When your 4-year-old stops in the middle of their favorite tv show to ask if you can take them to The Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, that’s when you know it’s a great museum.
I can’t say that all my trips are written down and planned before we go because that would be an absolute lie. Where would the excitement live if I ever did something that straightforward in my life?
If you don’t know by now, I live on last-minute blvd, and I’ll get it together one day.
My Blippie story which has nothing to do with the museum
With that being said, this trip happened because my son, Quasar, who was not in school at the time, was watching Blippie. Yes, Blippie was my tv babysitter that morning, as I called myself cleaning my room.
Quasar shouted, “Mom, I want to go there.” In the middle of me sorting through the laundry, deciding which article of clothing was easier to fold first.
Once I turned my attention to the tv, I realized Blippie was at a place that resembled the, Please Touch Museum.
“You want to go there?” I asked while looking at what was plastered on my bedroom tv.
“Yes, I want to go see Blippie!” was my 4-year-old’s response.
“Okay, let’s go,” was my newly stay-at-home mom’s response. Yes, It was that easy. Well, at least it was easy on that day. So I happily dropped the shirt on the bed, which I was supposed to be folding, and went to my laptop to look up the tickets.
Nowadays, businesses make booking tickets easy; everything is done online.
What kind of museum is, Please Touch Museum?
The Please Touch Museum is a wonderful museum for children to touch and explore exhibits while also using their imaginations. With so many fun exhibits to see, your family will probably end up staying at the museum for hours.
I’m not going to lie; when I go to the Please Touch Museum with the children, my inner child starts to come out; sometimes, I play with the exhibits longer than the kids do.
Although this was my first visit to the museum with just Quasar and me alone, I have to admit my family visits the museum at least twice a year.
Outside of the museum
Walking up to the museum is a beauty on its own; the statues are enough to make small children curious about what’s inside the building.
Throughout my years visiting the museum, I always focused on taking pictures of my family next to the statues.
I never looked at the quotes etched in the concrete leading up to the museum. There are so many great quotes, but this one was the one meant for me.
Where to purchase tickets?
There was once a time when you could go to the ticket booth to purchase tickets for the Please Touch Museum. Now their policy has changed and tickets must be reserved online for anyone 12months or older.
It’s very easy to do this because you can make reservations right from your phone. I like to make our reservations before we leave the house to ensure our family gets in.
We live about an hour and twenty minutes from the museum, so to drive so far to learn the tickets are sold out once you got there would be a little challenging, especially with kids.
Parking
There are two parking options: On the right of the Please Touch Museum there is a paid parking lot with plenty of parking spaces. Tickets for the lot can be purchased online through the museum’s website. Tickets for parking are about $16.
Another option for parking is, in front of the Please Touch Museum. The parking on the street is free and on a first come first serve basis. I know some people may get intimidated by city parking but the street parking in front of the museum is very easy to do. In fact, the road is very wide and not as busy as a typical city street.
Please Touch Museum exhibits
The museum currently includes 18 permanent exhibits and 1 traveling exhibit throughout most of the year.
All of the exhibits are included in the purchase price of your museum fee except for the Woodside Park Dentzel Carousel located on the museum’s main level.
You can buy a single-ride or unlimited-ride ticket to ride the carousel. My children usually go for unlimited rides.
My family visits the carousel exhibit first before venturing off to the other exhibits.
The carousel
Remember, the key to making any trip fun for you and your children is to partake in the activities.
Although as I get older, I’m not a huge fan of things that spin around anymore while I’m standing stationary, one time on the carousel with the kids is enough to bring a smile to their faces.
I usually make my one loop and then tell the kiddies I will be on the sideline waiting for them to get off. On our last visit to the carousel, I found that children never want to get off.
That’s okay, though, because while you are waiting for your kids to get tired of riding the carousel, there’s a whole wall that tells the history of the Woodside Park Dentzel Carousel, which is pretty interesting to read.
River Adventures
The next stop on our journey through the Please Touch Museum is the River Adventures, which is a fun learning experience for children of all ages. Seriously though, who doesn’t like to play with water?
In the River Adventures exhibit, fun activities like switching locks and creating dams will be fun. Our kids love putting the rubber duckies on the river, then opening the locks to see how the duckies travel in and out of the locks.
There’s also this cool wall to which you can connect magnetic gears and watch as the water turns the gears. This one was my favorite waterworks.
How do we protect our clothes from the water?
The museum provides water smocks for their guests near the waterworks exhibit on a first-come, first-serve basis. You can find smocks hanging around the perimeter of the water exhibit.
The smocks only cover the front and the back of your clothes, so you will still have to roll up your child’s sleeves while playing in the water.
Alice in the Wonderland
Located on the lower level of the museum to Wonderland. I don’t know where my happy emoji is for this place but know I’m smiling while I’m typing.
When I was a little girl, I always thought the movie Alice in Wonderland was super cool. So to find out that Please Touch Museum has a replica of the film where you can let your imagination run wild was enough to make my inner child’s dreams come true.
I have to share my favorite lines from the movie:
“Off with their heads”
Queen of hearts, Alice in wonderland
“I’m late, I’m late, I’m late for a very important date. No time to say, “Hello goodbye, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late.”
The White Rabbit, Alice in wonderland
My version of this song is, “We’re late!”
Funny fun fact about me: I always thought the name of this movie was Alice and the Wonderland, no wonder why my computer kept giving me an error message. I’m just now finding out after researching the movie for this blog post that the name of the movie is, “Alice in the wonderland.” LOL.. my way sounds much better though.
Please Touch grocery store
I know I keep saying all of these exhibits are my favorite, but when I think about it, they are all very cool in their own way. The next stop on my excellent museum exhibit list is also located on the museum’s lower level.
I never thought grocery shopping and pretending to make a pizza would be fun, but you have to try it. I have to admit that it always seems like a chore when it comes to food shopping or cooking in real life. However, when we go to the museum and pretend to shop and buy groceries at the pretend grocery store, something about it is so much fun.
Remember, if you partake in the activities, you will unlock your inner child and have fun too.
The little shopping carts are so cute. The Please Touch Museum also has cute little checkouts like an actual store.
Please Touch Museum Pizza parlor and bakery.
Located directly next to the store are a bakery and a pizza place. Again I have to say; I never thought pretending to make food and pretending to eat it would be so much fun.
Now I can’t say my play attention span is as long as my children’s, but the little span that I do have causes me to have a good time. The kids’ play span is “to infinity and beyond.”
There are so many fun things to do in this museum; your family could stay here all day if you wanted to. We visit the Please Touch Museum about twice a year, and it never gets old.
Where can we eat?
If you are planning on staying all day there is a place to eat called Garden Grille Cafe, which has a variety of food to eat.
Are there any savings on the purchase price of a ticket?
I love that the Please Touch Museum makes it possible for families to come to visit with the savings it has to offer.
Every 1st Wednesday of the month, the museum charges $2 between 4 pm-7 pm.
An Access, Philly Art-Reach Admission policy will allow one cardholder and up to 3 family members or friends to enter the museum for $2 per person. Visit art-reach.org for more details.
Another great way to save is to join the Please Touch Museum’s membership program.
Thank you so much for taking time out of your day today to read our family’s latest adventure. If there is a place you think our family would have fun visiting, please leave it in the comment section below.
Where is Please Touch Museum?
The Please Touch Museum is located at:
Memorial Hall
4231 Avenue of Republic
Philadelphia, PA 19131
As always,
Thank you again for coming along on this journey with my family and me. If there’s any place you feel my family would enjoy visiting, please tell us in the comments below. You can also put any questions in the comments if there are any questions I have not answered about Please Touch Museum
