A rainy afternoon, or a kid who keeps asking how things work? These are the museums where children get to touch, try and climb in, not just look. Here's what we checked, from the Deutsches Museum to the Kindermuseum. Each page says which ages it suits, so you can pick the one that fits your kids.
One of the largest museums in Germany, with 20 permanent exhibitions on an island in the Isar. Kids walk among planes and helicopters in Modern Aviation, see how locks and bridges work, and try about 20 hands-on light experiments in Classical Optics.
Younger children head to Kids' Kingdom: a marble run, a fire engine to climb into, a giant guitar to crawl inside and a pedal-powered aircraft.
Three listed 1908 exhibition halls on the Theresienhöhe hold 275 vehicles, from trams and VW Beetles to steam locomotives and the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Hall I covers city traffic and crash safety; Hall II is a railway platform lined with locomotives and carriages; Hall III has racing cars, bikes and skates.
The children's area in Hall III lets kids build, paint, slide and play with toy cars.
A natural history museum in the north wing of Nymphenburg Palace. The heart of it is a quiz hall where kids press a button to answer questions about animals, and doors pop open or model animals sprint off. Pumuckl audio plays by cases of local wildlife.
Elsewhere: glittering minerals, the history of life, a hall on the brain, and Bruno, the brown bear who roamed Bavaria in 2006.
A hands-on museum built around one big interactive exhibition at a time, with stations, objects and workshop corners to touch, try and explore. The current show, "Iss was?!", is about food and the senses: kids milk a model cow, grind grain into flour, shop in a play supermarket and explore an oversized nose and tongue. Exhibition guides are on hand to help. A visit takes about 90 minutes.
The Deutsches Museum's aviation branch sits in hangars on the edge of the Schleißheim airfield, whose oldest buildings date from the early days of flight. More than 70 aircraft fill the halls, from a Lilienthal glider to the Eurofighter, plus helicopters, flying boats and the huge Europa rocket.
It suits plane-mad kids more than toddlers.
The BMW Museum traces over 100 years of BMW cars and motorcycles through themed houses on design, technology, motorsport and the brand, in a bowl-shaped building next to the Olympiapark.
Kids walk past race cars, prototypes and the tiny Isetta bubble car, and at least one Art Car painted by artists such as Andy Warhol or Jeff Koons is always on display.
A rainy afternoon, or a kid who keeps asking how things work? These are the museums where children get to touch, try and climb in, not just look. Here's what we checked, from the Deutsches Museum to the Kindermuseum. Each page says which ages it suits, so you can pick the one that fits your kids.
One of the largest museums in Germany, with 20 permanent exhibitions on an island in the Isar. Kids walk among planes and helicopters in Modern Aviation, see how locks and bridges work, and try about 20 hands-on light experiments in Classical Optics.
Younger children head to Kids' Kingdom: a marble run, a fire engine to climb into, a giant guitar to crawl inside and a pedal-powered aircraft.
Three listed 1908 exhibition halls on the Theresienhöhe hold 275 vehicles, from trams and VW Beetles to steam locomotives and the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Hall I covers city traffic and crash safety; Hall II is a railway platform lined with locomotives and carriages; Hall III has racing cars, bikes and skates.
The children's area in Hall III lets kids build, paint, slide and play with toy cars.
A natural history museum in the north wing of Nymphenburg Palace. The heart of it is a quiz hall where kids press a button to answer questions about animals, and doors pop open or model animals sprint off. Pumuckl audio plays by cases of local wildlife.
Elsewhere: glittering minerals, the history of life, a hall on the brain, and Bruno, the brown bear who roamed Bavaria in 2006.
A hands-on museum built around one big interactive exhibition at a time, with stations, objects and workshop corners to touch, try and explore. The current show, "Iss was?!", is about food and the senses: kids milk a model cow, grind grain into flour, shop in a play supermarket and explore an oversized nose and tongue. Exhibition guides are on hand to help. A visit takes about 90 minutes.
The Deutsches Museum's aviation branch sits in hangars on the edge of the Schleißheim airfield, whose oldest buildings date from the early days of flight. More than 70 aircraft fill the halls, from a Lilienthal glider to the Eurofighter, plus helicopters, flying boats and the huge Europa rocket.
It suits plane-mad kids more than toddlers.
The BMW Museum traces over 100 years of BMW cars and motorcycles through themed houses on design, technology, motorsport and the brand, in a bowl-shaped building next to the Olympiapark.
Kids walk past race cars, prototypes and the tiny Isetta bubble car, and at least one Art Car painted by artists such as Andy Warhol or Jeff Koons is always on display.
