Located on 401 F St. NW, across the street from the Judiciary Square metro station, the Building Museum, a museum about architecture, hosts exhibits more aimed towards kids, such as the miniature Lego replicas of various famous buildings, as well as more in-depth exhibits, such as the one about the history of the Brutalist architectural style. 

It’s open 10 am to 4pm, and tickets are $10 for adults, and $7 for people under 18, people over 60, and any students who can prove they are students with an ID. 

A relatively small branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Renwick Gallery is dedicated to crafts from both well-established artists and newer talent, and changes its exhibits quite frequently. Right now, there are tons of art pieces reflecting tons of different cultures and lived experiences, there are two bench-shaped sculptures that double as actual benches that can be sat upon, and the gigantic thread sculpture on the top floor that changes with light, the 1.8 Renwick, is majestic, and will be taken down this May after being up for a good 4 years, so take a good look at it if you stumble by.

The museum is located at 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW #1, close to both of the Farragut metro stations, and very close to the back side of the White House. It’s open 10:00 am‑5:30 pm on every day but Christmas, and entrance is free.

Planet Word is the newest, if not the only, linguistics museum in DC, having only been established in October 2020. It can be found on 925 13th St NW, but the entrance is on K Street. Non-reserved entry is free, but it’s suggested to donate $15 to help with the museum’s programs. 

The exhibits are quite remarkable, like the 22-foot tall wall of words paired with an interactive experience about the history of English, or the massive light-up globe showing languages around the world. Slightly less extravagant exhibits include delivering your own impression of a famous speech, learning how advertisers use language persuasively, or doing karaoke of iconic pop songs with linguistics notes shown on the side. If you want an even more unique experience, you can reserve a case at Lexicon Lane, where you (and possibly 3 other friends, if you want) will be given an hour to solve a set of linguistics puzzles in order to crack the case before time runs out, with 26 different puzzle themes to choose from. Keep in mind that only people above the age of 12 can sign up, and you need to bring adult supervision if you’re under 18.

The museum is open from 10am to 5pm (6pm on weekends), and if you get hungry while exploring, there’s a multicultural restaurant called Immigrant Food on the bottom floor. Be warned, though, on Mondays and Sundays, it closes before the museum does!

At CityCenterDC, 927 H St NW, close to the Metro Center and Gallery Place-Chinatown DC metro station, there is a museum dedicated to optical illusions. It may be somewhat easy to miss and seem small, but the experience is a novelty. There are a few illusory rooms, like the “Ames Room” illusion that makes it seem like the person in it is changing size, the Vortex tunnel, which makes you feel like you’re spinning, and the Mirror Room, which is an endless fractal of mirrors. There are plenty of smaller things there as well, like the various perspective illusion images, some hologram portraits that change expression based on viewing angle, and a recreation of the Stroop Test to challenge yourself with.

It’s open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. all days of the week, with the price set at $24 for adults and teens, and $19 for kids. It may be a short experience compared to other museums, but it’s a good place to learn about illusions or just have fun. 

Though the Smithsonian Postal Museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution, which is one of the most well-known DC museum complexes, it’s still slightly less known than the other affiliated museums due to its specific subject: mail and the post office. 

Located at 2 Massachusetts Ave NE, across from the Union Station, it demonstrates how the postal system works and used to work, from the stamps, to the letters, to the various vehicles used. It has almost 6 million stamps in its vast collection to prove its dedication. Even though its central topic seems narrow, the museum has many types of fun exhibits, such as the invention of zip codes, the role of mail in solving crimes, and letters from every country, even ones that no longer exist. The exhibit on mail-in voting is closing this year on Feb 23, 2025, but all the others are here to stay.

The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m every day of the week, entry is free, and it has a fun little scavenger hunt brochure that if you fill it out, you get a fun Postal Museum-themed pencil or sticker to take home with you. 

On 2020 O Street Northwest, close to the Dupont Circle metro station, you’ll find a strange museum filled with eccentric pieces of history, built through a hotel spanning five interconnected townhouses that include over 100 rooms, with 80 secret doors built in. A lot of important things are showcased, such as unique memorabilia for sports, music, and cinema, as well as items of more broad historical significance. Nearly everything can be bought and taken home (except several featured items which are clearly labeled). The exhibits are meant to be not only seen, but also touched, heard, and possibly smelled, if you want to do that. There are no maps, and “have fun” is pretty much the only rule, other than “you break it, you buy it”. If you go, there’s a very low chance you’ll be bored, and it’s open 9 to 9 all days of the week if you have around $30 to spare.