Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

If you've got kids of three or are adults of 73 with the grandkids this place is great for all, full of things to do, and explore along with how things work and what things do.

Don't expect to leave early because you just won't want to, it makes a great change watching everyone experimenting and playing instead of playing on Play stations and other electronic toys.

Great Day out

I took a visit here with my three year old son in the Summer. There is a great play area outside. I found that most of the activities inside would have suited him better if he was a little older and didn’t keep his interest, would certainly go back now he is a little older, although I would look for a 2-4-1 offer, as there isn’t a huge amount to do. There was a nice play area for babies too.
Set up with good facilities for families, as you would expect. Car park was pay and display. I would allow 3-4 hours for a visit.

I was actually really pleasantly surprised by this museum as I ended up here almost by accident with some friends and very young children. I assumed that it would mostly cater for older children, but there were loads of lovely interactive activities, which young children could also get a lot out of. We spent a happy few hours here. They have some lovely things, like a little shop, where kids can pretend to go shopping, lots of things to press, etc. which kids love.

I would definitely go back, as we only explored half of it, although it does cost £8 or £9, so it’s not something you’d do regularly. I think you can sometimes find 2-4-1 deals though.

Eureka! is a museum for children located in Halifax, West Yorkshire and is aimed at families, schools, non-school childrens groups etc. Eureka! was actually recently named one of the top three Favourite Family Days Out by The Independent Newspaper.

The museum is completely interactive (a must if you’re a child, takes away the 'boring!’ factor and makes them more willing to behave, well at least in theory) offering children lots of opportunities to play together in six themed galleries whilst niftily learning, i think the idea is that it’s 'so fun’ that they won’t realise they’ve been duped into an educational learning situation! fantastic.

For a non-driving low income family this was a big day out for us, only do-able thanks to those lovely Tesco club Card vouchers. Considering it was two buses and a train each way for us with a toddler and a pre-schooler you can imagine the effort and shall we say..enthusiasm.

Luckily it’s close to the railway station, in fact you couldn’t really get much closer it’s ideal location wise. What wasn’t ideal however was the weather, it was lashing it down!

Having seen the website I had very high expectations of this place.

Eureka was really really busy, there was multiple school trips there with the average age being around 7-10 so we didn’t spend too long there as we had to weave in and out of groups of people.

My son loved the 'garage’ but but was gutted that he couldn’t get to sit in the lorry cab, he just couldn’t get past the bigger kids despite several attempts. I did try eyeballing them something rotton with my death glare but seeing as neithert heir teachers nor museum staff seemed to want to control anything it was a lost cause.

We didn’t go in the role-play post office / bank/ shop was once again full of school kids so we didn 't get near to that either.

The main areas are:

1. Desert Discovery
2. Living & Working Together
3. Me and My Body
4. Our Global Garden
5. SoundGarden
6. SoundSpace

All in all it is a fab place and the kids did enjoy themselves but there was only one small section for the under 5’s and the rest really was too old for them, maybe if it had been emptier and we could have tried to 'educate’ on our way round he might have got more out of it but still it was fun.

The shop was a bit rubbish in all honesty, when i was little museum shops had well…museum type stuff in them but this had Postman Pat toys and stuff which just seemed really generic and useless. It would have been much better suited to the museum to have stocked educational toys that were representative of what they were teaching in the museum itself.

We had our lunch under a marquee outside as it was pissing it down with rain.

If anyone goes there i highly recommend asking to use a locker to dump all your stuff like bags and coats especially if you don’t drive as once you’re their it’s highly likely your kids will pelt off at full speed and you will have to belt after them (Note: wear flat shoes otherwise you’ll never ever keep up with your rampant sprogs and thus never find them craftily hiding in an igloo)

Despite the fact the kids did have a good time I have to say I was a little disappointed, when you view the website I personally got the notion that it was bigger and there’d be more there and I had a feeling of 'oh? ...is that it?’ when we realised that we’d been round everything. I also think they could have catered a bit more for all children, not just the older ones.

The staff where you pay to get in were very pleasant and helpful but I didn’t really see many staff in the place itself to help 'guide’ you round or to ask questions which I think was disappointing.

For a modern place, I think it was tatty in places and I think it would benefit from say a sensory and soft play gym too.

I’ll most likely take the kids back when they’re older but I’ll definitely wait until they’re at least 6 or 7 years old maybe even a little older.

