Discovery Center of Idaho

The Discovery Center of Idaho is basically where your inner 8-year-old grabs the steering wheel and refuses to let the adult version of you speak. I walked in thinking I’d quietly observe a few science exhibits, and within minutes I was aggressively competing with a group of children to see who could launch a ping-pong ball highest. (They won. Humiliating.) The whole place crackles with this messy, electric curiosity—hands-on everything, buttons that beg to be pushed, mirrors that make you rethink your face geometry. I ended up spending an embarrassing amount of time at the vortex exhibit, hypnotized like I’d discovered water for the first time. Kids were sprinting around yelling FACTS and somehow it was adorable instead of chaotic. A stranger and I had a five-minute bonding moment over a giant bubble wand like old friends at a weird soap-based church. I left feeling mentally caffeinated and slightly glittery. If curiosity has a playground, this is it.

Lovely spot for families! The Discovery Center puts a lot of heart into creating unforgettable experiences for kids. From traffic to science, fossils to space, there are hands-on activities everywhere. And it’s not just for kids, parents will have fun too!

Was a great venue for our young grandkids and grandparents. Plenty of science experiments and learning how things work. Highly recommend.

My 2 year old son absolutely LOVED this place, it was very clean and well maintained. A staff member was walking around at all times helping people with different areas and suggesting how to have the best time with certain areas and tools.

always have an incredible time here with my nephew! he asks to go with me almost every week! i love how they switch up the learning theme to keep it fresh!!

We loved this place. Great for kids. Fun for adults, too! Staff was kind and helpful. The mummies were awesome to see and learn about. They had a space area for the kids to create their own spaceship and then test it out! Can't wait to go back. There is so much to do that we couldn't do it all. I can't wait to go back again.

I have mixed emotions on this place. It used to be REALLY neat and really worth the money,it was just kind of ehh.. is it cool, sure. It seems way more commercialized. It used to be a place you could go for an experience you have never had and I used to actually learn when we went there. But now..it took us 30mins to walk through it multiple times. Not much for the toddlers anymore and my 10 year old also thought it used to be way cooler. Unfortunately $75.00 later and we probably wont be coming back again.

Hands down, one of the worst experiences I have ever had. Children 4 and older cannot enjoy over half this museum. Everything was supposed to be interactive yet, staff kept yelling at me and my children for touching or playing with anything. We spent $120 for maybe a half hour of time. The staff made us feel unwelcome and pushed us out. I brought my grievances to the person in charge and all I got was "sorry." What you see on pictures is false advertising. Over half the things you see aren't even there. I'll be honest, my family and I will NOT be back.

Boise is lucky to have such a great Discovery Center. Having grown up with the Discovery Museum in South Florida and enjoying our Discovery in Reno, every community needs one, and I say the bigger the better. The Discovery center in Boise is a small family friendly museum with a lot of hands on fun. The museum consists of three small galleries, and during our visit the main one was occupied by Sue, the t-Rex. I loved watching my son's eyes light up when he saw the big skeleton. He kept waiting for it to come to life, and eventually it kinda did when it was lit up in concert with a video shown on the big screen. The third gallery is all sorts of hands on experiences covering a range of topics from magnets to microscopes, and there's a separate area filled with fun for kids under 4. We spent the bulk of our time here and it was awesome watching the boys interact with it all. My favorite area was the first gallery, which also had Sue related stuff, but it also housed some naturalistic dioramas of animals too, which are things I could stare at for hours. All in all I was missing some of the fun environmental stuff I've seen at other discovery centers, like colorful murals and signage, interactive art etc. There also wasn't an staff interaction or live experiments, which I think add to the overall experience. It was still a great place to enjoy and a great family outing for sure! Def recommend!

The Discovery Center of Idaho is located right near downtown Boise, and for the price of family admission, you might as well get a season pass. It's currently around $25 for adults and $17.50 for kids 2 & up. In my opinion, steep prices for what you get for a one time visit. They have rotating exhibits, right now (Feb 2025) there is a dinosaur exhibit. My young children enjoyed what they had to offer- but you definitely want to set your expectations correctly. This is an older place that is not in brand new condition. Bathrooms are clean and kid friendly with step stools and plenty of space. There is no place to eat, but it is located right next to a park which would be nice in the right kids of weather. There's a young children's area for kids 4 & under where there is a small play structure, some train and building toys, and hanging pool noodles the kids can walk through. The older children's area has lots of little experiments and hands on activities for kids to do- I'd say the target audience would be 5-10 year olds. We will be back, as we got a membership as a gift but you definitely want to know what you're getting for the price!

