With the arrival of scorching heat and much-awaited summer vacations, many families start planning outings and educational trips. Now let us be honest, what comes to your mind when you hear “Museum?” Dimly lit halls? Long corridors housing artefacts that you are told are important? Walls shouting “Do Not Touch That!”
But the vast, noisy, beautiful city of Delhi hides some of the strangest, warmest, revolutionary spaces that weaves a thread of curiosity beneath its chaotic rhythm. Hidden gems like these go beyond the usual historical or artistic exhibits. They spark interest, ignite imagination and provide a perfect blend of entertainment and education for both children and adults. I am talking about museums that smell like terracotta, echo with laughter, are filled with illusions and make you ask questions like, “What does your toilet say about you?”
Summer 2025, take your inner child on a journey to visit the Capital’s most unconventional museums. Not just to look, but to wonder, to giggle and to think.
1. Sulabh International Museum of Toilets
A museum of toilets. Yes, you heard it right! A museum of toilets because dignity has a backstory.
Who knew toilets could have a history? This one-of-a-kind museum traces the fascinating history of sanitation from ancient times to the present, showcasing rare toilet designs, hygiene systems and even luxurious gold-plated commodes. You will see royal thrones that doubled as loos and stories about public health that are as noble as any other tale of history.
It is clever. It is clean. It is different.
Image courtesy: VagaTrip, original source: Visiting Delhi’s Toilet Museum
2. Shankar’s International Dolls Museum
They are not dolls; they are diplomats. 6,500 dolls from 85 countries, speak of the stories their countries never had a chance to write in textbooks. Dressed up in miniature glory, they stand quietly, representing continents, cultures and dreams.
Here, you will meet a tiny Chinese opera singer with cheeks of porcelain. An African warrior made from beads. A Scottish lass in woolen plaid.
It’s not just a doll museum, it’s a republic of dolls.
Image courtesy: Sahil Ahuja, originally published on Pixelated Memories
3. Shaheedi Park
Car parts, bicycle frames, twisted iron- once all garbage. And now? It is a revolutionary space where freedom fighters rise once again as monumental sculptures made entirely of waste. It is a space where patriotism is sculpted from scrap. It is not just sustainable. It is stunning. In Shaheedi Park creativity holds hands with conscience, and waste turns into legacy.
Image Courtesy: NDTV, originally published in “ In Pics: Delhi’s Third Waste-To-Art Park Named Shaheedi Park”
4. National Rail Museum
Remember your first train ride? The joy, the soft whistle, the distant clunk of metal and jolts you felt. The National Rail Museum isn’t just about locomotives, it is a train yard of stories. It’s about the love letters written on platforms. About war troops who were shipped off in dark wagons.
Perfect for young railway buffs and nostalgic adults, this open-air museum showcases vintage locomotives and royal saloon coaches. The museum also includes a toy train ride.
Image Courtesy: Delhi Tourism, originally published in “National Rail Museum Delhi”
5. Sanskriti Kendra
Want to visit a museum where time slows down and the entire experience feels like pottery? Step into Sanskriti Kendra. Tucked away in an artist village near Mehrauli, the museum offers three distinct experiences: traditional Indian terracotta art, handcrafted textiles and everyday objects transformed into design wonders. Clay goddesses will look at you from inside dusty cabinets. Rusted locks, ritual spoons, old textiles that once lived and breathed with people who made them. It showcases India not as an exhibit but as a memory.
You’ll find no signboard shouting for attention, no gift shop pumping souvenirs.
Image Courtesy; Sanskriti Museum
6. Museum of Illusions
A museum where you can step into illusion and become an exhibit yourself. Ever wondered how it would feel to walk upside down or see your head float in a dish? Learn about science concepts such as perception, physics, and ways our brain tricks us- all while shrinking, growing, disappearing, and reappearing. It’s fun. It’s Educational. It’s Instagrammable. You will leave questioning everything.
Image Courtesy: So Delhi, originally published in “12 Mind-Boggling Reasons Why You Need To Visit The Museum Of Illusions In Delhi”
7. Children’s Museum
Tucked behind the Siri Fort Auditorium, not many people know about the Siri Fort’s Children Museum for young eyes and open minds. It is not big and fancy, but it cares. The space is filled with statues and replicas that help children not just learn and memorize history but feel it as well. An idea that blended learning with leisure.
A perfect place for parents who are tired of their children’s screen time and kids who want to run into the past instead of running away scared.
Image Courtesy: Museums of India – National Council of Science Museum
8. National Charkha Museum
Five tons of gleaming symbolism. Cast in stainless steel. A charkha, planted in the middle of Connaught Place. The National Charkha Museum is a tribute to something simple that once had the power to threaten an empire. No flashy screens, no augmented reality here. Just a spinning wheel of steel that reinvents Gandhi’s spirit. It tells stories of the hands that spun, of minds that resisted and of ideas that stitched a nation together.
Take your children here and tell them, freedom isn’t always found in battlefields, it is sometimes spun in silence.
Image Courtesy: Press Information Bureau, Government of India
9. Museo Camera
Lights. Camera. Action. If you have ever held a photo and felt your throat tighten, this place is for us.
Walk through the door of Museo Camera and meet over 2.500 vintage cameras. From sleek Kodaks, boxy Rolleiflexes, accordion-style Leicas, all cameras whisper the same thing: “Remember?” The museum isn’t just about the machines, it’s about the people behind the lens- mother, journalists who dodged bullets, families who click awkward birthday photos. All treasures. Framed and Frozen.
The museum also has a dark room to peek into. See the chemical scented room where memories are frozen forever.
Image Courtesy: Museo Camera – Centre for the Photographic Arts
10. Indian Air Force Museum
Greeted by a hulking Canberra bomber. Inside you will find Dogfight legends, leather flying caps, personal notes from pilots whose names we never learn but whose courage shaped our skies. Kids can marvel at MiGs and Gnats. You can stand under the wings of these marvelous machines, squint your eyes as you look above and wonder what silence sounds like at 30,000 feet above the ground.
It doesn’t have Top Gun glamour. It has steel, sky and sacrifice. Told without fanfare- but with heart.
Image Courtesy: Tripadvisor
One does not always need a plane ticket or passport to travel. Sometimes all one needs is a little curiosity. So this summer skip the ticket lines at usual spots. Grab a water bottle, put on your sunglasses, grab your child’s hand and walk into wonder. Visit these museums for they matter, now more than ever. Learn with feelings, not just facts. Turn knowledge into experience.
Delhi- underneath all the dust and honking horns, is quietly telling you: “You haven’t seen it all”, because these places do not try to impress. They connect.
By Chahat Sharma
