When some new worldschooling friends proposed that we meet at the science museum in Granada we jumped at the chance! We really wanted to meet up with them again because our boys had seemed to hit it off at the beach meetup, and it was also our first opportunity to visit somewhere outside the area near where we’re staying.
The Parque de las Ciencias in Granada is quite easy to get to by car, right off a major highway and has underground parking for just 1€. It took us around an hour to drive there from our base in La Herradura, a small town on the Costa Tropical. Admission cost us around 7€ each.
The museum has plenty of things to occupy all ages (between us our kids ranged from 1-12 years old). In fact, there’s so much there to see and do there that we couldn’t cover it all in an afternoon!
Outdoors they have gardens and a labyrinth, a raptor area with live birds on display (they also do a couple of bird shows daily), puzzles, giant chess, water play, a participatory sculpture, and more! They’ve also got a few separate buildings, including a tropical butterfly house. We’ve been to several butterfly houses before but this one was unique in that it had a pond with turtles! This was a pleasant surprise as they’re our kiddo’s favorite animal.
Inside there were displays and interactive exhibits on safety, the human body, music, physics, wildlife (including a taxidermy section), amphibians and reptiles, and more. Our son also liked the robot in the entry hall, which can interact with you and speak in many different languages!
Even though we were there for almost 5 hours, I know we missed a bunch of things. We did not get a chance to experience the planetarium (note they don’t allow kids under 5), the observation tower or BioDomo (I believe both require additional fees). We want to go again if we get the chance!
I experienced an almost surreal feeling driving home, realizing that I was driving a rental car through the gorgeous Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain as the sun was about to go down. Some happy Spanish tunes played on the radio as kiddo took pictures in the back seat of the mountains, windmills, ravines and aqueducts. It was all so beautiful and amazing! We haven’t seen scenery like this before on our travels. We’d had a great day with friends. We are so fortunate!!