This spot is on the expensive side. It made more sense to buy a family pass rather than for one day. Which is fine. My girls didn't seem like they had a ton of fun here but when they came home and told their dad they said they loved it and wanted to go back. We're heading back today and they are so excited. My kids are 3 & 6 and both of them wanted to go into the under 3 area because that area did look really cool. I feel like the center is mostly legos. The bubbles area is interesting and both kids liked that spot. I loved the art theatre but my 3 year old not so much. I wonder how often they change out exhibits because how it is right now I could see my kids getting bored of it. It's something to do in the area on a hot or cold day so I'm fine that we bought the pass. It'll get used but I probably won't buy another pass in a year.

The Beetles from the world sure makes beetles seem more majestic when depicted as an art installment piece. I was hoping to see the exquisite creatures. Appointment only it seems and we have less than an hour to walk around as well.

Coming from Oregon, I was expecting something similar to OMSI. Was sorely disappointed. Super expensive for what it is & the Star Wars stuff could've had a lot cooler information. Half the characters didn't even list what they were from. And why only mention the movies? Tons of characters aren't even from the movies but they didn't mention that they were from the clone wars or rebels at all. Also if there was a character shown more than once, their caption / quote was the same on every display. Caught a ton of typos as well. The Apollo 11 thing they advertise was trash, as well the scientific/ interactive part too. If you're ever in Portland, OR -- visit Oregon Museum of Science & Industries (OMSI) for a truly awesome experience. Blows this place out of the water & while expensive, it's at least worth the money. The discovery center take about 30ish minutes to go through & the gift shop was also disappointing too. Not enough Idaho specific things or literally nothing there was specific to the discovery center.

Exquisite creatures is a phenomenal display of the natural world. The artist has brought these marvelous creatures into balance with the people who come here. It is a remarkable collection of life on Earth displayed in a sensitive way. Totally recommend this to all idahoans especially those with children who are curious and active.

It's great for a quick stop on. Years ago it was much more scientific and had many more hands on activities. It was awesome. Maybe kids are not well behaved enough any more. I wish it was more like it was before the remodel.

Overpriced for what it is. It's very small and you can be done with it less than 30 minutes. I wish that there was more to offer. I've been to other kid museums in other cities and there's so much more to do and see for less money.

It costs too much money for what you get. You can walk in and out within 30 minutes. A lot of space and they aren't doing anything with it to keep kids busy. The childrens museum is less expensive and way better.

The Discovery Center was an amazing experience. Great for kids and adults. But make sure to see the art exhibit and impressionist exhibit. The impressionist exhibit will be gone on the 31st of march.

Great news! This place isn't just for small kids! 4 times a year they have an a discovery night for adults (21+) and it is always a blast. It is a bunch of huge kids running a round with beer or wine laughing, giggling, playing, and learning. If you want to see something funny, watch adults play in the toddler section!! What a fantastic place to learn some of the beautiful basics of life that we forget about when we get older like gravity, radio waves, lights, robotics, legos, air, fossils, friction.... The facilities are a bit older but the space works and it is surprisingly huge with three main rooms with several smaller rooms as well. Parking is always a bit crowded so we do ride share so we can drink and not have to worry about parking. Pretty fun place especially when you can drink! *This review is only for the adult nights. Themes change each adult night depending on the exhibits.

Go see The Titanic Exhibit! AMAZING!! Plus, there will be a super cool tie to Idaho found in it. Oh and a special treat right when you first arrive. **Reserve time slot and tickets online** We enjoyed our visit so much, we applied our Titanic ticket prices to a year membership for the family. Love how they want social distance observed and masks to be worn as well. We gladly give those types of businesses our support and dollars.

