Amazing place so close, feels like you are a thousand miles from the hustle of the city. Walk through the trails are so refreshing in these cooped up times. And as the weather continues to stay warm its a great day to spend in nature to get some fresh air

A few minutes west on the Merritt Parkway in the woods of North Stamford is a museum combining art, nature, agriculture and history.The Stamford Museum & Nature Center is on a former private estate in 118 acres, ten of which are home to the working Hecksher Farm.The galleries in the half-timbered Tudor Revival museum building are wonderfully eclectic, from paintings by John Singer Sargent, Warhol and Dalí to Native American artifacts, telescopes, vintage local pedal cars, keys and locks by Stamford’s famous Yale brand and farming implements.Also here are important collections by Stamford-related artists like Gutzon Borglum (famed for Mount Rushmore) and Reuben Nakian.On Hecksher Farm you’ll find heritage livestock breeds, as well as more exotic animals like burros, llamas and alpacas.

Great place for families. Farm, hiking trails, museum, a little bit of everything. There is a fee if youre not a member but if you plan in advance you can borrow a library pass from your local library for free admission.

Great place to hang around with kids! It is not a zoo, so dont expect many animals. Even tough, its very picturesque and young children can enjoy watching farm animals from a close distance. I imagine it is also a great place for a family picnic.

Very clean and organized place.

Beautiful place to experience the farm life, a gorgeous nature walk (stroller friendly!) and an awesome playground for the kiddos.Love it here.

Spacious farm with many friendly and cute animals. Majority of parents are practicing 6 feet social distancing and wearing masks. Playgournd is open, but could be crowded depending on the day. The natural trials are peaceful and lovely. There are enough space for kids to run around, and greeting to animals.

Animals seemed well-cared for. Nice facilities from what we saw. Not too crowded, though we havent been there on a weekend. Great place for an outing with young kids.

SEVERLY DISAPPOINTED! Drove an hour with my 2&3 year old to see the animals and play on the amazing playground that was so highly recommended. Checked website day before and since it was past 5 pm it was too late to buy tickets to whatever fall festival they had going on. Wasn’t too upset- didn’t need the bells and whistles just wanted my kids to see the animals and play. NOWHERE on the site does it say you CANNOT visit during the time which this festival is going on- all it states is that after 2 pm regular admission prices apply. First time we have tried to do something with our boys since covid and having twins 4 months ago. Upset beyond words. Will not be recommending this place to ANYONE.

Nice place to visit with kids and toddlers. Nice walk with family.

Amazing. Expansive, lush, greenery, with tons of animals who are friendly and will come up to you so you can pet them. Hand washing stations all over, along with picnic tables if you want to bring food and eat there. However, I did not see many people wearing masks.

Our toddler loved the farm animals and awesome slides at the kiddie park

Due to COVID, I had to have 2 small birthday parties for my daughters 4th birthday this past weekend. John (Visitor Services Assistant Manager & Birthday Party Coordinator) was so lovely and understanding and helped me plan these separate events. We chose the meet the animals presentation for each of these events, and the kids LOVED it! Each presentation was different but equally fun. Everyone was spaced out and were wearing masks. The center is very much adherent to COVID guidelines and expect, and kindly remind their guests to do so as well. They also provided a separate, spaced out celebration space for my daughters classmates and parents to place their items and for us to sing Happy Birthday before guests left with their pre-packed cupcakes. If you are wondering if you should book a party here, do! It is a safe and wonderful experience. Thank you so much John and staff for making my daughters 4th birthday COVID safe and memorable.

The Stamford Museum and Nature Center is a great place for families with young children. Animals are easily seen and the playground is engaging. Due to the pandemic, indoor exhibits are currently closed.

Museum is quite small. Park is ok, have few trails, not long though. Animals are well taken care of. Good for a visit with kids. Wanted to see otters, no luck, they were hiding all 2 + hours during our visit.

This was a very nice day trip! Theres a lot of animals to see- spread out, open space, museum, planetarium, observatory, old mansion, trails, programs for kids, and a cool playground. Well be back.

Not to hot today. Play area was jumpin but not overcrowded.

Beautiful venue for an event or a family day out.

If you might be closed for a private event, then maybe you should let visitors know on your site that you might be closed for a private event and that people should call ahead instead of driving for over an hour for nothing.

Very nice place for kids foroutdoor activities along with trails and animals.

Nice place to spend a Sunday afternoon, good small hiking trails.

Before you visit the Stamford Observatory which is part of the museum and nature center you should read about the horrendous history of the observatory under the leadership of one of its founders, Charles Scovil. You can read all about this history at WWW (DOT) CHARLESSCOVIL (DOT) COM . After learning about what happened at Stamford Observatory I refused to have anything to do with it. Evil does exist.

Gorgeous mansion and park tucked away 8n Stamford. Full farm with cows and pigs. Llamas. Otters. Chickens and turkeys. Observatory. Gives a lot for the community. Great place to rent for family get togethers.

I love this place. Great place for kids. Plenty of farm animals. Very nice trails. Great place to just hangout with little ones!

