Chicago Children’s Museum
Photo: Own work — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Located at Navy Pier, Chicago Children’s Museum provides interactive exhibits and programs that inspire learning and creativity in children.
Planning your visit
Chicago Children's Museum sits at Navy Pier, which places it in the middle of the city's most visited attraction — a nineteenth-century pier now filled with rides, restaurants and a Ferris wheel jutting into Lake Michigan.
The museum is built around active play for children roughly up to ten: a three-storey climbing schooner, a dinosaur dig where children excavate a cast skeleton from soft material, a water play area with dams and locks, a treehouse, an art studio and a building zone with real tools.
Its approach follows the modern children's museum consensus — open-ended play rather than instruction, with learning embedded in the activity — and it does it well.
Free admission evenings run weekly, which are correspondingly busy.
The pier setting means a full day is easy to assemble around it.
Bookable options are entry tickets. Current availability is listed below.
Before you book
Where is Chicago Children’s Museum?
Chicago Children’s Museum is in Chicago, United States. The map on this page marks its exact location.
Do I need to book Chicago Children’s Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