This place is a rip off. We paid $80 for 2 adults and 3 children. We walked through all the exhibits in about 7 minutes. It's a very tiny place with outdated and uninteresting things. The only thing worth while would be the interactive toys, which I won't let my kids touch that filth. The restrooms are filthy and all hand sanitizer stations were empty. This is a scam.

Went to check out the Titanic Exhibit here with a couple of friends and let me just say, it was so much more fun and interesting than I thought it was going to be!! Start by ordering your tickets online to reserve a specific time slot for you and your friends/family. It was $18 for an adult ticket, which I think is a fair price for the size of the exhibit. What I thought was really neat about this exhibition, was that they handed you a replica ticket to board the R.M.S. Titanic upon checking in at the front desk. The ticket they handed me and my friends were all different and had information from a real passenger, that included where they where traveling from, their reason for travel, and a bit of backstory. You can view my ticket in the pictures attached, but make sure to go check this place out yourself as the ticket you get may be different. I don't want to spoil to much of the exhibit, but what I will say is that it was really cool and very well put together. I even learned a few things that I previously didn't know. Feel free to check out the pictures attached, but just know, I didn't take a picture of everything in the exhibit so there will still be a lot for you to experience yourself, which I highly recommend!

We went to the T. rex exhibit and my grandchildren ages 6 and 4 totally enjoyed it! It was busy but still enjoyable and they limit the ticket sales to insure it's not overcrowded. Great activity on a rainy afternoon.

Raise your hand if you've always wanted to be an Egyptologist! My fascination with King Tutankhamun (or King Tut as he is more commonly known today) started in high school when I wrote a paper about Ancient Egypt. Learning about the discovery of his tomb and gaining insights into life in Ancient Egypt and the governance of the "boy king" were all very fascinating to me. How lucky are we that we get to experience the King Tut Exhibition here in the Treasure Valley?! King Tut was just nine years old when he became King, hence he is often referred to as a "boy king." He ruled for less than a decade; he died at age nineteen. His final resting place is small and unassuming, compared to many other burial tombs. However, it remained untouched for more than 3,000 years. In 1922, his tomb was discovered by Howard Carter and fellow archaeologist Lord Carnarvon (yes, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon who was Lord of Highclere Castle, the Castle in which the hit British period drama Downton Abbey was filmed!!!). A critical information that needs to be pointed out is that *not* all of the objects from the exhibition are actually from King Tut's tomb. The exhibition is full of both reproductions and real Ancient Egyptian artifacts. It took ten years to develop with the help of artisans from the Pharaonic Village in Egypt and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Is there value to seeing reproductions of real artifacts? I think so. The real thing would provide a whole new experience, but reproductions of real artifacts are perhaps the next best thing especially during COVID-19. Traveling exhibitions such as King Tut cost more to bring to the Discovery Center of Idaho (DCI), and so DCI had to raise admission prices accordingly (see their website for updated prices). Because of COVID-19, DCI implemented a couple of changes to make the experience safer for everyone, such as limiting the number of people that can get in, requiring masks for the entire visit, not accepting cash. These all made for a comfortable, enjoyable visit, though. It was not crowded, so social distancing was fairly easy to observe. Also, all of the hands-on exhibits were closed. Aside from the King Tut Exhibition, they still have the Tinker the T-Rex skeleton and genuine fossils on display as well. I feel like anyone could have easily breezed through the King Tut Exhibition in 15 minutes, but not me. I'm the person that reads every single word on a museum label/caption. Yep, I'm THAT friend. Haha.  Overall thoughts? If Ancient Egypt is not your thing, then visiting the Discovery Center of Idaho is probably not a good idea right now. But if you're an Ancient Egypt geek like myself, then you would enjoy the exhibit so please go and support DCI! And please wear a mask. :-)

Great experience, but also great staff; friendly, knowledgeable, real! Haunting experience with Titanic artifacts. Highly recommended. Lightning, sound, photography & personal connection card made it more than a museum. Go before they close!

Quite a bit smaller than what I was expecting and a little pricey for what you get but there are some fun things for the toddlers. Not a place for teens unless they want to see a specialized exhibit like the Dino, Sue. So it's a one time thing I think.

