Great family experience. - This museum was a great family experience. We mostly went for the Children's Museum but ended up spending a lot of time walking through the rest of the museum. All the exhibits were really well done, but the highlight was all the exhibits featuring Indigenous perspectives, history, and culture. Our kids (7 and 8) loved it too. Highly recommend.

Best Children’s Museum - Our family of four spent the Canada Day long weekend in Ottawa and we visited the Canadian Children’s Museum on Sunday, June 30. The museum was celebrating their 35th anniversary and ticket prices were set to 1989 prices, so we got a great deal! Our ticket time was at 10 am and they allow you to enter within an hour from your allotted ticket time. So we were able to enter between 10-11 am. This is the coolest children’s museum. They provide the kids with a family passport which guides them to visit all of the various countries and places that are exhibited. Each exhibit are miniature homes, buildings, vehicles that you can find in countries around the world. For example, there was a traditional Japanese home with a Japanese garden. Children and adults can walk in, take pictures, learn some information about it. There were also activities within the exhibits such as making origami, making a paper marionette doll, playing chess. Admission includes access to the Museum of History, which has exhibits on the 1st, 3rd and 4th floors - the Children’s Museum is on the 2nd floor. We only made it to the 1st floor which included Native Canadian artifacts and totem poles. This exhibit was breathtaking. The totem poles are beautiful and majestic. We didn’t want to leave! We had lunch at the My Bistro cafe which was on the first floor. The food was delicious and we sat outside on the patio which had a beautiful view of the Ottawa River and downtown Ottawa. Overall, I would highly recommend visiting this museum. Our children (ages 11 and 8) enjoyed it very much. We were staying at a hotel in downtown Ottawa and it was only a 5 minute drive to the museum in Gatineau. There is also a water taxi that takes you from downtown Ottawa to Gatineau which we only learned about after, otherwise we definitely would have taken it!

Amazing - Great museum whether for children or history If you have children, plan some time, the child side is impressive

Worth it for little ones. - Great for kids. Went with my 2 year old and he had a blast. The hands on nature of the museum was amazing.

Worth the premium if the CCM website is rendering on you - Although we had to pay a premium to buy it online at Tripadvisor.ca, the tickets worked right at the exhibit counter and we didn’t have to wait in line at box office. In addition, the website for the Canadian Children’s Museum is running like it’s from the 1980s with Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP). It rendered so much we had to look at additional options to get the tickets. Great spot for a few hours of fun with a couple of toddlers!

Fun for the whole family - We took our 3 and 6 year old and they had so much fun. The area was clean and well organized. A staff member said they would be doing upgrades which surprised me since I thought it was so well run. We got to watch two shows on their big screen which was included in the price of admission.

Summer vacation in Ottawa - What a fantastic museum! We took our 7 year old grandsons from Tokyo there and we loved it. There is so much to learn about Canada and our history and the museum does its best to cover everything. We also visited the children's museum which was fun, but I think 7 is on the brink of being a bit too old. I think it would appeal more to 5-6 years old.

A must for all Canadians. - Great museum. A little pricy (honestly this should be free for Canadian citizens IMO), a little hard / confusing to navigate and and they closed really early, so we never got a chance to see everything we wanted to. Despite all that, it's a great museum and every Canadian should visit it if in the area to learn more about our history.

History Has Treated it Ill - I was a member of this museum back in 2009-2011, and those were the glory days of the museum. I absolutely loved the interactive Canada Hall, with large scale whaling boats, Ukranian store fronts, the Wildcat lounge, and more. However, when the name change from Civilization to History happened, this hall was renovated. Pros: I really like the emphasis on Indigenous history and marginalized peoples in Canada's history. Cons: The Interactive components have been removed with the exception of one church. It's now a boring museum, words on the wall to read and that's it. It used to be an experience, and now it's a book. I'm disappointed. The vibrancy is gone, the heart is gone. It's a hollow place that's really boring now and not captivating. The children's museum is still good, but most of the props and supplies were put away due to COVID. The lower level Indigenous People's Hall remains beautiful and wonderful and I encourage a visit for these two areas.

Left after an hour. - This was previously a really good museum, however, the decision to change the upper level was a terrible one. The children's museum is excellent (please don't change it) and the bottom level is fine. But the top level use to be so much more interesting. Now it is a bunch of boring, non-interactive exhibits that show absolutely no imagination or creativity. So disappointing.