It’s a great idea, and offers a lot of learning opportunity but it seems a bit structureless and vague without a guide and due to the busy nature you never get long enough to actually do half of the educational and interactive things and that’s once you’ve battled your way through hoards of uncontrollable school kids who seem to have no notion of the idea 'taking turns’ (or the notion of MOVING out of peoples way).

Hopefully it will improve over the years. Still worth a visit though.

This is a great place to take young children for a fun filled educational day out. There is so much for them to see and do and touch! There’s a bank to play in and a post office and corner shop, you can dress up as a post man and deliver post around the museum. There are lots of interractive displays which are educational as well as fun. You learn about the human body, animals, fish, robots etc. There is a garage where you can change a wheel and drive a massive truck! The cafe is a bit old looking but the food isn’t bad. You can take a picnic and eat outside on a nice day. The outdoor playground is good. They put some good events on in the summer, with a massive sandpit and ice ramp!

Good, and well worth a visit, but… First, the positives: the philosophy underpinnning this place is spot on, and the huge creativity and imagination they’ve shown in designing the place cannot be faulted. Our two (aged 3 and 5) love going there, even though it’s a significant journey (1 hour plus) each way. The staff are friendly and their “Science Busking” has engaged them every time they’ve seen it. So why the “but…”? Well, some of the exhibits are a little worn and dated -- there are some very old computers in there, and Scoot, their robot, seems very 1980s -- and all in all, it feels in part as though it just needs a fresh injection of energy, love and (more realistically) money. Still, it’s an excellent place and well worth a visit.

This is a brilliant place for younger children. I went when I was quite young and thought is was fantastic, however a few years later when I went it was still good, but I was definitely getting a bit old for it. The museum is fully wacky experiments and role play opportunity. Loads to learn and do. We liked the shop and post office the best as it was brilliant for games. There is a good little gift shop too which we enjoyed. This is definitely a fun family day out with lots of different things to do and see. Good idea for the Christmas holidays.

This is an excellent place to take children of all ages for a fun day out. Its an interactive museum where children can touch just about everything.
Although the admission is quite high, it is worth every penny there are lot and lots of things to learn and do.
Great baby change facilties and there is also a cafe, which is a bit run down.
Highly recommended day out, worth its money

A great place for kids of all ages - young and old alike. As a kid I loved to go - it was a huge treat. Kids will find it both educational and fun and parents will love it too. It presents learning in an easily digestible and entertaining way - almost as though its not education at all! A particular favourite of mine was the chomping fish which illustrated the digestive system. Kids will love pretending to drive a huge truck or operate the checkouts in the supermarkets. Relatively inexpensive for such a great day out!

Kids will love this museum i did when i was younger, it has a mini supermarket and bank for them to play in and even though the groceries are plastic for the children it feels as though their grown up, aswell as being really fun its educational and used by many schools, they have special school trips sometimes if they have theatre companies in or special productions/events, its a really good learning experaince and you will spend a whole day there because its hard to get the children away. So they have fun and learn at the same time which is good. They have a small gift shop too which sells small trinkets for good prices so you can come home with a little gift of your day too! Its convient as it’s located right next to the train station so if your coming from out of halifax its worth using the train station you certainly won’t get lost!

This museum makes an excellent day out for all the family from young children to adults. It’s so much fun with loads of interactive stuff for you to do. My kids love 'lifting’ the mini! Is definitely worth a visit. The food is reasonably priced & there is a great unused railway carriage that is used as an indoor picnic area. Worth a visit & loads of fun!

On a rainy day theres no place like Eureka. Everythings indoors. Its definately the place to bring out the big kid in you. Always wanted to work in a bank or a post office? Nows your chance. How about being a car mechanic? Fancy a bit of peace? Grab a book from the sharing tree and read. Want to know how your body works? Theres exhibits for that too. Climb inside the giant mouth or build a magnetic skeleton. Everythings hands on touchy feely fun.

The sound garden is just that themed like a garden its full of paded seating and musical instruments, giant leaves that play lullabies, musical bamboo, theres a dressing up corner and much much more.

Most surprisingly the cafe is also sensibly priced in comparrison to other local attractions so lunch out won’t break the bank either.

This is a fantastic place for a day out with the children.
There is a lot to do and learn, making it educational.
The downstairs area includes a pretend marks and spencers where children can pretend to food shop and buy food. There is also a bank that will give out pretend money as well as a garage.
Upstairs is mainly about the body and includes lots of fun things to do and see including a talking robot called scoot.
Highly recommended and lots of fun!

Oh wow used to love this place - when i was younger

Loads of cool stuff to do and family oriented as well as educational .

best for younger children, worth one visit, probably not repeat though.