Kaunas with kids on a rainy day: the zoological museum or Science Island?

At the Tadas Ivanauskas Zoological Museum, you can examine preserved animals and other specimens up close. The displays include mammals, birds, insects, fish and other animal groups. Explain to younger children before you go that this is a museum: there are no live animals to see.¹²

The mammals hall makes a good starting point. Its specimens include a giraffe, a pygmy shrew, a platypus and a short-beaked echidna. A giraffe has the same number of neck vertebrae as most other mammals, but they are much longer. Its long neck lets it reach leaves beyond the reach of other herbivores.¹²

Some specimens also have a travel story. Tadas Ivanauskas brought armadillo, sloth and anteater specimens back from an expedition to Brazil. The collection introduces the naturalist’s journeys as well as the animals themselves.¹

We suggest allowing an hour and a half to two hours. There is no need to spend equal time in every room: if the children are drawn to birds or insects, stay longer there. For younger visitors, try asking each person to choose a specimen and point out one detail to the others. Sometimes that is enough to make a display worth another look.

Science Island suits children who prefer to experiment and see what happens. Its Human. Nature. Machine exhibition has 140 interactive exhibits covering the human body, food, nature, waste, energy, transport and communication. At some exhibits, visitors’ choices travel as light signals to the central Heart of the Island installation.¹

The centre’s own construction story connects with its exhibits on waste. Science Island reports that work on the site uncovered rubbish from an old landfill, including tyres, synthetic clothing and other discarded objects. The exhibition now explores human effects on the environment in that same place.¹²

Science Island recommends two to three hours for the exhibition. Your ticket specifies an arrival time, but once you are inside you can stay until closing. A separate area with simple games gives younger children something to do too.¹²

Stay with an experiment if it catches the children’s attention. You do not need to try everything. Repeat it, change a choice and see whether the outcome changes. You can work through the questions together: adults do not need to know all the answers in advance.

The planetarium requires a separate ticket. Sessions last 45 to 55 minutes, so allow an extra hour. Check the recommended age for the programme and leave enough time for the main exhibition before or afterwards. If you need a programme in English, confirm its language before booking.¹

After Science Island, you can eat in the same building. PYO restaurant is upstairs, beside the planetarium dome. You can visit the restaurant without an exhibition ticket.¹²

The published menu has a children’s section with chicken strips, a pancake filled with curd cheese and Belgian waffles. Main-course options include salmon fillet with black lentils. These are examples from the menu checked on 5 September 2026; the selection may have changed by the time you visit.¹

Plan lunch before entering the exhibition or after you finish. Once you leave the exhibition, you cannot return on the same ticket. For a short break while you are still inside, PYO mini serves drinks and desserts.¹²

Take a family of two adults and two children aged eight and twelve. At the zoological museum, separate tickets would total €24, while a family ticket costs €20. At the Science Island exhibition, separate tickets would total €58, compared with €50 for a family ticket. Adding planetarium tickets for all four brings the Science Island outing to €78. These comparisons exclude food and transport.¹²

If your children are younger, calculate the cost of individual tickets before choosing a family ticket. Children under six enter the zoological museum free. Two adults with two children under six would therefore pay €16 for two adult tickets, which is €4 less than a family ticket.¹