The Best Museums in San Francisco for Kids

San Francisco is unusually well stocked with museums that welcome children rather than tolerating them. Here are the ones worth your afternoon, and the days you can get in free.

Hands-On

Exploratorium

Six acres of exhibits you are supposed to touch, on a pier over the bay. It holds a two-year-old and a fifteen-year-old equally well, which almost nothing else does. Strollers are fine throughout. Three-dollar tickets are available to EBT, CalFresh and Medi-Cal cardholders through Museums for All, and library Discover and Go passes work here too.

Pier 15, Embarcadero at Green St · Adults about forty dollars, ages 4–17 about thirty · Tue–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun noon–5pm, closed Mondays · Thursday evenings are 18+ · exploratorium.edu

California Academy of Sciences

Aquarium, rainforest, planetarium and penguins in one building in Golden Gate Park. Plan for three hours minimum, and go on a weekday if you can; weekend mid-days are a crush. Discounted admission for EBT and Medi-Cal cardholders, and three dollars off if you arrive with same-day transit proof.

55 Music Concourse Dr · Adults about forty-nine dollars, children about thirty-nine, higher at peak times · Mon–Sat 9:30am–5pm, Sun 11am–5pm · calacademy.org

Children’s Creativity Museum

Best for roughly ages two to ten: stop-motion animation, a music studio, clay and a lot of making. It sits in Yerba Buena Gardens next to the carousel and playground, so you can turn it into a whole day without moving the car.

221 Fourth St · About twenty dollars per person age one and up · Wed–Sun 10am–4pm · creativity.org

Randall Museum

Free, small and genuinely lovely: live animals, a model railroad, a woodshop and drop-in activities, on a hillside with a skyline view. Corona Heights Park is right outside.

199 Museum Way · Free · Tue–Sat 10am–5pm · randallmuseum.org

Art, and How to See It Free

de Young Museum

The Golden Gate Park art museum, with a free observation tower that is worth the trip on its own. Anyone seventeen and under gets in free, always. Everyone gets in free on the first Tuesday of the month, and Bay Area residents get in free on Saturdays.

50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr · Adults twenty-five dollars, under 18 free · Tue–Sun 9:30am–5:15pm, closed Mondays · famsf.org

Legion of Honor

A colonnaded museum on a bluff in Lincoln Park with ocean views, ancient art and a Rodin collection that tends to hold kids longer than parents expect. Same pricing as the de Young: free for seventeen and under, free for everyone on the first Tuesday.

100 34th Ave, Lincoln Park · Tue–Sun 9:30am–5:15pm, closed Mondays · famsf.org

SFMOMA

Everyone eighteen and under is free, every day, which makes a modern art museum an unexpectedly cheap family outing. Go straight to the top floors and the sculpture terrace with younger kids. The museum runs occasional Free Family Days with art-making in the education center.

151 Third St · Adults thirty dollars, 18 and under free · Closed Wednesdays; Thursdays open until 8pm · sfmoma.org

Small, Weird and Free

Cable Car Museum

The giant winding machinery that pulls every cable car in the city is right here, spinning behind glass, and it is free. Twenty minutes, and a good pairing with a ride down the hill afterwards.

1201 Mason St · Free · Open daily, closed major holidays

Musée Mécanique

A hangar full of antique arcade machines at Fisherman’s Wharf, from fortune tellers to hand-cranked dioramas. Free to enter; bring a roll of quarters and let each kid spend a fixed number. Tightly packed, so leave the stroller outside if you can.

Pier 45, Shed A · Free entry, machines take coins

Walt Disney Family Museum

In the Presidio, and better for ages six and up than for toddlers, since it is reading- and film-heavy. The early animation galleries are the good part.

104 Montgomery St, the Presidio · Adults thirty dollars, ages 6–17 fifteen · Thu–Sun 10am–5:30pm · waltdisney.org

Which San Francisco Museum Should You Pick?

If you only have time for one, this is the shortest way to decide. Prices are standard rates; peak pricing applies at the Academy in summer and around the holidays.

Prices and hours were checked in September 2026 and can change, so confirm before you go.

More family guides: Exploratorium vs California Academy of Sciences, Is CityPASS Worth It in San Francisco?, Where to See Animals in San Francisco with Kids.

Correction, 15 October 2026: this guide said the de Young’s permanent collection is free to all daily from 4:30pm. The Fine Arts Museums’ free and reduced admission page lists no such offer; it lists free general admission on the first Tuesday of the month and, for Bay Area residents, on Saturdays, and free admission for ages 17 and under (famsf.org/visit/free-reduced-admission).