Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford

I can't believe I haven't yet reviewed the museum we are always going to. We love going to the Natural History Museum. I remember taking my niece and nephew for the first time a few years ago, the look on their faces when they first walked in and were faced with the dinosaurs was brilliant.

The museum is well known for its dinosaurs and also the Dodo but there is so much more. You can have a quick walk round and just pick out certain bits with stuffed animals to touch, rocks to feel, a herd of animal skeletons to look at. Or you can look in a bit more detail at all the display cases and interesting facts.

A lot of people don't seem to venture upstairs, but upstairs are live bugs to look at and also a great place to look down on the skeletons and also look up to the ceiling (which is undergoing some repairs) at the amazing detail on the pillars. Little known fact: in the 1970's when doing some repair work they found a rhino skeleton on the roof.

Upstairs also contains some local history about fossils and excavations.

Currently there are 2 whats exhibitions tunning, one oak is a really fascinating life story of a tree with a cross section of the tree to look at with dates on and also a wonderful carving to look at. This exhibition runs until 27th March 2012. Another is Ghost Forest, this has been running a while and when first opened was a bit of a talking point with huge tree stumps placed on plinths on the grass out the front of the museum. Ghost Forest runs until July 2012.

Every Sunday the museum gives out explorer backpacks for family friendly fun exploring the museum.

Behind the Natural History Museum is the Pitts Rivers Museum... which is just as excellent and deserves its own review very soon.

We can easily spend from half an hour to a couple of hours going round the museum, there are toilets but no cafe. So in the summer take a picnic to University Parks or you could visit the cafes of Little Clarendon Street or the city centre. There is no car park at the museum. Admission is free.