After being here a few times, we decided to get our annual pass (the second year now). My boys (now 9 and 11) can never get tired of this place. We can easily spend 2 -3 hours here. The center has different exhibits through out the year, and we love their Summer camps. With all the discounts we get while signing up for camps, birthday parties or just any regular visits, it well pays for the membership already.

Was not worth the money. This place use to be so awesome and had great educational hands on activities for kids and adults alike. It was more like a museum and a huge disappointment. I suppose if your a die hard Starwars fan it could have been cool, if I would have known it was just a bunch of figurines and Star Wars memorabilia and very little educational and interactive items I would've never taken my niece and her two kids and paid $76 for us to get it.

Waste of $55. Figured it'd be a fun experience but it was over priced to look at Star Wars figures that are probably sold in Walmart. Lame.

Be aware that as of today, the Discovery Center doesn't take cash, not for sanitary purposes but because the manager is too lazy to go to the bank. This definitely excludes some of our population from entering the center and from purchasing anything at the store. Also, if you go during an exhibit, you will only see one room of hands on discovery center type fun. Great Exhibit, poor payment options.

Can I say how happy I am that we have someplace like this in Boise? I'm so glad we have a place to take our children with hands on activities to peek their curiosity on the sciences and engineering! Each section of the center has tons of exhibits that kids can play with and learn from. The first section has revolving exhibits that are sponsored but local businesses. Word of caution: Do my go during normal school field trip times! There will be hundreds of kids running around and your child will have to stand in large lines to get to play with anything. Thankfully there are tons of exhibits so kids can spread out. The one thing I'm not thrilled about is the price. It is SO pricey! I mean, I know it's cheaper than really big cities, but we've only been able to go a few times to the Discovery Center (including free field trips) because it is way too expensive for our family. Otherwise it's totally fun for the whole family!

Ok, so, Im a little behind on writing a review for this place. I went a couple of months ago for the Da Vinci exhibit.... IT was basically an exhibit for 3 year olds. There were kids running rampant everywhere, they were climbing on the exhibit, it was ridiculous! There was nothing either that stated that it was an exhibit for kids. Had we known that.....we would have saved our FIFTEEN DOLLARS we spent to get in there and gone and done something else....where the price to get in....wasnt 15 dollars and where there wasn't thousands of kids running around like it was a playground. The place was a major let down. Ill never go back.

Amazingly friendly staff and wonderful art!! The museum was smooth flowing, calming and wonderful. Love this place and will return.

We love this place. As a family and as individuals. We have two little ones, one three and the other one. Both get super excited when they come here. We got the annual $100 membership and use it mostly over the weekends when the temperatures get too low to play in the park outside. Kiddos love the under 4 activity center and they can't get enough of the play kitchen setup. Which btw, it so sturdy even after constant rough play of youngens. Also, it's clean. And thought provoking even for little ones. They constantly play and explore and even meet other kids there. It's part of our weekly family day and the oldest keeps asking us to go there. Hope they keep the rotation of cool stuff going.

We went for the 1st time with our 14 month old and had a lot of fun. The place seemed pretty clean as well. Our little girl really enjoyed the under 4 play area that is where we spent must of our time but it was also fun walking around looking at all of the other things. For the age we are in right now she really only had 1 area to play in but she was well entertained for a while.

please do not waste your money. Go to the zoo across the street for a much more fun time that is cheaper. It was way over priced. Has one small room of basic science things to explore. Any other place would be more fun

This is a great Boise spot to visit with the kids. We wandered in around noon on a Thursday and were greeted by smiling faces. We paid ($under $35, for one adult and child) and headed inside. We were immediately shocked to see all the cool hands-on activities. Shooting a water bottle rocket in the air, the biggest "light brite" ever, sand topography, a pullie chair, and so much more. Everything was fun and accessible for adults and kids. The weather area was so cool. Especially the huge bubble maker and the shadow picture box. The exhibit on sharks was cool but way more designed for middle/high school kids and adults. So why not 5 stars? Honestly we did everything in about an hour and the price seemed a bit high to me for admission. Secondly, kids running around with no adults and ruining activities for other kids. I normally wouldn't mind except these kids were out of control and actually became a safety concern as they ran and jumped and pushed theri ways around. Several staff members passed them and simply said nothing, but when I asked where the bathrooms were I was given a salty "where the sign that says restroom is". Oh well. Overall a great experience and I will more than likely buy an annual pass as it makes more sense financially with such high admission rates.

