We recently visited Liverpool’s The World Museum with the boys and we had a fantastic afternoon. We are hoping to get back to Liverpool soon because there's so much to see and do and we didn't see everything in the museum.
In my opinion, The World Museum is one of the best we have been to. It has a vast array of displays and collections, you could easily spend the full day here if you look at everything and read everything.
We would highly recommend it if you are looking for something to do with your kids on a rainy day, in the school holidays or as an educational trip in the Liverpool area.
It is just under 3 hours drive to Liverpool from Sunderland which isn't too bad.
We did only spend a few hours here as we had been somewhere else on the morning.
The Museum
The museum has displays and galleries covering an incredible number of subjects such as bugs and plant lifecycles, natural history, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, habitats and food chains, endangered animals and habitats around the world, the solar system, marine life and dinosaurs. We thoroughly enjoyed looking at some of the specimens in the glass jars and the Hippo skull was a lot bigger than we though it would be.
I loved how you are are encouraged to touch some of the fossils and specimens. Especially the mammoth tooth which was fascinating. There are lots of drawers full of everything you could possibly imagine such as birds, bugs and butterflies to Fossils.
Our Visit
We were lucky to get parked right outside of the museum in the limited parking area, we headed inside and we were wowed straight away. We decided to start from the ground floor and work our way up.
The first floor is home to an aquarium housing some impressive creatures from around the world including some from the local area. You can see fish, Terrapins, coral and lots more. There's loads of information about the displays which is always great to see.
The aquarium is the second oldest in Europe and opened in the museum in 1857! How amazing is that.
We then headed up to the second floor where you can find The bug house and Natural history centre.
The bug section isn't the biggest but it's still worth a look and has lots of info to read. I didn't stay too long in this section because I have a phobia of ants and they have leaf cutter ants in here so I made a sharp exit.
I have to say The natural history centre is pretty impressive and we absolutely loved this section. We spent quite a while in here exploring the Skeletons and the drawers full of goodies to look at.
We then headed to World Cultures Gallery which was vast and there are so many things to look at in here. Displays are from around the world to include Africa, The Americas, Asia and Oceania. I really enjoyed looking around this section and found it fascinating.
We are planning on going back so we can spend longer here and in the upper floor displays because the announcement came on saying the museum was closing soon so we hurried around the rest of the museum. I would say this section is probably best suited to older kids who will read about artefacts and some of the African displays could be a bit scary.
Next on our not to miss before we leave was the Egypt section.
The Egyptian display is the second largest gallery outside of London and it is pretty spectacular.
Growing up I have always been fascinated by History and Ancient Egypt has always been something that I am just amazed by. I could have easily spent half a day in here alone.
This is by far our favourite part of the museum. We love everything Ancient Egypt and here in the World Museum the gallery showcases 1200 objects from their ancient Egyptian and Nubian collection of around 20,000 items. There's a 5 thousand year detailed timeline, A Mummy room with decorated coffins, canopic jars, mummified animals and more. They even had Ramesses III Girdle. A piece of clothing from 1185BC made from woven linen which Ramesses would have worn around his chest and waist. This is the only one of it's kind that has survived and was worn by an Egyptian king. Absolutely amazing how it has survived all this time. I was also fascinated at the Mummy hand which still had gold rings and her nails were visible too.
You can also find a Dinosaur gallery but this was not the biggest, still worth a look though. On the top floor you can find displays all about Space and there's a decent view too. The planetarium is also located on the top floor.
We hardly spent anytime on the top floor because we had 15 minutes to get out as the museum was about to close. I hurried down the stairs because I love collecting Fridge magnets from our travels, however the staff were not letting anyone else into the shop which was a shame.
We have been planning to have a few days in Liverpool because there's just so much to do., it is definitely becoming a favourite city of mine. I just love visiting.
We will be re visiting The World Museum again when we head back to Liverpool and we highly recommend it to anyone looking for things to do.
Good to know
Free entry although donations are welcome, you do have to pay for the planetarium shows and special exhibitions
Limited parking to the front of the museum. However there are multiple car parks within a few minutes walk
5 minute walk from Lime Street Station
The museum is very accessible
Large Café
Shop
Lockers to store bags
Cloakroom
Toilets on every floor and Baby changing
Picnic room
Crafts
Buggy Park
Child friendly trails available
Hands on displays
Check out these Other Posts
If you would like your family friendly event adding to our guide free of charge, please fill in this FORM
Did you know that most of my content is brought to you with no financial incentive? If you appreciate my posts, why not buy me a virtual coffee?