The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia

I came for the Harry Potter experience and stayed for the rest of the museum. And I would say as an adult on my own, that took me about half a day. If I had kids, it would take significantly more, I think. The Harry Potter experience takes a solid hour or so to go through. You check in and get a wristband that you can tap throughout the experience to earn points for your chosen house. It's beautifully lit and designed, with several interactive bits and photo ops. I loved most the port key and the dueling wands! From HP, you can more or less make your way from the top of the museum to the bottom, via a large central stairwell featuring Foucault's Pendulum, proving the rotation of the earth on an axis. There's a kinetic energy area great for little kids, a sport zone where you can test your skills, a 3D printer in a tech studio, walk inside a giant heart (adults can totally fit!), play with electricity, stand on a map of Philadelphia, pretend to do a weather forecast, climb into a fighter jet, and see a humongous steam train up close. It's mostly aimed at kids, but I still enjoyed walking around and touching stuff. I even caught a fun theater show about liquid nitrogen. If you're an adult and interested in Harry Potter, you might want to just do that, but if you've never been to the Franklin Institute, it's definitely worth walking around the rest as well.

I expected that our group of six would enjoy our time at The Franklin Institute, but I can truly say that it exceeded our expectations. This is not your average science museum. I think the main difference and why it’s so delightful is because it offers lives shows and hands on exhibits. The lives shows are designed to keep even the smallest of children engaged, laughing, AND learning. The hands-on exhibits provide children with the ability to learn through visual displays and touch. As an adult, I was incredibly impressed to see how the exhibits help you visualize and understand concepts that you may think you already know. This museum isn’t cheap, so make sure to schedule the most from your visit by prioritizing the live shows and then exploring the hands-on exhibits on your own time.

The Franklin institute is one of the coolest science museums we've ever been to! There are 4 levels of super cool exhibits and the Harry Potter exhibit we went to was spectacular. It has a planetarium, trains, planes, space stuff, electricity, brains, heart exhibit... everything that is fun to look at scientifically. Even the restaurant inside was delicious. I highly recommend it! 👌

Loved visiting the Harry Potter Exhibition and Franklin institute. Lots of hands on experiences, and while they did have some hand sanitizer stations, I felt it helpful to have my own with me. My girls loved exploring this place! Also, we ate lunch at the Eatery, which was such a positive experience. We were a bit confused when we first came in, but a friendly woman was right there to point us in the right directions. She even had the cooks prepare my daughter a burger without cheese. Everything was great! The burger was amazing

Amazing! It had so much things to do! The Harry Potter exhibit was outstanding! I recommend going there. The eatery was amazing cheap and good food. The workers where super nice and helpful. Tip when I got there parking near there was full so try to find somewhere else to park. Also you'll have to walk a few.blocks to the Franklin Institute.