I would recommend scrolling until you find a post from 2017 from a man named Rich. His post is the best and most accurate I have come across. No BS and straight to the point.

Got to the door and turned around. Wanted to take my son and niece here, but it would have cost $60 for two adults and two 5 year old children to enter. Considering this is supposed to be educational it makes me sad to think the barrier for entry is so high. We aren't poor, but we aren't rich either. Education shouldn't be only provided for the wealthy. I totally understand that it costs money to run a place like this, but why charge for adults? I don't benefit from walking around a place like this, but the children definitely do learn. I am sure the place is excellent, and provides fun learning to children. However, I can't justify a good rating (or not leaving a bad rating) to a place that puts a premium on education.

The Discovery Center is awesome and great for kids of all ages. The building is divided into 3 rooms. The first room you walk into has various stations for the kids (kinetic sand, magformers, and a lot of other great learning stations). You walk into the second room and it's mostly a giant tape tunnel, along with a giant bubble maker. The third room has a blocked off area for ages 4 and under and the rest of the room is a ton of science and engineering stuff for kids to play with and learn from. When it's busy, I see staff walk around and help the kids understand the various stations better. This is the best of its kind in the Boise area. It gets extremely packed when there are field trips but today it was us and another family. Much nicer when it's not so crowded. I'm glad we bought the annual membership and am looking forward to many more trips!

This place is a rip off they don't have anything for children they they do not reveal this to you they charge full price and children have nothing to do waste of money lack of transparency No empathy from management. BIGGEST RIP-OFF IN BOISE

Visiting from out of town and we were looking for something for the kids to do. (12 and 2 years old). We spent almost 2 hours here and could have spent another hour at least! Both kids had a great time- and my husband and me too! We liked the layout. 3 big rooms. Geared towards different things. Didn't feel too cramped at all, exhibits were spaced out. We showed up right when they opened on a Sunday afternoon so it wasn't too crowded but busy by the time we left.

I really like the Discovery Center as a hands-on place for my toddler to learn and play about science. It's definitely one of my favorite places to take my little one! There's lots to do and learn! They have some fun areas for toddlers such as their grocery store and their bubble station and it's a nice introduction to scientific concepts. If you're from Portland or another larger city, it might seem underwhelming compared to a place like OMSI, but it's the only science museum in the Boise area, so I am happy to have this place around! A few things I wish they'd improve: I wish they had better lighting in the building (it's a bit dim), I wish they had more fun events, and I wish they changed the exhibits a little more often. Oh and I also wish they had some nice sofas or better seating for the parents. And also an enclosed area where parents could corral their younger children without having to worry about them running off into more dangerous or advanced exhibits. They have this little hallway area that has more toddler-oriented activities, but it's quite narrow, not enclosed, and there's not really a place for parents to sit and watch their children. If they did that, we'd probably go a lot more often, but we still go there at least twice a month, so it's clearly not a huge issue. It would just be nicer.

Don't waste your money!! I was totally disappointed! I took my daughter and her friend the other day to go see the human body exhibit. What a waste!! I spent $50 bucks and the room for the extra exhibit was just that.. a small room!!

The DCI is such an amazing place to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math. Great for all ages (they have adult only nights!), this is a great place to spend your day. The rotating exhibits are always fun to see and keep you going back. We saw a T-Rex at one exhibition and the Human Bodies Display at another. The staff here does amazing at keeping the DCI up to date, up with technology, and open to everyone. Plus the gift shop has some fun things I can't find anywhere else, like Astronauts Ice Cream or built it yourself mini robots.

I took my ten year old daughter to see the Titanic artifact exhibit. It was a hit! The set up was amazing, the docents were friendly and helpful. One told us about other exhibits upcoming and we know we will be back!

Very small museum. My family visited during the Titanic exhibit. That exhibit was nice and the boarding passes they give you when you enter were a nice touch since you find out what happened to your passenger at the end. My kids (10/6) enjoyed the exhibit, as well as the even smaller dinosaur area. It was very nice for a small museum but don't expect to spend more than an hour there max. They accept ASTC reciprocal memberships.

