showcase of the evolution of timekeeping . There are sections( clock) full of various timekeeping instruments . Grandfather Clocks , Asian Clocks , Nautical , Automobile , Airplane . Further on , are sections devoted to the advent of pocketwatches and wristwatches . Many countries are represented . Pocketwatches developed with the burgeoning railroad system . Wristwatches with the outbreak of the first great world war . The dawn of aviation spurred further innovation . As always ... " necessity is the mother of invention ." Highlights include the monumental "Engle" clock , which was like a vaudeville show all its own , with many miniature mechanical , performances . A staffer is there to answer questions , and a shows off all of the Engles , bells and whistles, hourly. The section dedicated to the iconic Hamilton watch factory in nearby Lancaster city ( sadly defunct and exists as Condominiums today ) and the James Bond tributes , made this a museum of interest to a diverse crowd .

Rock Out with Your Clock Out…read more The National Watch and Clock Museum houses the largest collection of timepieces in the country, with over 12,000 individual pieces. The Good: * Large, plentiful, free parking lot * Fairly inexpensive to visit at $15/adult and $10/child, plus there are additional discounts for families, vets, and senior citizens. * Research library available. * If you're into clocks, watches, and other types of timepieces, then boy howdy, is this the place for you. Lots to see and do. * Live demonstration (check schedule) The Meh: * If you're really not into timepieces then this probably isn't the place for you, but it's still an interesting place to learn history. The Ugly: * I wouldn't recommend bringing younger kids, as it's not within their attention span to enjoy these kinds of things, but I suppose it depends on the kid. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Conclusion: Fun place to check out if you're visiting Lancaster County, and especially if the weather outside isn't great.

Quirky roadside attraction is an absolutely perfect description. In PA with family, including 7…read moregrandchildren ranging in age from 9 to 18. It's been raining for a week. We needed something to do, and Mr. Ed's came up in a Yelp search. I wasn't sure what to expect. Wow!! There is sooooo much to see - it was a bit overwhelming. We walked the garden and enjoyed all of the flowers, adorned trees and "sculptures", outside. Never, in my life, have I thought about buying or collecting elephant memorabilia- after walking through the museum, the idea doesn't seem crazy. The candy available for purchase, brought back fond childhood memories! I was thrilled to be able to share many of my childhood favorites with the kids. The fudge? Oh my gosh!!! So many delicious flavors. The warm, spiced cashews filled the place with heavenly scent. I challenge you to leave without buying several things. Definitely recommend. It was so much fun.

What a unique (and sweet) stop! We visited on a Sunday on our way back from a weekend trip in…read moreGettysburg. Love elephants? This is the place for you? Like homemade fudge and vintage candy? You're in luck. Everywhere you look there are elephants! The smell of the store is heaven for any chocolate lover. As soon as you walk in you are greeted with the sights and smells of candy and sweets. They have fudge, truffles, corn nuts, vintage candies, unique candies, crickets, you name it! Would be a great place to grab items for a sweet gift basket. They sell mugs and you can fill them with candy and they spruce it up and make it cute. Like most other vintage candy stores, you can fill a bucket and pay by the pound ($7.99 per pound). The staff were very very friendly and helpful. We got a decent variety of their homemade chocolate items, vintage candy, fudge, and even some socks! You can explore the grounds around the building and see all the cute and kitschy yard decor. Stop by the pond and see how many frogs you can count. We spotted over 20! We nibbled on some of the chocolate covered animal crackers on the ride home and they were delicious. Check it out even if just for the thousands of elephants!

What a fun thing to do! We didn't know what to expect and want to say we all really enjoyed the…read moreexperience! Admission was reasonable and enjoyed the self-guided part while waiting for the next tram departure time. There was everything you could imagine - except one thing! A TELEX MACHINE (which I used to operate). When I asked the staff if they had one none of them even knew what I was talking about (early 20's)! We took the tram tour and really enjoyed it. The tram moved at a nice pace so you could really take in everything. So much to see - everywhere. It was a really fun way to spend a few hours on a rainy day! But I urge you to visit rain or shine!

It's like an I-Spy book came to life! This collection is massive but I really appreciate how well…read moreorganized and categorized it is. It makes it easier for the eye to take in. The tram car goes at a super slow speed so you have time to take everything in. The tour is guided by a pre-recorded audio track but sometimes the driver will provide information as well. The museum also has a small walkable area to explore. There's also popcorn, candy, and drinks to purchase. Some of the items are truly impressive and there's definitely plenty for everyone to point out and find and enjoy. Highly recommend this fun attraction.

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.

