Travel Town Museum

If you’re a mom in the the LA area and you’ve never taken your kids to Travel Town Museum, you’re missing out.  Located right by Griffith Park and the LA Zoo, it’s the perfect daytime activity for little ones (and the perfect place to take your kids when you’re tired of them destroying the house).  It’s one of our favorite places, and we’ve been going since Gray was one.  I even took Gray’s 2nd birthday photos there, and you can also have birthday parties there.  It’s not huge by any means, but we have such a fun experience each time we go.  My favorite thing about it (besides the fact that it’s free haha), is that it’s never crowded.  Basically any other children’s activity in LA involves long lines and crowded spaces, but not the Travel Town Museum.  We do usually try to go on weekdays, but it’s not bad on the weekend either.

There are several trains that you can go inside while your kids get to pretend to be train conductors and you snap pictures for the gram.  There are also some that people are not allowed to go on, but a lot of times they (*cough cough, Grayson) still do.

There are a few trains towards the back that you can take photos with, and my personal favorite is the “pink train” that we take a photo on every time we go.

While you’re walking around, you’ll see the smiling faces and waving hands of the kids and their parents on the train ride that goes around a track surrounding the property.  Even though we’ve been on it multiple times, Gray is still just as excited every time we go on it.  He was so shocked that him and the train conductor were wearing the same hat, that he ran after him yelling “Guy! Hey guy!’ to show him that he had the same hat as him.

There’s an indoor area with smaller equipment and trains.  They have a little Chuggington (if you have a toddler I’m sure you know what that is) train set where kids can play with toy trains.  I usually have Gray bring a couple of his own, but they also let you borrow some from the gift shop for free if you just leave your ID.  I was so proud that Gray shared one of his trains with not one, but two little kids who didn’t have a train to play with since sharing is definitely something we’re constantly working on haha.

The gift shop is small, but they have a pretty large selection of toy trains and train related gifts.  We’ve gotten Gray a few trains over the years that he still has.  The thing I love about the gift shop is that it isn’t one of the ones where you have to walk through the gift shop to exit resulting in meltdowns and tantrums.  It’s not to conspicuous so I was able to avoid taking Gray completely when we went this time since I didn’t want to buy him a toy.  They also usually sell some small snacks and drinks, which have really come in handy on some of the hotter days we’ve visited the museum.

I try to take Gray on the train ride at the end of our visit, so he’s so happy that he doesn’t throw a tantrum about leaving.  Tickets for the train are $2.75 per person and babies under 18 months are free.  The train goes around the track twice, and it’s a great way to get an outside view of the whole place.  We always have the best time when we go, so I thought I would share for any mamas who were looking for fun outings.

I hope this was helpful!  Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

One of the trains Gray wasn’t supposed to be on.

Here is the link to the Travel Town Museum if you’d like more info!