1. Orton Geological Museum

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Columbus, OH

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Orton Geological Museum

4.2 (15 reviews)
Closed • Closed

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Metal onyx Jeffersoni - Giant Ground Sloth
Sheila B.

Great place to get up close and personal. Come see the creatures and many stones and granites.

Glyptodon Skeleton

This is an amazing Museum! The other reviews stating it's size are incorrect. Although it is one room it's large enough to fit not only 2 full skeletons of a Giant Sloth and Glyptodon, but also housing multiple display cases containing a wide range of Minerals, rock and crystal formations, and Fossils from multiple time periods. Located at the back end of the large room is a gift shop which sells actual fossilized specimens ranging from Ammonites, to Trilobites, and even Fossilized Fish. I picked one up myself for a cheap price compared to overpriced gift shops everywhere else. Not to mention, the grand entrance to the museum has a full skeleton of a velociraptor in the hall inside of the building. Overall, I would rate this place 11/10 for anyone looking for unique mineral and fossil specimens.

Xiphactinus Head
Mike G.

This tiny, under 1,000 sq ft., museum is located inside Orton Hall on OSU's Oval is possibly the smallest museum I've ever seen. There's really not much that I can add to the previous reviews except that my favorite part of it is the skeletons. There's a Giant Sloth, a T-Rex head, and the Glyptodon (a huge prehistoric armadillo). Add in some displays of crystals, minerals and fossils and you get a cool little museum that has free admission. I'd recommend it for anyone with kids too if you are in the vicinity.

Orton hall skeleton
Wendy K.

Cool place. I just wish the pay to park machine worked. Small but quaint myseum.it is not that small. Took over an hour to go through all the geodes And minerals. It is really cool to visit. Free also. Can't beat that .

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Review Highlights - Orton Geological Museum

“It's quite large and is actually in the entryway to Orton Hall itself, outside of the museum.”

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Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens - Butterfly

Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens

4.5(315 reviews)
3.8 mi

This botanical garden and conservatory is fabulous! We had such a good time my son wanted to go…read moreback a 2nd time during our trip. The Chihuly exhibit is perfect and such an amazing fit that it seems like every conservatory should have a blown glass exhibit. The inside of the building has a lot under construction, but even still was really amazing. The outside gardens are beautiful and really wonderful for kids. They have a great children's garden section, as well as a fantastic model train section. On top of all of that, they also have a glad blowing workshop outside in the summer and you can watch an artist at work blowing glass. I found that fascinating, and definitely bought a piece from the gift shop after watching it! The pieces on the shelf outside in the workshop are really beautiful. Oh, and on top of everything else they have a great cafe with actually good food! I wish this was in my city, because I could come here all the time!

I am a member of the Holden arboretum and Cleveland botanical. And while in Columbus I decided to…read morestop and visit their botanical garden. And I inquired if a discount is given if I am a member of Cleveland. And they informed me they do reciprocal. So I was able to attend with my membership for no additional charge. I must admit that this place is currently under construction. But that just means more great botanical fun is heading there way. I am excited to see it when it opens in 2027 fall. My time here today was great. I had a ton of fun here. I was pretty excited to see their train garden. Where they have many different models of trains going through a garden. There are so many different things to see and do. They have many hands on experiences for children as well. You need to get here and bring those kids to have fun.

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Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens - Butterfly

Butterfly

Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens - Fall 2023

Fall 2023

Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens - Pumpkins Aglow 2022

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Pumpkins Aglow 2022

Ohio History Center & Ohio Village

Ohio History Center & Ohio Village

4.4(56 reviews)
1.4 mi•Linden

Some of the exhibits might be showing their age, but it's always quiet and climate controlled and a…read moregreat place to bring out of town guests for a little overview of Ohio and the opportunity to hang out in a Lustron House. There are often activities and presentations on the weekends, which add an extra bit of fun to your visit. As with most things, membership is an excellent value - you'll get free admission to 50+ sites around the state with the basic level and can upgrade for free event tickets and NARM reciprocity.

We started the morning visiting the Ohio state capital, and then we decided to learn more about…read moreOhio. The Ohio history center is located a few miles north of downtown Columbus. We started walking through the nature of Ohio and then moved on to the galleries. We ended up walking the galleries in the wrong order but the galleries were not really connected. We learned some great Ohio history. They had cool things on display like a mastodon skeleton and a Lustron house. We sent about 2 hours walking around the museum. The one negative I found with the museum, a lot of the information was older. Like some of the information panels only went up to the early 2000s. They have a village exhibit outside but it was closed when we visited. They also had a gift shop that was closed the Saturday we visited. Also they have a small cafe on the top floor but it didn't have many options for actual food, just some snacks.

