Oxford University Museum of Natural History Reviews Summary

Exhibits and Displays

Pros:

• "Every exhibit is tirelessly and lovingly made."
• "The collection of minerals is impressive."
• "Absolutely fantastic, they also have hoards of artifacts of different nations & cultures from many timelines."
• "A good array of exhibits and displays."
• "Great dinosaurs skeletons and worldwide cultural history."
• "Variety of large fossils, artefacts, statues and what not."
• "The main level is an array of life-sized displays. You could make sense of the size of a dinosaur compared to a bear, a tortoise, or even the jaw of a whale."

Cons:

• "Despite limited interactive elements."
• "The tribal masks and skeletons may be upsetting for younger children."
• "It is more ethnographic than zoological, botanical, pedological or mineralogical."
• "For my taste, there is a lot in little space, everything is too variegated."
• "The only downside is that I don't believe there is enough here to ever warrant a second visit."
• "Beware: there is no possibility of keeping your bags, so you will have to carry them around the Museum, even if they are really heavy."
• "The museum also has a range of temporary exhibitions and events that highlight current issues and research related to the natural environment."

Accessibility and Facilities

Pros:

• "The staff are very helpful they helped us take the pushchair up with the platform lift."
• "The museum is free, and invaluable to what you will see and enjoy."
• "Free admission but worth donating to keep this sort of standard."
• "Free entrance, no booking needed if groups less than 10."
• "Their accessible entrance and other facilities should apparently be improved from next week."
• "Fully accessible with lift to all levels."
• "It seemed well appointed from an accessibility stand point."

Cons:

• "The worst thing is that if you take a car, there is limited parking in the area and it is pricey."
• "The parking fee around the museum is expensive."
• "But parking is costly. I paid 13pond for 2hrs."
• "Local street parking is expensive, I paid £13 for 2 hours but was very convenient."
• "The on street parking nearby is very expensive. 12 quid for 2 hours is a bit eye watering."
• "The only real issue you will have is to finding parking or even suitable parking as we paid £14+ for a few hours."
• "However there is no parking on site and so you will have to use nearby parking, roads or the park and ride."

Cafe and Dining Experience

Pros:

• "I particularly enjoyed the cafe area upstairs with a very good choice of simple but delicious foods."
• "Also definitely try the cafe! I was pleasantly surprised, the food can be an afterthought in a lot of places, my goodness the vegan cake was delicious!"
• "The coffee shop there is nice and the coffee good and strong."
• "Coffee in the cafe was also really good."
• "Lovely cafe & service."
• "Inside cafe is also good."
• "The lecture theatre upstairs is nice as well and we also had some drinks in the past which was organised well."

Cons:

• "We visited on a rainy, busy day, and we couldn't find a seat to stay at the cafe."
• "Seats are quite limited there, too."
• "I wasn't greatly enthusiastic with the cafe, sandwich selection was not great and I was worried about the staff training in HACCP due to the server sneezing blowing his nose and still serving cake food and coffee without washing his hands after blowing his nose or wearing gloves."
• "Yes the cafe is a tad expensive."
• "Cafe is a bit basic but it's good enough for a museum I supposed."
• "The cafe upstairs could be potentially made bigger and potentially to have some seatings outside could be nice as well."
• "The cafe on the next floor, which was over priced and not very clean."

Family and Child-Friendliness

Pros:

• "Great place for little explorers."
• "Very kid-friendly. Kids love the dinosaur exhibits."
• "You can spend hours with the kids. Also, they offer activities for kids (not sure if it's all the time or just on the weekends)."
• "A definite must visit place, especially if you have kids."
• "They have activity sheets for kids to encourage them to look at things closely and learn something new from the visit."
• "This is a great place to visit with the kids. You are encouraged to touch many exhibits which makes for a lot more engaging experience for the children."
• "Lots for young children to do which was the reason for our visit!"

Cons:

• "The absence of any toilet roll when taking my little one to the toilets."
• "The entrance isn't stroller friendly though - but there's a dedicated room to store your prams in."
• "The tribal masks and skeletons may be upsetting for younger children."
• "Eat less meat exhibit on the top floor which my children didn't enjoy."
• "The cafe on the mezzanine floor which was full and not enough room for everyone."
• "Just needs more seating for elderly or exhausted parents."
• "The restaurant is a bit in the way of the exhibits upstairs."