Everyone in our group enjoyed themselves ... this little museum offers a wide variety of toy trains…read moreand other toys. One part of the room is interactive and the kids loved it. We were there for about an hour and for $25 (our group of 5) - it was worth it.

Prices seem a little steep for what what you get--and many of the model trains weren't operational…read more That said, this was a great spot to stop and let our two toddlers stretch out and play at their own pace. They were captivated by the trains and could've spent the whole day there if we had let them.

A fun and educational place to bring the kids to. Almost everything is interactive which is great…read more The place isn't huge per say, but you can easily spend 2-4 hours here. The space is separated into different stations and has a nice flow to it. We came on the weekend and although there were a lot of people, it never felt overcrowded or that that there was too long a wait for any of the exhibits. Admission is $13 per person which I think is fair. Overall my kids had a lot of fun and we would love to come back again in the future.

Visited again and whole factory has changed the exhibits and layout from 4 yrs ago. $12 now for 3…read moreand over. Sky bridge: keep your shoes on and climb. They also have something similar at Long Island children museum and NJ Liberty Science center. Tons of hands on with brief explanation at each station. Outdoor stations are also available at the courtyard. Today the maker space is reserved for summer camp only. I wonder what activities do they have for the public usually. Like before, free parking across the road. Love the high ceiling and the feel of kids are free to explore. Will definitely return.

This review is for the docent-led tour not the museum- which we thought was included in the $15 per…read moreperson fee. Our guide was a very sincere former employee of Bethlehem Steel who started our tour asking if we all were up for an hour and a half walk. We said yes. He started his presentation outside the door of the museum. An hour later we had walked maybe a block up a nondescript driveway as we listened to his stories of mismanagement, nepotism and greed within the company. He also showed pictures and told stories of some of the people who worked there over the years as well as some of the products produced. Some of the stories were interesting but an hours worth standing in the road? I finally asked if we were going to be able to go into some of the deserted fantastic looking buildings - he said no. We left the group and headed off by ourselves and found, across from the Arts Center, a stairway that headed up to the rusted gigantic steel stacks and accompanying infrastructure. Although it was fenced off, it was amazing walking along looking up, down, and around the place, almost close enough to touch. This is what we thought we were going to be learning about on the tour. Did we need to know what each gigantic piece did - not really - Did we waste $30 for the tour - sadly yes. Did we go back to see the museum - no. Will we, most likely not. Should you go? Take a look at the pictures and decide - you don't see this kind of scenery very often.

Really nice exhibit on different industries that shaped this country and the world. I liked the…read morecomputer exhibit which shows old computer stuff.

This place has been on my radar for a while, and I'm genuinely kicking myself for not coming…read moresooner. We visited on a Friday afternoon during the school year and it was the perfect day for it, not crowded at all, staff was warm and attentive everywhere you turned, and there was just so much to explore across two floors. As a homeschool mom, I am always on the lookout for places where kids are learning without even realizing it and this delivered completely. My little ones were engaged the entire time, bouncing between exhibits and coming back to do things on repeat. The water table on the second floor was a huge hit (dam building = instant obsession), the crawl-through body exhibit had them giggling the whole way through, and the immersive hall with the giant projector and the orchestra activity where they put their faces into the performers? They talked about that the whole ride home. We timed our visit to catch the 3 o'clock otter feeding and training, definitely worth planning around. Maybe 30 people gathered and it was totally manageable and really sweet to watch. What surprised me most was how engaged I was as an adult. I was genuinely learning things alongside my kids, which is not always the case at these types of places. It felt appropriate and interesting for every age in our group. A few things to know before you go: follow the directions on their website for the specific parking garage , it's about a 5-minute walk and was only $5 for us. Strollers and wagons are totally doable with elevators throughout. They also have a café if you want to make a full day of it, and rotating special exhibits (always check the website ahead of time so you know what's on and whether it fits your crew). We stayed about two and a half hours and left happy. Already thinking about when we're coming back.

I'm not an avid science museum fan but had a fun experience at Allentown's Da Vinci Science Center…read more It's the new location for the museum which use to be located outside of town so visiting gives you easy walking to other downtown attractions and museums. Everything was interactive and modern with just enough text and things to immerse myself in to keep my attention. I especially loved that there are live animals I can see including otters! Some of the fish seemed a bit crammed in their tanks. :/ And I was excited to see the live animal reveal...but it was a cold day and this happened on the upstairs pavillion outside so, being a California guy who had checked my coat in the free coat check lockers, it was too cold for me to stick with it. There were all kinds of heaters out there that weren't on which would have made a big difference to me (or anyone who gets cold easily) had they turned those on. I was there with a group of ten with adults and kids ranging from 4-16. Everyone had a good time and had plenty to do and interact with.