The best Oakland museums for kids, ranked

From hands-on art making at the Museum of Children’s Art to learning about California history at the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland museums have played an integral part in many Bay Area children’s lives.

To help you and your family find the perfect way to spend an afternoon, I put together a list of my family’s favorite museums in Oakland, based on our years of visits, and dished on what you need to know before you go. 

My kids’ favorite museum is the Chabot Space and Science Center, located on Skyline Boulevard in Oakland’s Redwood Regional Park. Founded in 1883, Chabot began as an observatory. Today, it houses three large-scale telescopes named Leah, Rachel and Nellie that are still used for ongoing research and are free to use during regularly scheduled public viewings. As a family, we’ve spent countless hours at Chabot, enjoying the telescopes, movies in the full-dome planetarium, hands-on activities and the views from the observation deck; we have dozens of pictures of the kids in space suits to prove it. Perhaps our most beloved display is the replica of the Russian Sputnik 2 satellite, in which Laika, the dog, was launched into the Earth’s orbit.

Be sure to check the events calendar to see what’s coming up and don’t miss the center’s most recent addition: the NASA Experience interactive exhibition, where children of all ages can become a NASA scientist for a day. 

My kids have enjoyed many field trips (and mom trips) to the Oakland Museum of California, located downtown near Lake Merritt. The museum offers a unique blend of art, history and natural science, all focused on the Golden State. Each of my family members can name a favorite piece — the museum’s grizzly bear (the California state animal, hunted to extinction), Huey Newton’s wicker chair, Ruth Asawa’s wire sculpture and a Gold Rush-era stagecoach, which may be much like the one my husband’s ancestors rode on their way out West in the mid-19th century.

If you are looking for a place to hang after a long week, check out Friday Nights at OMCA, an after-hours event complete with live music and a plethora of food trucks. The museum’s garden is open to all, and galleries are accessible with a museum ticket.

Kids and kids at heart interested in big ships will enjoy the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum in nearby Alameda. Housed on a World War II aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet, the museum features airplanes and helicopters from the Hornet’s multiple battles, as well as spacecraft, given that the famous ship also recovered the splashdowns of both the Apollo 11 and 12 moon landings. You can go the self-guided route, but I would recommend a tour for a more personalized experience through the flight deck control station and into the carrier’s engineering spaces. (There are even escape room experiences. Keep in mind: The stairs in between decks are narrow and steep so the inside tour may not be suitable for small children or those with mobility issues.) For the truly adventurous, options include an after hours mystery tour or even overnight stays on the ship, which some say is the most haunted of any in the US fleet. 

Find it:
USS Hornet, 707 West Hornet Ave., Pier 3, Alameda, CA, 94501; 510-521-8448
USS Potomac, 540 Water St., Oakland, CA 94607; 510-627-1215

The Museum of Children’s Art, otherwise known as MOCHA, offers community-inspired exhibitions by local artists and students from Oakland public schools, but it is best described as an art making space for kids. My children spent many weekend afternoons there getting messy and exploring their creative side. MOCHA is specifically designed for children up to age 10, but they invite siblings, parents and caregivers to participate during their monthly Open Studio hours.

Located in Old Oakland, in the lower level of the City Center, the gallery and studio space also offers art camps for kids and programs offsite at area public schools and libraries. The community space is also available to rent for birthday parties, adult art classes and team-building workshops. 

Fittingly, the Oakland Aviation Museum is located near the Oakland International Airport, close enough that you can feel the vibrations in your chest as airplanes take off and touch down. Housed in a hangar of the former Boeing School of Aeronautics, the indoor/outdoor museum is a great size for kids — big enough to be interesting, small enough not to overwhelm. Here, you can find one-of-a-kind kit planes: a replica of the “Vin Fiz,” the first airplane to cross the United States in 1911; a Vietnam War-era Cessna; the U.S. Navy’s first strategic all-jet nuclear bomber; jet fighters; and much more.

Several times a year, the museum offers Open Cockpit Days, when kids of all ages can sit in the cockpits of many of the aircraft displayed and enjoy refreshments and live music outside. 

Once you find a spot you love, I recommend purchasing a membership at the museum of your choice so you can go as many times as you like during the year. For a family of four, the cost of a yearly membership could well be recouped by the second visit. For the budget-minded, the Oakland Public Library offers no or low cost Discover & Go museum passes for library card holders and residents of Oakland, Piedmont and Emeryville over the age of 14. My family has discovered lots of smaller museums around the Bay Area through this portal.

This story was edited by Hearst Newspapers Managing Editor Kristina Moy; you can contact her at [email protected].