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Overall, I highly recommend Children's Museums as great outings for kids. They have a slower pace, are typically less busy, and all our kids relax over the course of the day.

Children’s Discovery Museum of the Desert - Rancho Mirage - CA

We can often spend just as much time there compared to an amusement park, be less tired, and have spent less money by the end of the day.

Being indoor activities, they make for great rainy day or very hot day choices.

With that being said, not all Childrens Discovery Museums are created equal. Often, they have a different focus than each other. This is fantastic when you are travelling as you can go to a new childrens museum in each city, and have a different experience each time.

Compare if you will the San Diego Childrens Museum to the Palm Springs Childrens Museum. Both are fantastic and deserve 5 Stars. San Diego is very arts-based, while Palm Springs had a large brain challenging element, as well as quite a lot of science based activities. San Diego left our oldest children bored for half of the time, while Palm Springs kept everyone's attention right to the end.

We really did love the Discovery Childrens Museum. Science Centers are one of our favorite family activites, and the science element captured everyone's interest. The boys spent a long time building tubes for ping pong balls. Lynnie was in her glory having a large craft section to design to her heart's content. Belle loved the freedom of being able to carry things around, 'touch' wherever she went, and explore without a lot of other big kids shoving her around.

One rule we found interesting was you are not allowed to take strollers into the exhibit halls. Apparently, it is a fire marshall rule, not a decision of the museum itself. I thought this would be frustrating as we often have a barrage of cameras, diapers, water bottles, hoodies, etc. with us everywhere we go. But we made it work.

An extra diaper in my purse.
All hoodies left in the car.
Drink lots at lunch, and make use of the water fountains.
Only one camera. We can take turns.

I did see it being a bit more difficult for families with a babe in arms. Throwing baby in the wrap works, but it limits one parent from interacting hands-on with the older children. Going as a single parent this way may prove challenging.

Okay, okay. It WAS really nice to not have to trip over everyone else's strollers all day.

There is no cafeteria here, and nothing more than a few less-than-ideal (but oh, so tasty) treats sold in the gift shop. They have a beautiful area shaded outside with plenty of tables to enjoy your lunch. Knowing this, we would have packed a bag lunch or picked something up beforehand. We had to run out and get our lunch before continuing with our afternoon.

The plus side was the parking lot is close to the door. You are never far away from the entrance anywhere you go in the museum, so running out to get something is a breeze.

There was limited parking in the shade. Even in January our vehicle got quite hot. Most definitely a place to leave Rover at home!

There are lots of kid-friendly bathrooms and water fountains everywhere you go.

I appreciated being able to sit my growing belly down at most every activity the kids wanted to spend time at. The layout of the buildings was excellent, and with everything so close, I could use my energy to play with the kids instead of walking 3 miles by lunch.

Papa loved how many of the activities engaged him as well. Building motorized cars to run on a track, testing reflexes and balance, and a whole exhibit of brain teasers. (Based on the sign, these were on loan. I don't know how long they will be there for. See current exhibits)

The toddler play area left something to be desired. A few wooden puzzles, a car to drive, and some bins of oversized LEGO. Once she had effectively driven the car, Belle tired of it and went off to play with the other kids.

The setup was very wheelchair friendly. Exhibits well-spaced apart, an easy ramp to upstairs (no elevators), doors were wide and accessed easily. Most (not all) of the children's activities were at accessible tables.

Overall, a family favorite activity while in the Palm Springs area. I would put it on the top 5 list of must-dos for families traveling with kids.

But don't just take my word for it. Check out what the rest of the family had to say about it:

Lynnie (11 yr old daughter)

AJ (9 yr old son)

Nick (7 yr old son)

Matt (5 yr old son)

Belle (1 yr old daughter)