Thirteen exciting museums for children in Hungary: because a museum is not just for older people

Csopa Science Center

At the Csopa Science Center at Kolosy tér in Óbuda, more than 250 interactive games await children open to the curiosities of science and technology. There is also a nature workshop, where you can learn through play how science appears in nature. In the Hall of Scientists, you can learn exciting details about the work and life of Hungarian scientists. In the world of attraction and repulsion, you get to understand the nature of magnetism. Newton’s apple orchard guides you through the world of gravity. You can enter the Garden of Illusions, where you will not believe your eyes, while learning a lot about perception. At the Space Station, you can learn the secrets of outer space. At the Logical Stop, you can test your intellectual and deduction skills. You can find out about the strength of your visual memory, as well as your problem-solving and concentration skills. An exhibition introduces kids over the age of 12 to the topic of birth and conception. You can take part in scientific experimental presentations in the Öveges Hall. In addition, there are also escape rooms and film screenings to discover.

Futura – Mosonmagyaróvár

A science playhouse that guides children through different areas of science according to the four basic elements. On the water level, you can shoot a ball up the slope with a water pistol, make a waterfall, and generate electricity with the help of water wheels. You can learn about the science of vortexes and get to know what the Archimedes’ screw is good for. The earth level is a spectacular illustration of the most important laws of physics, rock and soil types, the inter-island landscape and its fauna. But you also have a smart sandbox available here. On the air level, you can study atmospheric and weather phenomena, the nature-shaping work of the wind, and the operation of wind turbines. Lightning, high voltage, and finally a real test of courage: walking across a suspension bridge. Finally, you can try what it’s like being a meteorologist. On the fire level, devices related to optical curiosities, illusions and light phenomena await you, but you can also test your sense of balance or memory. There are also several astronomical lectures and spectacular experimental demonstrations held daily in this fantastic house.

Lab Magic Space – Pécs

In the Laboratory and the interactive space set up in the Zsolnay District, you are free to experiment with equipment that is not only NOT forbidden to touch, but a must. You can play with myriad exciting tools, including an airplane simulator and a plasma ball generated by a Tesla transformer, and even experiment with liquid nitrogen during a magic hour. In the room of light, you can get acquainted with the world of physics. The complex also houses a planetarium that offers events and activities for various age groups.

Mobilis – Győr

In the local interactive showroom, you can try out nearly 70 devices inspiring you to play, from the wind tunnel through the mirror maze to streamlined vehicles. There are also spectacular experimental demonstrations held. At the Digital Experience Centre, you can learn about 3D printing, the possibilities of an augmented and virtual world, mobile technology, robotics, and even see humanoids. And anyone who wishes to create can make an animation or appear in a scene recorded in a Bluebox Studio.

Agora Science Adventure Centre Debrecen

In the laboratories of the modern three-storey building, you can gain a glimpse into the mysteries of physics, chemistry, medical biology, hydrobiology, botany, environmental science, and robotics, or even study celestial phenomena in the observatory. In the exhibition hall, you can try more than 40 scientific games and interactive tools. You can meet Professor Öveges' dog, unravel the secrets of quite a few illusions, test your reflexes, or find your way out of the seemingly endless Mirror Labyrinth.

Petőfi Literary Museum

Operating in Károlyi Palace, the PIM continuously offers museum educational activities, which are more aimed at school children, as visitors here learn about classical and contemporary Hungarian literature and their leading representatives. It holds themed family days several times a year in connection with national holidays or ongoing exhibitions, and its weekend museum pedagogy sessions are equally outstanding. But, in the past, it also had a Wise Pebble Literary Laboratory and workshop, which examined the scientific, technical, biological or artistic references in certain literary works. In addition, these activities take place in an exciting, modern, flexible and extremely playful space that adults can also enjoy.

Minipolis

Minipolis, located in Király utca in the centre of Budapest, is the place where children can jump into the skin of adults for a few hours. Children aged 3 to 12 can try all sorts of occupations, situations, and activities usually only encountered by their parents, in a town scaled down to their size. Under safe conditions, they can also engage in activities that they are prohibited from in everyday life, such as being a shop assistant, a cashier, a postman, a crane operator, a banker, a florist, a car mechanic or a police officer. With the help of local game masters, they can learn what to do if they detect a fire, how to travel around town, selectively collect waste, or simply how to shop alone.

Chocolate museum – Árpádföld

The Chocolate Museum located in District 16 of Budapest offers all kinds of chocolate to taste. The building, which many call the Chocolate Palace, was built as a noble hunting lodge in 1902, and it was only more than 100 years later that it became a museum, in accordance with the idea of Elemér Farkas, the founder of the museum. He had both the building and its park renovated. In the museum, you can see 100-year-old chocolate-making and shop-managing tools, and the wrapping and packaging of the successful products of grand old chocolate manufacturers. You can even make your own chocolate to snack on while you sit in for the screening, where you can learn the history of chocolate through a short film. What more could you need for a happy children’s day?

Hungarian Railway History Park

This is one of the largest open-air railway museums in Europe and its first interactive railway park. More than 100 old vehicles are parked here, 50 of which are rare locomotives, and the rest are other types of rail vehicles: rail cars, drives, measuring cars and other specialties – the finest and the most valuable collected. The 70,000-square-metre park showcases railroad development from the 1870s to present day. Many of the vehicles are still operational today, and occasionally they can be seen in operation, or even driven, at the park's events. The vehicles run regularly as a nostalgia train both at home and abroad.

Children’s Railway Museum – Hűvösvölgy

The Children's Railway Museum is a collection of relics of the Széchenyi-hegy Children's Railway and the former Pioneer Railway. The museum preserves material and pictorial memories that recall and present the history of the Children's Railway from the beginning of its construction through its decades-long, varied past to recent times. Children can also board the cabin of an original steam locomotive for a photo.

Pinball Museum – Budapest

One of Europe’s permanent pinball exhibitions, where 130 machines simultaneously emit flickering lights and jingling sounds, decorated with a wide variety of film or pop culture personalities. It is three times larger than, for example, the museum in Kraków on the same theme. In addition to modern machines, you can also see the wooden ancestor of pinball from 1880 and the first Hungarian pinball machine, but you can also test your skills on old arcade games, such as Mortal Combat or Street Fighter. Plus, all slot machines can be tried out for the price of a single entry, meaning immortality and a shower of balls are guaranteed.

Legoland – Nyíregyháza

We no longer have to travel to Billund to see a Lego factory up close. It has been operating in the eastern half of the country for quite a few years now. There are also plans to add a Legoland Discovery Centre to the complex. Legoland Centres are essentially Lego playhouses, smaller than Legoland theme parks, but their attractions also include 4D cinemas and Miniland model cities built from Lego bricks. There are 18 similar establishments in the world – and in Europe, in addition to the Danish centre, outside of Budapest you can only find it in Berlin, Oberhausen and Manchester.

Historical model railway exhibition - Keszthely

On the more than 2.7-kilometre-long network of terrain tables at the historic model railway exhibition at the Festetics Palace in Keszthely, through 348 fully automated servomotor, decoder-controlled detours, among 1,800 buildings, 75 different age-authentic trains, composed of locomotives, cars and freight cars of the previous two centuries, run simultaneously. The track network of the stations was created based on aerial photos and original plans. The presentation is completed by contemporary design plans. Moreover, the museum's supplies were further expanded with a part of the model set of the Miniverzum, which was closed on Andrássy út in Budapest. So lovers of the genre are sure to have fun, whether they are children or adults.