Discovery Cube Orange County, a science museum in Santa Ana, California, with more than 100 hands-on exhibits.

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Discovery Cube

Top choice in Orange County


Follow the giant 10-story cube – balanced on one of its points – to the county's best educational kiddie attraction. About 100 hands-on displays await, covering everything from dinosaurs to robotics, rockets to the water supply, the environment to hockey. In the Grand Hall of Science, you might learn the science of tornadoes or the physics of pulleys, while the Discovery Theater screens 4D movies.

Elsewhere, step into the eye of a hurricane or grab a seat in the Shake Shack to virtually experience a magnitude 6.4 quake. Special science-themed exhibits, like the annual Bubblefest, are fun too. 2015 saw a 44,000-sq-ft expansion of the facilities.

You'll want to allow a good four hours here, more if your kids are budding scientists.

It's about 5 miles southeast of Disneyland via the I-5.