Fantastic museum for all ages and interests with an affordable entry fee that can be discounted in many ways (membership, AAA, children, etc.).

Exhibits range from maps, excerpts, and videos to beautiful artifacts from ship wrecks, fresnel lenses, and scale models of ships. You'll learn about the fascinating history of the Great Lakes throughout the ages as well as the people's who have survived along their shores. The museum itself isn't huge which saves on walking but there's so much packed into it that you could spend almost all day there between the museum and ship tours. The video productions are top notch, staff is incredibly friendly and knowledgeable, and the atmosphere of the museum is clean and comfortable. Heck even the gift shop has great offerings.

The ship tours are self guided which is awesome because you can explore them at your own leisure. They have an app that guides you through the boats but I found the placards to be plenty informative and interactive. A volunteer aboard the freighter answered my many questions with joy and interest, you can tell he has a passion for what he does there. The volunteer was closing up the ship when he saw me still exploring its decks, he reopened doors he'd shut and personally guided me through the wheelhouse and even let me blow the ships horn. Huge thanks for your patience and love for sharing your knowledge.

This place blew my expectations out of the water, I arrived before noon and they were pushing me out after closing time. I can see why they call it a national museum, it's world class. Weather you are with the kids or on your own, in for an hour or the whole day, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to make the National Great Lakes Museum what it is. I can't wait to return already!