Beautiful place to spend some time with kids

Great outdoor place with all types of trails, animals and other things to see. Really great for kids too.

Nice place. Cute farm. Fun planetarium. Interesting exhibits. Missing a wow factor but overall worth the experience, especially if youre otherwise in the area.

WONDERFUL hidden gem! Great place for the family... easy trails, museum, gardens... and oh... the... animals!!!!!!!! Spring means baby sheep! Must Visit!

Great place for the family

It is a good place to go on a sunny breezy day with little ones 1-5 yr olds. Not worth paying $10 per person. Get a pass from library card. Not much to see in Museum. You can picnic around lake. Take food from home. Look at farm animals. Farm is really clean and feels like animals are being cared for. Planetarium is only for groups. I spent like 4 good hours strolling with my 2 yr old.she loved to play with the little fountain at entrance. There is a small slide area also for kids but it is very rusty so parents must be accompanying kids all times.

My parents are visiting and decided to go to the museum for the SM&NC collections have grown since the founding of the Museum in 1936, and have experienced a refined growth since the adoption of a rigorous Collections Policy in 2006. Today, the Stamford Museum maintains a permanent collection of more than 20,000 objects . However when they arrived this collection did not exist even though it is advertised on their website, and was prime reason for my parents visiting. Waste of money and time including false advertising.Not sure how it is listed as top tourist attraction for CT, especially if it is only setup for kids.

Excellent place to bring the kids. Rate for getting the hyperactivity out em!

Really great place for kids and adults. Nature, animals,and exhibitions...

Fun & Educational - Have made the 30 minute drive several times in the past year, with kids, well worth it. The outdoor animal enclosures and indoor exotic animal exhibit are usually our first stops. The excellent wooden playground with slides of various sizes is usually how we end the visit. The hiking trails are fun too, time permitting.

Very nice place for kids. They give a feel of a country farm. They have various domestic animals. they also have a small snake home(very small) with few of the snakes. The stretch where it takes you to a hill top kinda of structure is really cool. It looks scary.. but its constructed so well with proper bridges and barricades. Living in Stamford, this is a must visit. IF you travel in Bus, they dont charge you the ticket fee

Great time with kids! Took my 8-year old there and we enjoyed the animals, ate a picnic lunch, explored the wolf exhibit, hiked, and played on the playground. Definitely recommend.

We had a great birthday party for my 7-year old nephew at the house on the farm. The kids loved it and the staff treated everyone so well.The kids loved the whole animal experience, they were so stimulated by the whole party. Afterward, I went exploring to the Bartlett Arboretum. So surprised to explore here. I had no idea. A wonderful asset for Stamford.

Cute farm with goats, cows and horses. Playground is great.

We had a blast. Loved the animals, staff were friendly, nice pond view for lunch. Looking forward to future trips for hiking, letterboxing, and enjoying the playground.

Before you visit this place you should know about its dark history. Back in 1975 Charles Scovil, the head of Stamford Observatory and so-called astronomer (without an astronomy degree), had an old, useless dome on the grounds of the observatory which is part of the Stamford Museum and Nature Center. The dome was defective and never worked properly but no one could get the money to remove it from the observatory property. So Mr. Scovil tricked a group of high school students from New York into removing the dome from the observatory property by offering to donate the defective dome to them for an observatory they were building. Of course, Mr. Scovil knew that the dome was defective and would never work but he lied to the students, telling them it was a perfectly good dome that it would work fine. The students put in a great deal of hours, work, money and effort to remove the dome from the observatory property but once they got the dome to Armonk they found (to no surprise) that it was completely useless. Mr. Scovil had successfully transferred the problem of how to get rid of a two-ton dome (for free) to the high school students and his observatory looked beautiful again.This demonstrates that Mr. Scovil is a liar and is so devious and unethical that he would trick a group of high school kids into doing something that he knew would be disastrous to them. Scovil is immoral to the very core. There are few men on this earth who are as unethical, devious and loathsome as Charles Scovil. I notified Stamford Museum and Nature Center about this injustice but they just ignored me. They were fine leaving this injustice just as it is. Therefore they are just as loathsome as their so-called astronomer, Charles Scovil.

Great for families. Aside from the museum and nature center there is also a working farm with cows, pigs, chickens etc. They also have more exotic animals such as llamas​ and otters. The also rent the place for parties and have a farmers market on Sunday mornings during the summer.

I came here to scout it as a possible place to hold a gathering. It is beautiful and the facilities available are amazing. The event manager Cate will take care of you! On the other hand a place to come enjoy a day and maybe brings some kids to see the farm... Its really wonderful. Science!

Its a great place for kids, you can learn about organic farming, deep forests for trekking.The Forest volunteers take you for a tour with family or groups, lots of animals like river otter, lama, horse, cows, ducks, turkey, ram, sheep.The museum had a photography exhibition of various female photographers from Stamford, some truly impressive clicks!You can stay the day enjoy the screnity and have meals with your family and kids!

Excellent value for money. A great farm experience, with varied hikes and walks through woodland settings. Local museum is small but focused, and theres a great play area for larger kids outside.

