National Museum of Natural History

This museum, operating since 1910, is the world's most visited natural history museum. It also welcomes the highest number of visitors per year out of all the museums in the United States in general.

Managed by the Smithsonian Institute, the museum features anything and everything related to nature, be it plants, animals or diamonds. The most prominent parts of its 126 million-piece-collection are its meteorites and fossils, including an entire skeleton of a T-Rex.

The collections are divided into colour-coded sections. Along with other dinosaurs, the T-Rex can be found in the green section: Fossil History. The blue section is devoted to animals and ecosystems, the red area focuses on human diversity and includes mummies. Last but not the least, you can find diamonds in the brown section: Earth Sciences.

When visiting the museum, keep in mind that there are likely to be crowds and long waiting lines, especially in front of the building itself. This is also due to the fact that you will be asked to pass a metal detector upon entering.