This time of year, when the snow hasn’t yet fallen on the mountains and you can’t enjoy the outdoors, is the most ideal time to explore the museums. And there are plenty of them in Switzerland! In this article, you will find a summary of the museums we visited with the kids. In each of them, you will learn something interesting. They are clearly divided into categories, so there is something for everyone. As usual, I involved my wonderful followers in the creation of the article, who sent me their tried and tested tips and I thank them very much for that! Of course, if you have any tips for other museums that would be good for this guide, be sure to send them to me and I’ll be happy to add them to the list.
Food museums & factories
Chocolate Factories
Believe me, even if you visit the third chocolate shop, you will always have a different experience. Cailler, Frey, Maestrani, Lindt home of Chocolate, Chez Camille Bloch, Aeschbach Chocolatier, or Kambly, these are all museums where your appetite will be delighted.
Ramseier Erlbeniswelt
Immerse yourself in the world of the traditional brand RAMSEIER, the largest producer of fruit juices in Switzerland.
Emmental Cheese dairy: Königsweg
Who doesn’t know the traditional Swiss cheese with holes, made in the heart of the Emmental hills?
Alimentrarium Vevey
The Alimentarium, the world’s first food museum, is especially worth visiting with children to learn about the importance of food and good nutrition.
Jura World of Coffee
In the headquarters of Jura, which is the only brand in the world to produce only automatic coffee machines, you will also find a very interestingly designed visitor center since 2006.
Mühlerama Zurich
A tip from Züri Moms and from our reader Michaela: They turned the old mill in Zurich Tiefenbunnen into a museum. Children can slide on sacks between the floors, grind their own grain and bake their own bread.
Science & Technology Museums
Museum of Communication Bern
In the context of the theme of communication, the museum touches on all its means – including gestures, facial expressions, but also, for example, dressing or misunderstandings in communication.
Sensorium Rüttihubelbad
Near Bern, you’ll find a place you can explore with all your senses and remind yourself of the interesting physical phenomena you learned in school.
Omega Museum Biel
A very well-organized and informative museum dedicated to Omega and Swatch watches! And admission is free!
WOW Museum Zurich
A tip from our reader Eva: Just a few steps from Zurich Central Station, visitors to the Wow Museum can immerse themselves in a world of optical and sensory illusions.
Technorama Winterthur
A tip from Tereza about the museum, which is one big scientific exhibition. Here you can discover natural phenomena, technical secrets or try out physics experiments.
Glasi Hergiswil
A tip from reader Sonia is a visit to Glasi in Hergiswil: the tour in the museum tells the story of Glasi glass and the glassworks – showing the development of the craft in the glassworks in Hergiswil and the economic ups and downs of the company. After the tour, you will be taken to a platform from which you can watch the glassmakers at work and even blow your own glass ball. The museum and the exhibition “vom Feuer geformt” was named one of the most beautiful museums in Europe by the Council of Europe in 1996.
Natural History Museums
Naturhistorisches Museum Bern
The museum is very large – the exhibition area is divided into four floors! The exhibits are beautifully displayed, there are many of them, the descriptions explain everything nicely.
Naturmuseum Solothurn
Another great museum that is free to enter! We really liked the fact that the museum’s exhibition is not “over-technicalized”, but is still full of interesting stimuli for the youngest children.
Laténium Neuchâtel
The museum, which opened its doors in September 2001 and is a Swiss heritage site of national importance, takes you even further back in history than the Iron Age.
Sauriermuseum Bellach
In a small museum near Solothurn, you can get almost within arm’s reach of long-extinct prehistoric creatures.
Tropenhaus Frutigen
A unique tropical garden under the roof, this is the Tropenhaus in Frutigen. The Tropenhaus is a great place to escape the weather for an afternoon, soak up the atmosphere of an exotic holiday and learn something interesting.
Papiliorama Kerzers
“Papillon” is French for butterfly, so you can probably guess what this museum is all about. But you’ll find lots of other tropical animals here – like tropical fish and birds.
Saurier Museum Aathal
Several readers wrote to me with a tip about the Saurier Museum Aathal. It houses a unique collection of real dinosaur skeletons that lived 150 million years ago. The king of the exhibition is a 23-meter-long brachiosaurus skeleton.
Naturmuseum Winterthur
The permanent exhibition guides you through the original habitats of Switzerland with their plants and animals. A tip from reader Soňa is the Kindermuseum Kerala, where nature and its mysteries are explained in an understandable way to even the youngest visitors and they learn about everyday life in the museum in a playful way.
Transportation Museums
Swiss Museum of Transport
Switzerland’s most visited museum is the place to learn about the history of road, rail, water and air transport, as well as the history of space travel.
Ebianum Baggermuseum
The museum, which opened in 2015 in the village of Fisibach in the canton of Aargau, tells the story of the family construction company Eberhard. They were pioneers in Swiss civil engineering at the time.
Tram-Museum Basel
A tip from reader Pavla: in this small museum you can learn all about the more than 125 years of trams in Basel and get to know everything that still belongs to public transport. On the tram simulator, everyone can try driving a tram through the city.
Emil Frey Classics Safenwil
If you listened to the podcast episode where my guest was Pavel Nahodil, who works for Emil Frey Racing, you know that he invited you to a museum dedicated to (not only) racing cars. Sir Winston Churchill’s 86″ Land Rover is the star of the collection, which features up to 60 cars from the 1930s-80s on three floors.
Sport Museums
The Olympic Museum in Lausanne
The Olympic Museum in Lausanne is a “must-see” place for all sports fans and fans of sports history.
FIFA World Football Museum
Visiting the museum is a really great experience. The museum is modern, interactive and well designed – I think that not only football fans will appreciate it.
Animal parks with indoor exhibits
AQUATIS Aquarium-Vivarium
Aquatis is the largest freshwater aquarium in Europe. It is an interesting mix of aquarium and educational modern museum.
Tropiquarium Servion
The Tropiquarium is dedicated to tropical flora and fauna and specializes in the conservation of endangered species such as Cape penguins, giant Galapagos tortoises, Siamese crocodiles, and the stars of the park: the Komodo dragons.
Game and Toy Museums
Schweizer Kindermuseum Baden
Here you will be captivated not only by the exhibition of period toys but also by the permanent and temporary exhibitions, which are dedicated to topics of interest to children of all ages.
Swiss Museum of Games
The museum, which opened in 1987, is located on the first and second floors of the 13th-century chateau. Walking through the various rooms of the chateau, you will learn about different types of board games.
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that I’ve left out some museums. This is mainly because I think that maybe I may not be suitable or interesting for kids yet (although we did take our kids there because it interested us 🙂 ). For example, it’s the Queen the Studio Experience or the Museum of Winemaking.
I will be very happy if you share this article – I’m sure there is someone in your circle who could use it 🙂
