We are both geeks and are proud of that. Along with our own computers, and handful of gadgets come the visit to the museums. Generally speaking, I’d look up the best well known museums in the city we visit and decide from there. We also love to check out very interesting museum, which tend to be overlooked but the travelers.

British Museum

We’ve been lucky enough to visit London in March 2011. And when in London…you go to British Museum, of course. The museum is always free to enter, but there are special exhibitions for which you have to pay to visit. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. And being the huge museum it is, making a plan is always a good idea.

What we’ve done was get a map of the place, sit down and mark the halls we really really wanted to visit: Ancient Greece and Rome, Asia, Ancient Egypt, Medieval Europe, were among the chose ones for us.

The exhibitions I would recommend for anyone visiting British Museum are:

• Ground Floor : Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome, Middle East (Assyria)
• Upper Floor: Ancient Egypt (live and death), Europe

I would also assure you that if you visit Rome & Athens after visiting British Museum you’d have a lot of “aha” moments and “I remember seeing this and reading about this”. Needless to say I was fascinated by Ancient Greece and by Medieval Europe.

Museum of Technology, Vienna

Having missed visiting the similar museum in London, we really had to check out the one in Vienna. Entrance is 10 euros/adult (8 euros if you have a Vienna card). It is a huge museum – we spent 5 hours inside! – but worth your time , especially if you are geeky. I would imagine that geek kids will be just as happy here. We decided to visit the entire museum so we just made our way up from floor to floor.

The interactive exhibits were absolutely amazing and we got to remember all those physics lessons in school. Which was awesome! I liked the natural world exhibit a lot while Alex was more than fascinated by the robots. We both enjoyed the space exhibit (it’s temporary) but were not very happy about the transport part.

Budapest Transport Museum

I had the pleasure to visit this museum two times. It was enough to just step in and I was fascinated. By …everything. The museum is dedicated to all forms of transportation. An adult ticket is 1400 ft / US$6.31 and you’ll find the museum closed on Mondays. By now the aviation wing should have reopened (it was supposed to reopen in May 2013 and our latest visit was in December 2012).

You can see a real life train station – it was “moved” in the museum. And you can even fly a simulator and get a pilot certificate (exactly what Alex did, of course). We keep joking that between the two of us, we can drive, fly, swim, walk and ride a bike. Technically we have all the skills to survive anywhere.

You can also walk in and experience real train cars (courtesy of MAV, of course), see Budapest at the time of the Millennium Exhibition and check out a lot of cars , motorcycles, bicycles and even learn about space flight.

I am pretty sure any guy would love this museum. And of course, the occasional geeky gal. Kids would adore it, too (considering both times we visited, it was full with kids of all ages screaming their way around it).

Vienna Papyrus Museum

The Papyrus Museum is housed by the National Library of Austria (which is located in Hofburg). And , I can safely say, it’s one of the most fascinating museums I’ve ever visited. Even though there weren’t always info in English to understand more about the exhibits. Still, just looking at those 180,000 objects from Ancient Egypt, along with the clay tablets and stone tablets, made us say “wow” every single step.

The museum is really small and you can easily visit it in less than hour. Of course, it depends on how long you just stay and stare at everything. We stared. A lot.

The ticket is 4 euros (3.60 euros discounted if you have Vienna card) but allows for visiting the Globe Museum and Esperanto Museum, as well.

Vienna Globe Museum

It is the only museum in the world dedicated entirely to globes; globes which have earth maps but also globes which have celestial maps. And two computers with a wealth of information. I just read and read and read until my buttocks hurt and decided to start walking to see the exhibits, too. But, do read the info first, it will help a lot!

The museum is housed in Palai Mollard, right smack in the center of Vienna. It is one of those “grown up” places where you won’t be bothered by kids and noises. Actually you are tempted to keep quiet and don’t even snap photos (it is allowed to snap photos without the flash but I was too amazed and just kept reading and looking).

From tiny globes to huge globes, from old maps to new maps, and everything in between.

Again, depending on how long you read or stare, it can take anything from half and hour to 1 1/2 h. If you are fascinated by geography and history, this place is a must.

Vienna Museum of Natural History

It houses the world’s biggest and oldest collection of meteorites in the world. It also houses some dinosaurs – real skeletons and one which actually moves – and to top it off you can blow up Vesuvius.

Entrance is 10 euros (or 8 euros with Vienna card) and again, you are faced with a huge place to visit. However, it was noisier than the Museum of Technology so we ended up spending just couple of hours here.

There isn’t much info, either, so at times you are left with…figuring out. Still, the crystals, the meteorites, the dinosaurs are interesting to see. When we visited in December 2013, there was a special exhibit dealing with the extinction of animals due to …humans. It literally made us cringe.

It is a place I would recommend for kids. There is a lot to learn just by looking at the exhibits.

The Transylvanian Peasants Museum, Cluj Napoca

(officially known as the “Romulus Vuia” National Ethnographic Park)

Located near the strange Hoia forest in Cluj Napoca, Romania , the Transylvanian Peasants Museum is compact and easy to navigate. You will be transferred instantly into a Transylvanian village. The entire museum consists of houses, buildings and churches which were moved from their original location into this museum. Some houses can be visited inside – but only during summer. Wear good walking shoes and be careful if you are going after a rainy day: you’ll feel you are in a village!

Entrance is 6 lei / 1.50 USD for an adult and you do not pay a photography fee if you shoot with your cell. If you use a DSLR, you need to pay 25 lei / 6.35 USD to take photos. The park is closed between November 1 and April 30.

Note: article written in Jan 2014 and updated in August 2016.