planes and playdates

Some people may disregard family travel articles as they believe the activity is only aimed at the kids. So it may surprise you that this is the first “family travel” I am posting about – a museum! However a family is not just children but adults too and holidays can hold activities for both. Of course finding something within the activity to distract a young one will absolutely help, along with packing entertainment and not taking too long. Letting them burn off some energy at a playground beforehand will always be a great idea as well (hopefully!)

The Museum of Brisbane is located within the City Hall in the Brisbane City district. This museum gives a good insight into Brisbane life as well as featuring other displays – these are always changing so be sure to check the website beforehand. 100% Brisbane is an exhibit that looks at the lives of 100 people living in Brisbane, sharing their personal stories and pairing it up with a look at what Brisbane is like today therefore giving us a snapshot of Brisbane. It is one of the exhibits we visited that is still currently showing. Some of the exhibits were interactive and the day we went they had a little origami station set up that children could participate in. Turns out I’m terrible at origami. We visited in the afternoon, soon after my boy had woken from his nap. Clearly it wasn’t his thing as he ran around a little while my husband and I took it in turns to chase him. Thankfully some of the exhibits were interactive and involved pressing buttons which he quite liked.

Overall he did pretty well with the exception of a few unhappy yells back in the origami section. Unfortunately it was poorly timed with two older women walking through to the next exhibit that glared at us. I tried to shake it off but it was my first experience of the trip that was negative. It is worth keeping in mind when taking young children to more adult places that you may encounter negativity from others who don’t think they belong there. We had no issues from the staff, who were welcoming and helpful. They were amazing! When we took him back to the reception area to feed him a banana he was soon racing around waving and giving fist bumps to staff and visitors. They interacted with him and it was a joy to watch. This is also the wait area for the Clock Tower tour that we were soon due to go on so we spent a little bit of time there eating and playing until our turn.

I had originally thought we would have to give the Clock Tower a miss. You go up in an old, hand operated, lift and then climb up some stairs to walk around the top section, taking in a good view of the city. The guide gives you a quick talk and the whole thing takes 15 minutes. With the pram and doubts about age restrictions I thought it would be a miss. Well when arriving to the museum we were asked if we wanted tickets, it was fine to take him with us and they had a storage area for prams right by their desk so they could monitor who was coming and going. These are free tickets however they are allocated times and they can only allow eight people into the lift at a time (and that includes the lift operator!) My advice if you are heading this way is to go in to the desk in the morning and choose the time that suits you to come back. We were fortunate enough that we only had to wait an hour and a half (exploring the museum and having a snack while waiting) but soon after we were watching people being told to come back at the end of the day or to try again the next day. Entry to the museum is also free.

You can find out more on their official website here.