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Ohio History Center & Ohio Village
Ohio History Center & Ohio Village
Ohio History Center & Ohio Village

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German Village

German Village

4.4(69 reviews)
3.4 mi•German Village

The only answer to: where should I live if I move to Columbus? A walkable, historic neighborhood…read morecomplete with beautiful, Victorian-style homes, Schiller Park, and plenty of coffee shops and top-notch restaurants. Filled with cobblestone streets and brick sidewalks, flower/plant marts, and Halloween + Holiday events--don't miss the Christmas Market on South 3rd come December. I recommend: Stauff's or Fox in the Snow for coffee, Winan's for chocolates/sweet treats, Chapman's, Lindey's, or Sycamore for a nice dinner out, and Antiques on High for drinks in a 70s-style cocktail lounge. The Book Loft is such a treat, too! All in all, a magical neighborhood and great place to visit in Columbus.

What a cute area in Ohio! I stumbled upon this area when searching for things to do on Yelp. When I…read morewas planning to visit, I did not have any particular place in mind to visit; I just planning to stroll and pop into places if they looked enticing. We had our dog with us so we did not do an abundance of walking around. From what I saw, there were no places that welcomed pets in the businesses. It makes sense and it was no biggie, I just did not spend as much time as I would have if pets were welcome. I stopped into what I thought was a deli but more like a restaurant with a counter, hoping to purchase goodies for home. There are several stores for shopping, which were fun to browse. I only purchased some chocolates in a candy store, which apparently were made in house. I definitely want to visit here again with more research.

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German Village
German Village
German Village

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Olentangy Indian Caverns - Caverns

Olentangy Indian Caverns

3.8(68 reviews)
13.7 mi

Went on a Saturday around 12, started to get pretty busy around 12:45-1:30. Which makes the…read morecave/cavers very tight to walk through. While your down there your using a provided map to guide yourself around and match the corresponding areas ( Ex; A to A or 1-1 ) We went after it had just rained the night before, so everything was VERY wet. Wear waterproof/walking shoes if you plan on exploring. Be prepared to get dripped on by very cold water coming off nearby rocks, and the "ceiling". Coming down the initial very steep stairs is a beautiful view of different levels of rocks decending into a tunnel/cave where the rest of the cavers are. Tons of puddles all over the ground from collected rain water and the "droplets". Most the areas are about big enough for one person to walk through the tunnel areas at one time, and if your a larger person i DO NOT recommend going down there. Some areas are extremely tight and really only accessible to someone under 4'5 and around 100 pounds or less. (Im 5'4, 140 and some areas i almost got stuck cause it was too tight going through the rocks. It is neat to see though, i dont think id want to do it again as it is just wet rocks and the furthest tunnel was closed from the previous year that occurred from some heavy rain water. (The water collected, over time causing a collapse). So that was kind of a bummer but i get it for safety reasons. The gem mining was fun, definitely loaded with a lot of "gravel" type rocks so that was new for me, Ive only ever had ones with dirt/sand that yield rocks/gems/shark teeth. We found some really interesting gemstones in each tray. The petting zoo was great. I thought it wad Going to be boring and smelly, and i was happily wrong. The goats were adorable, when we came in a baby jumped through the fence and was following our group. And when we came inside the "pen" to pet them he ran back in it was very cute! The deer were a little skittish but very sweet and gentle. The treasure hunt/maze was VERY fun we enjoyed getting different prizes snd trading them within the group.

It's really a great place for people of all ages there's mining for gems there's a cave. Our…read morefavorite part is the animal petting zoo. It's mostly comprised of goats with a few pigs and Zoe the cow "Queen of the barnyard!" It's not exactly conducive for people in wheelchairs. It has a lot of gravel which can make it challenging when you go into the petting zoo. The restrooms are NOT handicap accessible. Which was annoying but we had a work around thankfully. My experience was a five star, but the lack of handicap parking and all the gravel and no handicap accessible bathroom. I have to give it a 2 but because it was so much fun I give it a 5.

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Olentangy Indian Caverns
Olentangy Indian Caverns
Olentangy Indian Caverns - Gemstone & crystal alphabet poster

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Gemstone & crystal alphabet poster

Orton Geological Museum - museums - Updated October 2026

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