THE 10 CLOSEST Hotels to USS Midway Museum

We took our family of 5 (8mo old, 2yo, 4yo) to this museum on a Saturday morning and it was such a great experience. We arrived right after it opened and parking was easy to find on the pier for $20. We brought a large double stroller which was easily accommodated on multiple elevators. We were not able to do the part of the tour because you have to climb ladders but the inside tour of the admirals quarters is do able without the stroller and so interesting to see. Both of our kids got the free audio tour devices and especially our 4 year old wanted to hear all of the stories on it and kept going from one plane to the next to get a new story to listen to. The radio communications rooms were a hit with our toddlers. There are so many planes for them to see and sit in which they loved. We enjoyed their lunch on the outside deck. My husband wanted to do some of the flight simulators but we couldn't do them quite yet as our 4 year old was nervous to do them. The gift shop had a lot to offer and the volunteers here were so friendly. I wish we would have had longer attention spans and may have to return to see more later.

Really incredible to visit because a good part of the ship is accessible: decks of course, but also kitchen, infirmary, boiler room, technical parts, meeting rooms, canteen, showers, command rooms,... Fascinating to imagine life on board. You can stay there for a good half day even if for the least able it is a bit "sport" because there are sometimes quite steep ladders if you want to do everything. Well, for about $30 per adult, which may seem expensive, we get value for money especially since audio guide in French is included. Many mythical aircraft such as the Corsair or the F-14 Tomcat are also present. For those who master the language, you can follow some explanations or question the staff present everywhere. You can also eat there or have a drink fast food way.

We had been here over ten years ago, but there are a lot of new things to see and the staff is much better prepared. Friendly yellow-capped docents are all over and eager to answer questions. Lots of fairly recent history to revisit as well as close-up views of historical and current naval aircraft. A good way to get familiar with the complicated details of launching and retrieving aircraft from a moving ship. A can't-miss thing to do in San Diego.

My wife and I, and our two long-time friends, all of us in our mid-sixties, visited this absolutely wonderful museum from a cruise ship, and had the best time. When we arrived to buy the tickets we noticed that veterans got a $10 discount over the normal adult price, and as we were all British Army veterans of some sixty years’ service between us we thought we had nothing to lose by asking if we qualified for this discount. Now we’ve been to quite a few attractions in the United States who offered such a discount, and sometimes we are lucky and they give it to us, and sometimes we aren’t so lucky. Now at this point I really must mention the absolute legend of a man that served us. Unfortunately I did not get his name (I was hoping that it would be on the receipt, but when I returned to England I realised that it wasn’t, which is a real pity as I would love to have mentioned him in this review by his name), but he was on the left hand window at 13:27 on Thursday 14th March 2024. Anyway, we asked about the discount and he immediately told us that he would give us it if we could prove our service. Now the UK is years behind the US in their recognition of its veterans, and as such have only just began to issue proper Veterans’ ID Cards, which unfortunately we are not in possession of at this moment. However, we had our Veterans’ Rail Cards and he accepted this, along with a few questions about rank and such like, and duly gave us the discount. To make this person even more a top man he thanked us for our service – we left the ticket booth feeling ten foot tall. Oh how I wish veterans were treated with so much reverence in the UK as they are in the US. Now onto the museum itself. We spent three and a half hours wandering around this magnificent museum, and only left when it was closing, but we could have spent much more time if we had been allowed. All four of us have visited many military museums in many places throughout the World, and all agreed that this was right up there with the best of them. There’s so much to see and do, and everything is presented with so much thought and attention to detail. We loved the fact that they had mannequins positioned in some of the areas of the ship depicting the persons that would have been there when the ship was on active duty – it added a sense of realism to the whole experience. The volunteers positioned strategically around the museum were fantastic at bringing the ship and its history alive, so well done to each and every one of them. Everything was laid out so well that it was easy to get around without missing anything, but we knew that we had time constraints, so we appreciated that we were hurrying along at a bit of a pace to see all that we could cram in before the museum closed. The Battle of Midway Theatre was just amazing and kept us enthralled throughout the multimedia movie. This is a must see if you are ever in San Diego, and we would certainly visit it again if we are ever in this port – hopefully next time we will all be in possession of our UK Veterans’ ID cards.

The USS Midway was finished just after World War II and was deployed for a long time in the Pacific. The visit is very interesting, being the ship really immense, with many tunnels and corridors, a real labyrinth. Nice to see also the planes on the upper deck. The only sin so many people, often it was really hard to walk along the ship's corridors. Online ticket price $32, which may be considering the (high) price of other attractions in the city.

This is the most interesting experience. One has no idea of the training and what the sailors/crew had to go through - 4500 crew and staff on board. The size of this aircraft carrier is mind boggling and the different types of aircraft and helicopters are amazing. What we particularly liked, is the fact that the men giving the talks and showing videos at each section are ex-navy pilots, and ex sailors, many of whom were actually on this aircraft carrier. We spent almost 4 hours exploring this huge ship, but did not see the engine room. Highly recommended tour.

Visited with family while in San Diego. Well worth the admission fee and very short lines at the ticket booth. We spent around three hours touring through the museum and found it very informative and interesting. Views from the flight deck of San Diego are great. We even dined on board after again with great views. Will visit again next time we are in the area.

I took my 70-year-old sister to visit the Midway and I think she had more fun there than anywhere else I have taken her to in San Diego. We saw loads of children climbing in open aircraft cockpits so she followed suit to pretend fly the planes with the greatest of gusto. We hailed a docent to give us directions and he ended up giving us a semi-private tour full of wonderful anecdotes as he walked us to the opposite end of the ship to show us what we wanted to see. There was so much information available that we had to hold ourselves back or we would never have seen as much of it as we did. The fact that it was built in 17 months and had a navigational computer that ran on one gigabyte was mind boggling!

We spent an excellent morning at the Midway, so many aircraft & helicopters to see on the flight deck. Loads of rooms and parts of the ship are open to the public to tour. Most of the volunteers served on the ship and are super passionate about it, they are all super helpful and knowledgeable. The audio tour is fantastic, although some of the stations didn’t work. Would definitely recommend it.

We were there just before 10am and it was easy to get on the ship. We asked for directions on where to go first in order to avoid crowds and it was great. So much to see and so much information available. There were lots of docents available to ask questions and we took full advantage of their knowledge. (We took advantage of the second day for free, since we couldn't get everywhere). We asked for a AAA discount and it was available (not really published on the website). Food in the restaurant was good!