FAQ's

What can we do at Scientopia?
Scientopia is Napa’s newest treasure for children and families. Here we encourage children to explore, touch, dream, wonder, question and play. Children can do activities that involve role play, drama, arts & crafts, and hands-on science. Parents can do a mix of helping their child explore as well as letting their child discover on their own. 

How long is my admission good?
Your entry fee is good for the whole day with your regular price admission of $7 per person! Many parents come in the morning and then return in the afternoon and that’s okay. In fact, it’s great!

If you use our Prepaid Play Pass please note your admission is good for 2 hours.

How long can we expect to stay?
That all depends on your child(ren).  Our average visit time is about 2 or 2.5 hours. Although some kids have been known to stay for 5 hours so you never know. Pack snacks or lunch if you want to extend your visit a bit by keeping their tummies happy!

What age is Scientopia appropriate for?
Scientopia is for children 0-12. What do you mean 0? Yes, we have an infant/toddler room that is appropriate for babies, crawlers and new walkers. It is completely carpeted and full of nice soft vinyl blocks for easy play and exploration. Is my 12 year old  too old? When we designed Scientopia we tried to incorporate a mix of exhibits and play that would span all the ages. It is certainly trickier to plan for the older children as their tastes and styles change frequently. The good news is we change frequently too! If in doubt, bring your older children in for a tour of our facility and let them decide if they think it will be fun for them.  On any given day we have children that range in age from babies to 12, so we do think it’s an enjoyable space for all.

Do you have food?
We have a vending machine stocked with mostly healthy snacks and drinks, and a nice eating area indoors as well as a picnic table in the Children’s Garden. Sippy cups, snacks and packed lunches from home are allowed into the play space, as long as they are kept in the eating area. There are several restaurants nearby (The Little Gourmet, Filippi’s, & Taylor’s Refresher are just a few) and you are welcome to go eat and then come back to play. 

Is Scientopia a childcare?
No, Scientopia was designed for parents and caregivers to stay with their child(ren) and enjoy the fun! Of course, our staff is always around to lend a hand when you need one!

Why do adults have to pay?
Because it's darn expensive to do business in the state of California. Our rent, labor and insurance costs are our biggest expenses each month. In order to provide you and your child(ren) with a high quality safe environment it's important for us to be staffed appropriately. As a business we are not entitled to the typical state, federal or any other grants or monetary donations, and cannot fundraise significant money to subsidize our costs. We do not get free rent from the City or any other perks for that matter.

In addition, we consider ourselves very much like a movie theater, children's museum, bowling alley, zoo or aquarium. In each of those situations the adult pays to visit. While some question why we are charging you to "play with" or "watch" your child, the simple fact is we believe the overall cost for the visit and activities we provide is a reasonable one. On average people stay 2 to 3 hours per visit, sometimes more! It's an all day admission! For 2 adults and 2 children this means $21 for the visit or $8.40 per hour for 2 children, which we believe is a value for what we offer. Several other places charge by the hour. If we did charge by the hour the visit would end up costing you more. Our clean, safe, high quality environment costs money to maintain. Also you don't have to drive an hour each way to play and you can stay as long as you like. If we didn't charge adults we would not be able to change and upgrade our exhibits frequently. We also wouldn't be able to stay in business.

We realize that for some families the cost of regular admission to Scientopia is limiting or prohibitive. We try to make it as affordable as possible by offering discounted admission days (see our calendar for details), our Prepaid Play Pass (10 visits for $50) our special punch pass (after 9 visitors get one free), as well as reduced pricing weekdays after 2:30 (only $5 per person). In the afternoon 2 adults and 2 children can come to play for only $15 or $5 per hour for 2 children to play for 3 hours!

If you love Scientopia Discovery Center and want it to stay in business, please spread the word and try to visit once per month. We hope your whole family enjoys our offerings!

Why isn’t Scientopia a non-profit?
In this day and age it’s a difficult climate for many non-profits to exist and thrive. This is especially true for children’s museums. It is difficult to fundraise enough money to support a venture like this one. This is why we decided to do it as a family business and follow a model that is self-sustaining, so that Scientopia can be around for a long time without worrying if we will get grants to support our programming.

Does Scientopia offer memberships?
At this time we do not offer memberships. We do offer a punch pass. With 9 paid admissions you get one free. In addition, our weekday afternoon pricing is discounted to $5 per person from 2:30 pm  to 5:30 pm to give folks a bit of a break and make it possible for more frequent visits. We do offer a Prepaid Play Pass for $50 which saves you $2 per person off the regular admission.