Nice place to bring very small children. Limited number of animals on display. The museum is only half full of displays. Be aware that the grounds are hilly. Occasionally they have music events.

Great place to bring kids. Theres an amazing playground and lots of neat animals to see, including otters. The museum itself is quite small, but theres also a nice easy path through the woods that you can follow.

Fabulous and educational place to visit. I love the maple syrup they make and seeing all of the animals. A great family place.

Its a nice change of scenery from a typical park. Could use more guide signs to get around more easily. Sometimes gets very crowded at the play ground.

A place to walk and share wirh rhe family

Super place for kids, great animals and a fantastic playground.Great way to wear your kids out and hope for a long nap that afternoon.Also has a small house in the middle of the farm to hold parties for kids birthdays.

I went here with Super Sunday special needs program from jcc as a volunteer consular and the best part the kids like was the farm animals

A great place to take the kids enough of the features are spread out that it is easy to miss some of the attraction (the lizard and bird shack, hiking trail and playground are close by but easy to walk past). Keep an eye out for the occational special events (folks in revolutionary war clothes, food trucks, pumpkin carving, etc.), they usually cost a little extra ($10), but they add to the experience.

We are members. Love the hikes here in spring and fall. The playground is great, and love the variety of farm animals.

We were very disappointed and found it to be alot of hype and false advertising. Although kids enjoy running through the farm and playing in the natures playground (lots of tripping hazards and spiders btw), the rest is disappointing. The admission is too expensive for what you actually get to see, unless you are paying for only one adult and only taking kids under 3. You cannot walk through the house/museum to enjoy its architecture or learn about its history either. Its just one small hallway with 15 tiny miniature paintings and stuffed birds. The entire second floor is offices. I dont know what vital business goes on to require that much space, which could be therwise be used as promoted on the website, touring the mansion and seeing the designer clothing perhaps. It was a very stuffy and unwelcoming atmosphere. The planetarium is only opened for groups, so that was another dead end bummer. All in all, we paid $50 to let the kids run through a small farm (no petting, feeding or interactive horse&buggy rides...just walking and looking) and play in a fascinating but precarious wooden playground on a steep hill. Will not return or recommend until they fulfill what they enticingly claim on the website and even add more programs for children older than 3.

What a great place to spend some time with family! Its better than a zoo because the animals are happy!

Now one of my new favorite places to go!

Highly recommend for a nature walk and museum tour and farm and animal zoo. It was a little more money than I expected but well worth it.

Very fun place for children to run around. Our daughter things zoos are very sad but loved the animals outdoors.

Great place. Excellent playground. Also had a little shop

My kids love to go here. A wonderful family outing.

Excellent museum. If you are a nature nut and are visiting Stamford, this site is really worth a visit. Great for kids, and great if you dont want to drive into New York City yet want to do the museum thing. Their café is expensive, however.

SM&NC really went down in the past couple of years, how unfortunate. First of all - not a big selection of animals anymore. Second - animals are cared for very poorly. Dirty, very thin - almost malnourished looking, need good brushing and cleaning. This place charges an ample amount of money to get in, so why are animals are in such dire straits???

The otters are adorable! And petting the little animals when they have babies is sweet.

Love it. Is beautiful, good for kids families ,lovers. It has all for everyone. Gorgeous playground for the kiddos. Animals . Lake.

Great outdoor lots farm animals. Good for picnic

Superb nature center with farm animals. Very good fun for kids

Awesome place for the kids. The farm is clean and the animals are not hidden away. The playground, well lets just say your child wont get bored anytime soon. Actually you will revert back into a child yourself as the slides and playground are big enough to allow adults to play along with their children woohoo!!! Have fun and laugh. Be the kid your child wants you to be. Enough said.

Great place for family fun. We were here with family recently. Great place!

I really enjoyed my time there. Great hiking trails!

Such a great place to bring your kids and family.

Oh my how I LOVE this place!!I spent many happy hours there with my family when I was young!! I plan to return to visit again someday.

Its a beautiful place to take your kids,you get to different animals, the river, the your kids gets to play with other kids,its just a very enjoyable place to go to.

Friendly staff and wonderful paths to wander while you look at the animals.

Great mix of activities; an estate turned museum, farm, and observatory with large property and hiking trails. Trails connect to the Bartlett Arboretum.

A wonderful nature center, farm and museum for the whole family.

Love the scope.... Love the presentations by Jupiter Joe.. very hands on

Because the nature center is my favorite because at Rogers camp Rossco

Great place for families been there several times

Great place for a date or to spend the day with family. Make sure to buy/eat food before hand, since they dont have any.

Lovely exhibits! Would recommend to friends and family!

A little pricey but so much fun for the kids

The farm, the little animal exhibit, and the playground is a perfect day for a toddler

My kids love to go here!

Great outdoor activity for children.;

The best place for kids.

Very well maintained place.

Very nice place

Nice time spent with my kid

Great place to visit in summers.

Very nice

I like it a lot

Love it

LOVED IT!

Nice to be at the museum

Love it

Beautiful gem in northern Stamford.

Very nice nature center.

Great museum and awesome experience!

Nice

Excellent!