The morning we’d planned to drive out to La Jolla, there was fog sitting low over the coast and showing no sign of lifting. We changed plans on the spot, headed downtown instead, and ended up at the USS Midway Museum.
It turned out to be one of the best decisions of the whole trip.
We’d been loosely aware it was on our list, but it wasn’t the one we’d been counting down to. By the time we left, it was. If you’re doing San Diego with kids and you’re weighing it up — go.
🎟 Book USS Midway Museum tickets →
We visited with a 3 and 5 year old as part of our one-week San Diego itinerary. Here’s what the day actually looked like.
First Impressions
The USS Midway is docked at Navy Pier in downtown San Diego — easy to get to and impossible to miss. You can see it from a distance, but distance gives you no real sense of the scale.
Standing at the base of the hull is when it actually clicks. This is a floating city — 300 metres long, built to carry over 4,500 people at its peak. Our kids went quiet in that way they do when something is just genuinely, undeniably big.
Life Below Deck
This was the part that surprised us most.
We expected the interior to be sparse — some display cases, a few plaques, maybe a control room or two. What we found was a fully preserved ship. Dining halls, a surgery room, a post office, a laundry — all laid out as they would have been when the ship was operational. It’s less a museum and more a world kept intact.
There’s a lot of walking through narrow corridors and up and down steep ladders — not accessible with a pushchair below deck — but our 3 and 5 year old navigated it easily, and they loved the cramped, layered spaces in the way kids always love small enclosed spaces.
The surgery room was the moment that stopped me. Real operating equipment in a room that belongs inside a ship, preserved exactly as it was. Something about that combination — the scale of the vessel outside, the intimacy of a place where people were actually kept alive — made the whole thing feel less like an exhibit and more like stepping into someone else’s life.
The Flight Deck
The upper deck is where the aircraft are, and this is what impresses from the outside — and from the inside too.
Around 30 aircraft are spread across the flight deck — jets, helicopters, early carrier planes — and you can walk right up to most of them. The kids ran between them. We spent longer here than anywhere else simply because there was so much to take in.
The views of San Diego Bay and downtown from up top are excellent. On a clear day this alone is worth the visit.
Practical Tips
- Allow 2.5–3 hours minimum — you can spend longer if you follow the full audio tour
- Pushchair-friendly on the flight deck, not below — steep ladders and narrow passages throughout the interior; a baby carrier works better than a pram
- Buy tickets online — cheaper than at the gate and skips the arrival queue
- Bring snacks — there’s a small café on site but lines move slowly and options are limited
- Parking — there’s a paid lot directly next to the ship at Navy Pier
Tickets and Pricing
Adult tickets cost around $32; children (4–12) $22; 3 and under are free. For our family of four with the youngest getting in free, that came to around $76 — noticeably more affordable than the zoo.
Book online through GetYourGuide — instant e-ticket on your phone and a small saving over gate price.
🎟 Book USS Midway Museum tickets →
Our Verdict
We went because the fog cancelled La Jolla. We left thinking it was one of the best things we did in San Diego.
The USS Midway works on every level: old enough to be genuinely historic, big enough that the scale alone stops kids in their tracks, detailed enough that there’s real substance for adults too. The surgery room, the post office, the laundry — it sounds like a strange list of highlights, but each one adds to this feeling of a real world preserved rather than recreated.
We followed it up with lunch at Cheesecake Factory on the nearby waterfront. The food was fine, nothing special. The cakes we took home in a box were another matter entirely — Igor talked about the cheesecake for days.
Quick reference:
- Location: Navy Pier, downtown San Diego — easy to reach, visible from the waterfront
- Time needed: 2.5–3 hours minimum
- Tickets: ~$32 adult / ~$22 children (4–12) / 3 and under free
- Book online: cheaper and skips the gate queue
- Flight deck: pushchair-friendly; below deck is not
- Nearest lunch: plenty of waterfront options a short walk away
