Randall Museum

Why is this place free ?! This is such a great little museum for kids.

While there is small parking lot at the base of the museum, we parked on the other side of the block and had to traverse over Corona Heights Park which was so lovely, with great views of the city and nooks of greenery.

I wasn't expecting to be there long since it was free, but there was quite a lot for the kids to explore! They have an animal room that had crows, quails, turtles, a raccoon, mice, guinea pigs, etc when we were there.

There's a train room downstairs where they have a large train town to look at, but also a separate little room with a train table to play on. You can rent a box of toy trains for $3
There is also an earthquake simulation with legos.

One of the super awesome things about this place is the Saturday afternoon craft events which change weekly.
When my daughter and I went last week, we got to make leprechaun traps out of various material ($5 each) and had a blast. We'll definitely be back for some upcoming events!

The staff were also all very kind and helpful

The other awesome thing about this museum is that Cafe Josephine is in the building and you can get actually very good coffee/espresso drinks, pastries, sandwiches, soups etc. EVERY kids museum should sell good espresso....

There's a legitimate reason I've never visited this hilltop museum before. Like Trix, it's for kids. And I don't mean the inner child in all of us. I mean it's truly for kids because it's very much a hands-on learning center focused on science, nature, and anything else you were supposed to learn in middle school. It's like a tiny version of the California Academy of Sciences.

Only it's free. That's a big differentiator as they offer classes in kid-friendly activities like woodworking, castles, and dragons. For free - though membership will allow your kid to move up in line. Of more interest to the more geriatric likes of me were the live animal exhibits like the various habitats they've created. I particularly liked the swimming turtles (video: https://bit.ly/3KBSskT).

I'm easily amused. Speaking of which, there was a huge room dedicated to a model railroad landscape. If you haven't been to the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento (review: http://bit.ly/2SJrfC4), this was the next best thing. We should thank Josephine Randall, the city's Superintendent of Recreation back in 1937, who held the vision of this museum. Ah, youth is wasted on the young.

RELATED - Exploring the Castro? Here's a collection of places I've visited and reviewed: http://bit.ly/2HrpFPC

We had the best time here after visiting for the first time a few weekends ago. Love that it's free and has free parking-there is a natural history/animal portion, a very cool model train area, and science/earthquake simulation with Legos. There's enough to do but it's not two large/overwhelming of a space. The cafe was very good (grilled cheese, tuna melt, soup, etc) and they had a nice outdoor area for eating and a large grassy area. We didn't even check out the playground because there was so much to do! Beautiful views and wasn't too crowded even on a weekend. Wish we lived closer and could benefit from the camps and classes. We'll definitely be back!

Great little spot for the kiddos
Lots to do - model trains, aviary, views of the city, little café, turtles, bees, hamsters, tarantulas, black birds, and so on
Staff is great - we stopped Zac and asked a few questions -he was a wealth of knowledge and our grandson was mesmerized
A definite attraction in the city !

Wonderful museum with a great view of SF! The best part is it is completely free, including the parking....it is bit hard to believe for SF! The place is maintained very clean. My kiddo enjoyed the little creature and moving train.

We visited the Randall Museum after looking for a place to spend an afternoon in SF. The reviews were good and it was free to visit, so we made our way over! It's tucked away into a little spot of SF I'd never visit on my own but since you're up on the hill, the view is great, as many people have said. It's a kid museum I'd say geared towards 2nd grade and younger but they have a little bit of everything- some animals to see, an exhibit on nutrition/eating a balanced diet, the ocean and conservation, a model train set up, etc. I was little surprised how small it was, we definitely saw everything in a little over 1 hour. Not a ton to see here but it's nice to have a place like this that has hands on learning activities for kids that is free!

This place isn't huge but a great place to take a toddler for a morning outing to tire them out before nap. A good amount of animals. The guinea pigs are always a hit. Nice outdoor areas to run around and take in the views. They do art classes but you have to sign up ahead of time. As most people have noted, the museum is free!

The Randall Museum is a history, science, and art museum geared primarily toward kids. But I came here to check out the exhibit Reimagine: The Art of Sustainable Thinking, and we enjoyed exploring the various sections of the entire venue, even without any kids in our party.

The Reimagine exhibit is a collection of art pieces created out of trash and/or recycled materials. And the sculptures and artworks are scattered throughout the outdoor area and lobby area of the museum. There's not a whole lot and it does not take a long time to view, but reading about and seeing the quirky and imaginative creations in person is much more enjoyable than seeing photos online. My favorite piece was Sacrifice, the figure of a hand made out of toothbrushes.

Right next to this exhibit is The Live Animal Exhibit, which is basically a medium sized room with different animals in their own little habitats, including one racoon, one rabbit, one duck, one bird, one owl, one tarantula, one snake, one lizard, one mouse, one or two chickens, a few turtles, and colonies of bees. The animals looked well taken care of, and seemed to have more than enough space, especially since they didn't really share living areas (except the chicken and bunny in the same pen). I had fun seeing all of the animals up close, through glass or in their enclosures.

Downstairs, the museum has several other and more permanent exhibits, including Ocean (with a starfish), Riding the Rails, Model Railroad, and Collector's Corner. Again, a lot of this looks like it's designed for kids, but it can be educational even for adults I'd say. The Model Railroad was so huge and extremely detailed, with so many elements besides the trains and railroad, including restaurants, people, firetrucks and firemen putting out a fire, etc. It was really cool, one of the best model railroad exhibits I've seen. The Collector's Corner was pretty empty, and had a few odd "collections" inside, taking just a few minutes to browse, but I liked how the butterfly and moth collection was displayed, it was beautiful.

Overall, this museum is small and simple, and yet offers a great variety of things to do and see (ie. they had "Bug Day" earlier in the day of our visit, before we arrived, with games and entertainment related to insects). I probably wouldn't have enjoyed my experience here as much without the Reimagine exhibit since I'm not a kid. But it looks like kids would have a blast here and learn so much, lots of interactive exhibits, and two or three employees/workers throughout the museum more than willing to share fun facts or answer questions. And because the Reimagine exhibit was really cool, and the place has free admission and a free parking lot, I couldn't give it anything less than 5 stars.

Came in today 2/17/23 to check this place out. Remember to enter into the second entranceway because the first one is the exit . Anyway, it was a pretty walk up that includes stunning views of the city. They have 4 main sections, one is a little animal viewing center to the right, a children's play area to the left, on going to the basement they had a model train section and a sea-life exhibit. I think it depends on the season in which the animals come out so if it was now (February) the animals are probably still hibernating. Instead of the bunny exhibit they have Guinea pigs now so that was good. You can't go in to touch them so we just watched them outside. Overall it was a pretty fun place for the little guy and I to walk around and just spend some time with each other.

We had an amazing time at Randall museum - it was our first visit, and my kids absolutely loved it! The museum's location is fantastic, perched on top of a hill. The best part? You get a stunning view of San Francisco's tall buildings once you're done exploring the exhibits. And don't even get me started on Cafe Josephine - their coffee is top-notch! It's genuinely a lovely place to spend quality time with family, a loved one, or just for some personal reflection, it's a truly pleasant spot that invites gratitude.