Randall Museum

The Randall Museum is one of San Francisco's best-kept family secrets -- a completely free museum for children perched on the hillside of Corona Heights with live animals, science exhibits, art studios, and a model train layout. While tourists flock to the Exploratorium and Academy of Sciences, local parents in the know bring their young kids here for an intimate, uncrowded, and genuinely delightful experience that costs nothing.

The museum reopened in 2018 after a $10 million renovation of the 1951 building, and the result is a bright, modern space that still retains its neighborhood charm. The live animal exhibit is the main attraction. A room of rescued raptors (red-tailed hawks, barn owls, great horned owls) and reptiles (snakes, lizards, turtles) gives kids an up-close encounter with wildlife that cannot be released back into the wild.

Staff members conduct informal feeding demonstrations and happily answer every question a curious five-year-old can conjure. The animal room alone is worth the visit.

The model railroad room houses a detailed HO-scale train layout built by the Golden Gate Model Railroad Club over decades. Trains wind through miniature mountains, towns, and tunnels. The layout operates on Saturday mornings, and the volunteer engineers love showing kids how the trains work and occasionally letting them push the controls.

A hands-on science and nature gallery features rotating exhibits on local ecology, geology, and physics. The art studio offers drop-in craft projects on weekends and scheduled classes during the week. Classes in ceramics, woodworking, and science topics run $5-15 and are popular with local families.

The museum is small -- two floors, about 45-60 minutes to see everything -- and that is its strength with young children. There is no museum fatigue, no overwhelming scale, no crowds. Your toddler can see every exhibit without a meltdown, and your kindergartner can revisit their favorite animal three times. It is the anti-Exploratorium, and for kids under 7, it is arguably the better choice.

The location adds enormous value. The museum sits partway up Corona Heights, and a short hiking trail from the parking lot leads to the summit -- a rocky outcropping with panoramic 360-degree views of San Francisco that rival any paid observation deck. Downtown, Twin Peaks, the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Park, and Sutro Tower are all visible.

Kids love scrambling on the rocks (with supervision), and the view is genuinely breathtaking. This 10-minute hike is free and rarely crowded.

Parking is free in a small lot off Museum Way. If the lot is full (rare on weekdays, possible on Saturday mornings), street parking on Roosevelt Way is a 2-minute walk. The museum is closed Mondays. No food is sold on-site, so bring a snack or walk 5 minutes downhill to the Castro neighborhood for restaurants.