National Maritime Museum, Sydney

The National Martime Museum is one of the most popular museums in Sydney and is filled with various exhibitions for young and old. Makes a great day out for the whole family.

National Maritime Museum, Sydney

When it comes to amazing museums in Sydney, we are extremely spoiled for choice.

The National Maritime Museum is a definite favourite, nestled on the shores at Darling Harbour, a nice and central location for further exploration.

Here’s what you can expect to uncover on a day spent visiting this incredible museum.

Permanent exhibitions

There’s also a number of permanent exhibitions at the museum that you can enjoy.

These include Navy, Under Southern Skies, Passengers, Seahawk Helicopter, Shaped by the Sea and more.

Of course, the highlight is the boats outside, which you can actually climb aboard! The kids were just delighted and had so much fun.

The first one we checked out was the HMAS Onslow – an actual submarine!

They only let 50 people on board this one at a time, so you may have to wait your turn if it is busy.

On the submarine, you can climb down (carefully) and check out where they ate, slept, the control rooms and plenty more.

The knowledgeable staff were all ready to lend us their knowledge.

The kids couldn’t look past the HMB Endeavour, which looks just like a pirate ship!

It is, in fact, an Australian-built replica of James Cook’s ship.

Again, we were able to go inside and check out the huge stove and the cabin, where Cook spent lots of his time.

There are also plenty of other permanent and visiting vessels for you to check out.

What’s On

The first thing you need to check out before planning your trip to the National Maritime Museum is what’s actually on.

This museum hosts a variety of rotating exhibitions, so there’s always something new for you and the kids to feast your eyes on.

January 2023 for example we were treated to the Brickwrecks Exhibition, which is a unique combination of Ryan ‘The Brickman’ McNaught’s stunning LEGO® models, plus real shipwreck objects, hands-on interactives and audio visual experiences that bring to life astonishing shipwreck stories.

The kids loved all the Lego-building stations throughout, and also got caught up in reading the history of all the ship Lego models.

There was also a Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition too.

Around the area

If you’re going to make your way into the city with the kids, it pays to check out as much as you can.

Darling Harbour is a nice and central area, with so much for the kids to do.

Head over to Tumbalong Park (less than 10-minute walk), where you will find the Darling Harbour Playground, which is an adventure wonderland! There’s so much for kids to climb, swing off, bounce on and more.

Better yet, there’s even two water play areas for them to cool off on a hot day.

Swimmers are an option and we have been known to strip (the kids, at least) down to undies and T-shirts for a splash, before drying off in the sun.

Tumbalong Park is also often home to a variety of events. While we were there, they had a Chinese New Year installation that was fun to wander around.

Getting there

The museum is just a short 10-minute walk from Town Hall station, which is extremely convenient.

If you are driving you can park at the Harbourside Car Park, just a 5-minute walk from the museum. The great part is, you can get your parking validated at the museum, so it costs half price