New National Museum — Attraction in Prague

(A fair warning: this review only relates to the Children's Museum on the 2nd floor of the New Building.)

Children's Museum is a three-level affair, with enough space to make the experience unforgettable for the little ones. Instead, it comes out as underwhelming. Attempts to gamify random scientific facts using analogue technologies are laudable but fall short of exciting. Lots of kids end up hanging out in the only digital pod in the middle of the exposition. A popular alternative for both children and parents: throwing balls at an interactive wall next to the entrance, where an impeccably nice old lady tries gamely to instill some rules and sense into an irreverent mess. A better-designed jukebox on level 3 could be a blast, but alas... Parts I (and my 3-year-old) like most are insect slides, theatrical corner, and castle constructor.

The entrance fees are 390 CZK for adults (who must accompany kids), 140 for children 4-15 y.o., and free for children below 4. It only buys you 90 minutes of playing time in one of four time slots throughout the day. Not that many kids are eager to spend more time in there... Ironically, a play area on the same floor, but OUTSIDE the museum bounds seems to have more "staying power", at least with younger kids.

Verdict: Good for a rainy day in Prague (and even then, the Agriculture Museum in Letna beats it hands down). But don't get your...

This is the new building for the National Museum and focuses on modern history. You have to leave large rucksacks in the lockers, but smaller bags are fine. If you do not have a coin for the lockers, the cloakroom staff will give you a token. All the staff were polite and happy to offer help. There are lots of interesting exhibits. One floor has an area for children, though you need another ticket to enter this section. There was an Olympics exhibit on another floor. The signs to show you where to go are not great, and I did end up having to backtrack. However, it all feels a little lacking. Lots of floors, but little used to fill them. You need a ticket to enter, which also gives you entrance to the old museum. Certain areas require an extra ticket. There was a cafe, but I did not see a souvenir shop. They did have a few things for sale at the ticket desk, though. There are toilets throughout the building. The building is partially accessible for people who use a wheelchair. You cannot use the upper floors of the children's museum. There are accessible toilets. There is a connecting hallway to the old National Museum. This is accessible for people who have a disability. As a side note, if you have to cross the road to get to the building, it is a bit deadly. Further up the road are lifts and stairs which take you to an...

I visited this museum as part of the combined ticket for the national museum. This museum is actually a new building as part of the national museum and contained an exhibit of Celts and also the museum of genetics.

I thought the Celtic exhibition was fantastic. There was so much information about Celts, their culture, their lives, their metal-working skills, with some truly stunning exhibits on show. There were a couple of engrossing videos of how researchers think the Celts did metal work and created jewellery.

The Museum of Genetics was a much smaller museum and as its name suggests, about genes and molecular biology. There's several fascinating videos that describe the process of extracting and analysing genes.

As a Scotsman, the Celts exhibition was especially interesting to me, but equally accessible to everyone. The amount of English in both the museums was outstanding and both are well...