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Museums offering dedicated kid’s activities that enchant grown-ups too:
Will showing the world’s biggest collection of Impressionist paintings to your children bore them? Not any more with the sensational Scavenger Hunt at the Musée d’Orsay.
Solve all the mysteries and find all the clues hidden in each statue, painting or architectural feature of the Musée d’Orsay as these will lead you to a secret treasure in the end…
Multigenerational travel gives families the opportunity to learn about a destination – and each other. We’ve complied our top museum choices for kids, where curated exhibits and interactive learning make kids feel like VIP guests.
Go Dutch
World-renowned Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam draws travelers with its famed Van Goghs, Rembrandts, and Vermeers, and its Michelin-starred restaurant, RIJKS. It’s a great spot for children too, with daily family-focused tours, drawing lessons, and a kid-focused museum guide and puzzle book. The crowning stroke: a digital mystery-solving game. Museum director Taco Dibbits calls for adventurous families to uncover eight secrets hidden throughout the museum in an hour-long, interactive scavenger hunt.
Think Green
At Lusto, the Finnish Forest Museum, children can connect with nature in creative ways. “I loved this museum because there were umbrellas as decorations, spoons on plates that moved themselves, and truly something for everyone to enjoy,” says Virtuoso advisor Trish Mercer. A 26-foot children’s tree – complete with a treehouse in the branches and a bear den nestled below – offers different levels of play and discovery. Model chainsaws and forest machine simulators allow kids (and adults) to get a feel for the reality of forest management and resources.
Look Ahead
Think big at Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. The Tokyo complex looks to the future with participation-based exhibits ranging from cellular life to the farthest galaxies. Walk through an International Space Station replica, meet robots, observe neutrinos, and discover endless more ways to explore. From preschool scientific thinking games to an “opinion bank” for the grownups, the future is definitely ageless.
Nurture the Classics
“In Denmark, I love the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art,” says Virtuoso advisor Andrew Butler. “It’s located in an idyllic waterfront setting, and families with children will love the three-story children’s wing of the museum. Free workshops allow children to paint, draw, or sculpt in the style of the museum’s featured artists.” The facility’s impressive main collection is vast, changing every few months.
Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic Cannes | France
The 349-room Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic Cannes’ complimentary Studio by Petit VIP program lets aspiring Spielbergs and Coppolas (ages 4 through 12) dive into filmmaking. Kids work as screenwriters, directors, cinematographers, and actors while creating a short movie that premieres, in true Cannes fashion, in the hotel’s private screening room.
Hulopoe Bay adventures at the Four Seasons Resort Lanai.
Four Seasons Resort Lanai | Hawaii
Nature in its most pristine form – secluded beaches, quiet hikes, reef-rich snorkeling – is what the tiny Hawaiian island of Lanai is all about. At the 213-room Four Seasons Resort Lanai, kids’ club activities emphasize conservation via guided adventures to the lava-rock tide pools at Hulopoe Bay, where mini marine biologists learn how to identify sea stars, hermit crabs, moray eels, and more.
Ocean House | Rhode Island
While parents lounge on the private beach or sip Pimm’s Cups on the croquet lawn at Rhode Island’s genteel Ocean House, kids hit the herb garden with the 67-room hotel’s resident food forager to learn about seasonal ingredients and farm-to-table dining. The outing is part of the property’s Center for Wine & Culinary Arts programming, along with kid-friendly baking, chocolate, and pizza-making lessons.
A friendly spar in Rome.
Hotel Hassler | Rome
Kids’ field trips at the 91-room Hotel Hassler in Rome include Vatican visits, gelato-tasting adventures, and a journey to the Gruppo Storico Romano gladiator school, where they don tunics and parry with wooden swords in a sandy arena while learning about the competition’s 2,000-year-old history.
Bring Your Pet
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