Immersive museum where art, science, and technology come together, inviting you to investigate how illusions trick our perception. Zürich (ZH).
What makes it special:
Willow scavenger hunt for younger kids
Puzzle quest for older kids
What needs to be considered:
Compact size: Can be visited in 1 - 1.5 hr
No café on site - many nearby dining options available
Needs to be booked in advance
Don't feel like reading? Watch a video instead!
The fun factor
The WOW museum features multiple illusion rooms and a spacious interactive activity area. Although younger children (2-4 years) might not fully grasp the illusions, they'll delight in exploring the magical environment and engaging with interactive stations. Older children and adults can enjoy experimenting with perspective, colors, lights, mirrors, shapes, movement, and more, creating fantastic photo opportunities.
Here are our top 4 Fun Factors of the WOW Museum
1. Explore the immersive rooms
On the ground floor, you'll encounter rooms filled with a variety of illusions to explore. Step into the infinity space, where you'll feel like you're floating in space. Experience rooms that play with perspective, making you appear taller or shorter depending on where you stand. Experiment with colors, mirrors, distort proportions, challenge your balance, and even switch the places of floors, walls, and ceilings. It's a fun journey of optical illusions and sensory experiences!
2. Engage with interactive stations
Throughout the museum, you'll find various brain-teasing activities. Our 4-year-old especially enjoyed playing with the mirrors, exploring the depth with the spiral disk, and descending the ladder that looks like it leads into a pool—much more exciting than taking the stairs!
The top floor is entirely dedicated to hands-on experiments, featuring puzzles, magnets, magnifying glasses, exploring depth with the spiral disk, photos that change as you walk along them, and a special photo booth where you can take distorted view photos. Our daughter enjoyed this room much more during our second visit when she was already 4 years old.
3. Complete quests around the museum
For little explorers, there is a fun quest: Find Willow, a charming character hidden throughout the museum in tiny rooms. Our 4-year-old was captivated by the search, and was thrilled every time she found him.
For older kids, there's a challenging quest: find and solve 12 illusion puzzles. Grab a card from the welcome desk, write down your answers, and turn it in later for a chance to win a prize. We didn't give it a go this time, but it sounds fun for our next visit!
4. Play with lego
As you step into the museum, you're greeted by a corridor adorned with a LEGO wall. It's no surprise to always see there a group of kids enthusiastically crafting their "masterpieces" with the vibrant red blocks.
We found our 4 year old drawn to this interactive feature at the beginning of our visit and again at the end, each time captivated by the simple yet engaging concept!
The food factor:
There is no restaurant at the museum but as the WOW Museum is situated in Zürich downtown, there are plenty restaurants and cafes around.
WOW Museum - Practical info
Location: Werdmühlestrasse 10, 8001 Zürich
Arrival by car: Park at the Urania parking garage | 3 minutes walk
Arrival by train: Take train to Zurich HB station | 5-minutes walk
Arrival by tram: Take tram (6, 7, 11, 13, or 17) to Bahnhofstrasse | 3 minutes walk
Needs to be booked in advance!
Opening hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 10:00 - 20:00 | Friday 10:00 – 22:00 | Saturday 09:00 – 22:00 | Sunday 09:00 – 20:00 | Tuesdays Closed
2024 Prices: Adults: 23 CHF | Kids 6 - 16: 16 CHF | Kids 2 - 5: 5 CHF | Kids under 2: Free | Family tickets and other discounts available | Thursdays: 15% discount (excluding holidays)
Recommended age: Best for 2-year-olds up
Visiting time: 1-1.5 hours
Food: Nearby dining options available, separate from the museum