Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¼´Ê±¿ª½±

San Diego, California: Horizontal view of a mother and her two children going to the Natural History Museum entrance, Balboa Park

Conchi Martínez/Getty

San Diego Natural History Museum

San Diego


The 'Nat' houses 7.5 million specimens, including rocks, minerals, fossils and taxidermied animals, as well as an impressive dinosaur skeleton and an eye-opening exhibit on how climate change affects California's water supply, all in beautiful spaces. Kids love the 2-D and 3-D movies about the natural world in the giant-screen cinema and the fun and educational programs held most weekends.

Special exhibits (some with an extra charge) mix things up several times a year. The museum also arranges field trips and nature walks in Balboa Park and further afield.


Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¼´Ê±¿ª½±'s must-see attractions

Nearby San Diego attractions

1. Casa del Prado

0.05 MILES

An ornate reconstruction of a building to honor the 1915 Panama–California Exposition fair held in San Diego. It's not possible to go inside the building,…

2. Fleet Science Center

0.06 MILES

A top pick in Balboa Park, this hands-on science museum features interactive displays, including a room geared to the milk-tooth set. Look out for…

3. San Diego History Center

0.08 MILES

The San Diego Historical Society operates this center, with permanent and temporary exhibitions on city history. Previous exhibitions have included the…

4. Museum of Photographic Arts

0.1 MILES

Tracing the history of photography, the museum offers special exhibits from crowd-pleasing animal themes to landscapes by Ansel Adams and avant-garde cell…

5. Casa de Balboa

0.1 MILES

The Casa de Balboa has a fabled past. A Spanish renaissance-style structure was built in this very spot for Balboa's 1915 exposition. It burned down in…

6. San Diego Model Railroad Museum

0.11 MILES

Your (inner) four-year-old child will love this railroad museum; one of the largest indoor railroad museums in the world, it has some 27,000 sq ft of…

7. Botanical Building

0.12 MILES

The Botanical Building looks lovely from El Prado, where you can see it reflected in the large lily pond that was used for hydrotherapy in WWII when the…

8. Timken Museum of Art

0.13 MILES

Don’t skip the Timken, home to a small but impressive collection of American and European paintings, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, El Greco,…