Louisiana Children's Museum

Lonely Planet review

This educational museum is like a high-tech kindergarten. Corporate sponsors have helped create hands-on exhibits like a supermarket, complete with stocked shelves and check-out registers, and a TV news studio, where young anchors see themselves on monitors as they forecast a snowstorm in New Orleans. In the rush to build newer, bigger and better exhibits, the museum has failed to maintain some of the existing displays - 'Mayday!' calls on the tugboat radio go unheard and most kids abandon ship.

Overall, however, the nonprofit museum and volunteers have done a good job in providing attractions for everyone from toddlers to 12-year-olds. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

The museum's roof was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and the resulting water intrusion caused further harm to the building's interior. But the real hardship was the loss of 90 percent of the museum's staff. At this writing the museum anticipated a slow recovery following its limited reopening in May 2006.