If you want to broaden your places to go with kids at, definitely have this as #1 on your list. Science & Engineering, this is what this place is all about & they're hands on! They change exhibits twice a year I think which is good but i would love for them to do it quarterly. My daughter started coming here when she was less than 2 & loved it! They used to have a play grocery store which was one of her fav & actually my sons too but they're gone for good which was sad! However, there still lots of things for them to enjoy! Definitely go for a family pass though because it's worth it!

I took my 3 year old niece here and boy did we have fun! We got there about 30 minutes after it opened and there was a big field trip walking in...but they were going in the doors closer to the street so we went in the doors closer to the park, which is actually the entrance where you buy tickets to get in. We walked right in and played with the packing tape tunnel and the bubble thingy. The under 4 area was loads of fun! We stayed there almost the entire time and it was perfect for my niece. They had a demo or lesson from 10:30-11am about tessellations...which I think it was a bit of an abstract concept for a toddler, but it was still fun to see her create one with my help. The rest of the center is definitely geared to older kids, I think it was perfect for school aged children on their field trip- lots to learn and explore with a science/math/engineering emphasis.

For a family of 4 it cost us $60. There are TWO exhibits both are NOT kid friendly. Our kids are 3 and 5 and I was excited they could interact with things and that was not the case. Not worth the money.

This place is packed with fun experiments! I LOVE this place. The new exhibit is wonderful - so many neat things to play with. My 6-year old and 3-year old enjoy exploring here every time. The new exhibit has a toddler only zone for kids under 4, which is wonderful. The center has a lot of activities for orders kids to attend.

My children and I had fun here. The exhibits are great For hands on learning. Having said that, I think that for the price of admission, they could put money back into the place and fix some of the broken exhibits.

We are adults who remember going to the Discovery Center as kids and we loved it. We didn't realize it would be $18.00 per adult, with a total of 36.00. We understand they are non-profit. However, if their goal is to educate, it kind of decreases access and increases barriers to learning with such a high price. A little baffled at the price, we figured it would go towards learning and moved on. Some of the exhibits were really cool. I love how they included how/why each activity worked the way it worked. The shark exhibits were really neat. I loved seeing the Megaladon jaw up close. I also liked how some of the older exhibits were still there from when we were kids. It was unfortunate that a few of the exhibits, like the bed of nails, were jammed or not working. We did want to try the exhibits for ourselves, but we often felt like we couldn't because the kids cut in line. Even the parents with kids cut in front of us when we were trying to read some of the material or engage in the activities. This left us feeling like we couldn't engage in the activities we paid a high price for. We got the feeling that we weren't as important because we were adults with no children. I know this place works really hard to have good educational programs for the community. I think it might be a good idea to have staff or volunteers hang out near the exhibits to help teach people how to use them and to encourage the taking of turns and forming lines. Other places I've been to around the country and around the world have staff throughout the building to help visitors engage in the activities.

This center is a center for discoveries. Made a few while I was there. Personal and scientific and even a few mysteries because I wasn't reading all of the boards of directions for the science things scattered all around. I managed to get along with all the other kids even tho I'm thirty and know more than them. My favorite part was the part I enjoyed the most. This place this for adults too because they told me at the door when I gave them my money.

We held our child's birthday party this past Sunday at the Discovery Center, and it was a terrific experience. Olivia, Maggie, and the rest of the staff were very helpful and pleasant to work with, and they're excellent working with the kids and getting them excited about science. The kids got to see ice cream being made using liquid nitrogen, and they were able to eat it afterwards. If you're looking to change up your child's typical birthday party experience, I'd definitely recommend trying out the Discovery Center.

Overpriced and everything is outdated. They need to put more money into this place and actually update some of their stuff. Some things don't even work. Don't waste your money on outdated things.

I love to take the kids to Discovery Center Idaho so I can play : ) I think the best value BY FAR is to get a family season pass. You will get your money's worth through the year. We do it as a Christmas gift. Discovery Center changes their exhibits often enough to keep you coming back just enough. The Adult nights are also SO much fun.