Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Store — Local services in Washington

The overall experience was mostly good. The museum has a lot of interesting choices for exhibits and what is shown is very digestible for most people. There are a couple of reasons I'm not giving it a complete 5 stars:

1. The food at the Cafe's leaves something to be desired. It really is a cafeteria format. At the atrium cafe that is not far from the entrance, you get a tray and pick the food you'd like served on other paper plates and trays. Most of it truly is cafeteria food such as burgers, Mac and cheese, and chicken tenders & waffle fries are among some choices. They didn't taste all that great as they are left on heated areas for people to grab and who knows how long they sit there.

2. There is an Egyptian mummy exhibit. A history I am usually very interested in. And while the 4 or 5 windows of those exhibits were interesting, I also found it to be a small collection. Not a bad thing necessarily, I was just a tad disappointed.

3. A lot of things take some tickets in advance to get into which is similar to other museums in the area. This is not a bad thing, just something to be aware of before coming in. The butterfly atrium is one of these as an example.

Overall, still a great place to go and worth seeing for free admission. It made my 1st time in Washington...

This museum was one of my dreams. It is necessary to say it is not possible to visit and get all the stuff in one day. We needed 2 days and we still did not read everything. We at least saw the most of it. We enjoyed a lot. We love nature, we love history and even with so small children (3 and 8 year old) you can enjoy even though they have not that much patience. My advice: it is good to start when the younger one has afternoon sleep, choose some history stuff and carry on with the animals - they are always interesting. You also may find 2 gift shops and find many ideas to buy gifts, start with basic and modern stuff and finish with some ceramic or pottery or kimonk from China like art stuff. Also cherry tree as a seed is possible to buy and plant it. The postacrds of 33 in the book you may find in the shop for very reasonable price. Definitely one of the "must" to visit places in Washington, mainly in hot weather. Anyway, on Saturday it is completely not possible to move there, so if you have chance to schedule your visit, do so in the weekday, by...

I was in absolute heaven here. Everything I love - butterflies, elephants, Egyptology, dinosaurs, photography - was here. I had limited time to spend but I was able to see everything I wanted to while finding time to sit and eat at the food court. At the time I went, the new dinosaur exhibition was still being made, so I thought I wouldn’t get to see dinosaurs...but I was so wrong. After the Egyptology section, I turned the corner...and saw the Tyrannosaurus Rex of my dreams. My jaw hung open for a good minute or two. It was humbling to see how large it was standing next to it.

Edit: Their new fossil hall just opened and it is definitely worth seeing! The giant sloth...