This Popular, Free-To-Visit DC Museum Is Often Regarded As One Of The Most Disappointing In The World

You know what sounds pretty cool? A big, ole' room full of shiny, antique planes hanging from the ceiling, the command module from the Apollo 11 mission (yes, the one that landed on the moon in 1969), one of the Wright Brothers' actual biplanes from 1903, and even the starship Enterprise model from the original "Star Trek" series. What's not to like? Apparently a lot, as Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — where all of that stuff is housed — was recently deemed the world's worst museum in the world, per a study by Radical Storage. What gives?

Radical Storage's findings derive from data collected from over 80,000 visitor reviews across the 100 most-visited museums worldwide. Taking keywords and review scores into account, the storage solutions company ranked the five best and worst global museums. On the bottom of the ranking sits the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, with a score of 7.5 out of 100. Ouch. The most common negative word cited in their study was "dull" (an adjective we greatly contest), which popped up in 17.7% of all reviews. Only about 35% of those reviews were generally positive, while 15% were negative.

But would-be visitors to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum can take heart. You can still drop by if you are fascinanted by aviation, avianocs, space flight, tech and history related knick-knacks, or just want something else to do that's totally free while visiting D.C. standards like the Lincoln Memorial or the city's quirkiest attraction that is quickly becoming one of the city's most talked about tourist spots: an old pay phone.

Pre-COVID-19, visitor numbers to Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum had been on the decline from their all-time high of 9.4 million visitors in 2003. In 2024, that number had fallen to 1.9 million visitors. While this number is nowhere near the stats for Paris' Louvre Museum (the world's busiest, which has gone on strike to combat overtourism), that's still a respectable number of people. So the question begs: If the museum is so poorly rated, why does it still get so many visitors?

We've got a clue, though. The whole museum has been under renovation since 2018 and is getting an extensive overhaul. Scheduled to be finished by 2026, the museum's transformation includes a monumental 20 galleries — eight of which opened in 2022 — plus over 5,200 relocated artifacts and 1,400 new items. This is a completely bananas undertaking, one made even more impressive given the museum's free price tag. But in the meantime, it means that certain areas of the museum are off-limits. It's impossible to say for sure how this has impacted reviews, but numerous less-than-five-star reviews on Tripadvisor and Yelp mention being disappointed because of the renovations. This is a raw deal for the museum, but that's the way it is.

Nonetheless, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum stands at the ready for visitors. In addition to the exhibitions and objects we mentioned earlier, there's an IMAX theater, a planetarium, and, of course, the obligatory café and souvenir shops. For a free museum that you can easily incorporate into your D.C. trip, this is a pretty good deal. To continue your tour of the world's worst attractions, consider stopping by (or avoiding) the most disappointing museum in Europe, London's Science Museum.