Cape Cod Museum of Natural History

Cute little museum! Been there twice. Cheap entry around $ 10 – 15 I think. Neat to learn and expand your Cape nature knowledge and probably a great place to bring kids. I wouldn’t know since I don’t have any, but you know… It’s a museum people. Check-​it-​out, educate yourselves.

The museums exhibits, galleries, aquarium and even the gift shop have so much to offer for all age groups. However for us our absolute favorite is going on the Trails to the open ocean. You walk along the wood planks through the marsh and see beautiful vistas of grasses, singing birds to the sandy pathways with fragrant cedar trees with benches along the way to sit and enjoy coastal nature at it’s best! Then once you reach the shoreline it stretches far and wide on both sides as far as you can see. They do have naturalist guided family field walks that are free with admission.
Check out their website — plan your day it’s well worth it!

A variety of different things. It’s worth the $ 10 to see a little bit of everything.
Really it’s too small to get bored! There’s a small exhibit on birds, small exhibit on local Native Americans, etc. They have an Aquarium with local ocean life — they have a really cool «tidal pool» tank set up so that you can look down at all of the critters… it will take you a long time to spot everything in there! Beehive, bird feeders, and wildflower gardens outside.
They have a nature trail (the whole thing is a 1.3 mile loop, but there’s alternate paths you can take to cut off part of it to make it shorter) that takes you through several habitats including forest, marsh, and beach. An Osprey nest in the marsh is an impressive sight.
What we found ideal was the nature trail going straight to the beach — we got there at low tide and were able to walk the shore looking for shells and look for crabs and fish in tidal pools, spending as much time as we wanted on the beach for no extra cost.

An enjoyable small museum with a surprisingly large amount of offerings. Loads of displays, an aquarium, field walks, osprey nests, and learning opportunities. Volunteer run so some talks, walks, and service can be hit or miss. Overall a good spot for nature education. When parking lot fills, additional space is available across the street.

Great place for family and kids, has picnic tales for great picnic lunch. Great volunteers giving guided walks.

This place made our 5 year old nephew’s day, but thank goodness he was oblivious to the brusque nature of the staff. The staff clearly lacks experience with children and was gruff towards a starry eyed innocent animal-​loving kindergartener. I understand you are a small organization and you made my nephew happy, so I’ll be generous and give you two stars rather than one. You need to update the whale that the children walk through– it’s seen much better days. Be kinder to children and maybe people will come back. We won’t.

Top Notch! For a educational nature experience on the cape you must visit the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. This Museum is a must if you have children vacationing with you on the cape and it well worth the visit on one of those rainy days when your trying to find something to do. The exhibits take you through the fragile ecosystem we take for granted here on Cape Cod and explains the history of nature on Cape Cod. The wildlife viewing room is beautiful and they have staff there to help you to identify the bird life. Children will love the aquarium and touch pool on the bottom levels. The Museum of Natural History is a must visit when your in Brewster.
AA+

Came to the Scallops presentation today! Superb and informative! Enjoyed
my visit!!!

We stopped in this weekend on a short trip to the Cape. My 9 year old loved this place. It’s not huge but it’s got everything you need for a cool family outing. I liked the library with the interactive projects set up on the tables. My son loved the aquarium downstairs. For a small donation it’s a great place to stop especially on a rainy day. Not too crowded. If you’re looking for something to do with your kids — go!
My only complaint is in regard to the gift shop. The cashier was a mess. She was extremely frustrated with myself and another family member, you know… for BUYING THINGS. I bought three things while there — some cool sugar scrub/​shower wash/​lotion that they sell by the B. Witching Bath Company. The cashier had a near coronary as two out of the three bottles I brought to the counter did not have price tags on the bottom. After announcing how exasperating this was for her I walked the two feet away from the counter to find bottles that had price tags on the bottom («Good luck with that» was her response). It took nearly 10 minutes for her to cash me out. Another meltdown ensued when a family member let me use her museum discount card. At the end of the transaction she said «Now I suppose you want a bag.» I told her I was fine with carrying my purchases out in my hands in order not to push her any further over the edge. Here’s a tip, don’t work in customer service if you don’t like it, like people, or want to be doing something else. SHEESH!

Walk the Brewster flats at low tide. Great for hiking.

Great little museum but certainly doesn’t take longer than an hour to cover. The price of $ 10 is fine to contribute to upkeep their resources but the wristband to come back later seemed a bit excessive.

The CCMNH was a great way to spend a cloudy morning on our vacation. The whole museum is really geared towards kids, which their website doesn’t to justice to. There are aquariums on the lower level and a massive room overlooking the marsh/​bird sanctuary where kids can do puzzles, small art projects, play with microscopes and binoculars. There are also trails through the marshes that lead you to the bay, which we did not take advantage of our visit but I hear they are beautiful.
Parking is very limited so arrive early!

We visited the museum on a recent trip to Cape Cod and LOVED it! We were staying in Provincetown, but drove down to Brewster for the museum. The trip was about an hour with light traffic for us, but definitely worth it. We took our 22 month old and he had a really good time, but it was also interesting for my husband and me.
The museum is on the smaller side, so it’s not overwhelming for children, and they have several kid-​centered activity areas. There’s a display on the natural and geological history of Cape Cod itself, and a very large and beautiful room featuring displays about local wildlife, particularly birds. There’s a huge bank of windows that look out over the salt marsh with a bird feeding station set up right outside. The museum provides plenty of comfortable chairs and binoculars, but one of the coolest features was the live feed camera they had posted over an osprey nest in the marsh. They had one television with the live feed, and a second one looping the video of the eggs hatching.
Other displays included a honey bee hive and the entire downstairs was all aquariums. There was a lot to see and learn about, but in a way that was as much fun for kids as for adults. The museum was clean, well organized and very, very well maintained. The staff there was super friendly and quite knowledgeable, and very good with the kids. There’s also a very nice gift shop there — plenty of affordable souvenirs for all ages, and an extensive collection of books on nature and birding.
The grounds are very well maintained and pleasant to walk around, and there were several staff-​led walks into the marsh and around the grounds. We chose not to participate as they were more geared towards school age kids.
Parking is free.

Great little museum. Lots of fun stuff to see, like turtles and a big blue lobster. Very informative about the natural history of the Cape. On a nice day, there are also lots of picturesque trails around the museum.
We went on a rainy day, and it was sort of a perfect Cape Cod rainy day activity, but next time I want to go while the weather is nice so we can enjoy the scenic trails.

Despite multiple visits to the Cape, I had never gone here. what a mistake. All ages will enjoy this friendly and interesting museum. I especially liked the aquarium, which is small, but filled with neat things like jelly fish and diamond backed turtles. Bird lovers will enjoy the room where there’s a big window looking at the big bird feeder outside, which was teeming with all sorts of birds. There’s a television monitor with a live camera shot of a nest of ospreys that are in the salt marsh behind the museum.
We got to don beekeepers outfits and checkout their beehives across the street. a really cool experience! This is available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
There are escorted nature walks into the salt marsh behind the museum at certain times. We did the trail ourselves which was very pretty. You end up at Cape Cod Bay. Prepare to get your feet and ankles wet at high tide.
The staff were very knowledgeable and friendly and admission is only $ 8 bucks. Don’t wait for a rainy day to visit this cool place.