Day trip to Nehru planetarium and science centre in Worli

Last Saturday, we planned a trip to the Nehru planetarium and science center in Worli and Lower Parel. It was the last weekend of the Christmas vacation. I had pre-booked a planetarium show at 12 in the afternoon. It is also recommended on their website to pre-book at least a day in advance. If you want an English show specifically, it is better to book 2 days in advance, especially during holidays and vacations. We went with the Hindi show since the English one was almost fully booked when I checked. It is very easy to book on their website and the ticket can be shown on the phone.

Anyway, we left home after breakfast around 9:10 am. We got a bus to reach Thane station before 9:30 am. We reached Thane station a little after 10 am and booked tickets for CST local. Many local trains have Thane and CST as start and end stations so it is easier to get in and out. Since it was a weekend, the rush was a little less. We boarded the train at 10:20 am and got down at Byculla station at 11:05. Bus number 154 runs from Byculla station to Nehru planetarium. We got the bus around 11:20 and reached the planetarium minutes before 12 pm. We immediately entered the planetarium. They give around 10-15 minutes to click pictures and look at the displays.

astronaut picture setup at nehru planetarium

comparitive sizes in the solar system display at nehru planetarium

When the show starts, initially one of the planetarium employees shows and describes how the night sky is going to look that particular night. After that, the biography of the universe show is played. The shows are quite good and worth the time and money. We left the planetarium around 1:10 pm. We were a little hungry. So to tide us over till we had lunch, we ate a plate of cut fruits. These are very commonly seen on the streets in that area. We walked 10 minutes to the Haji Ali Bay.

haji ali bay with haji ali seen in the background

Then we waited a long time, maybe 30 minutes for the 154 bus to take us to the Science center. The stop is called Jijamata nagar. And right on the bus stop is "Shree Krishna Veg Diet" restaurant. We had cheese dosa, palak masala dosa and paneer chilli dosa between us and chiku shake with ice cream, cold coffee with ice cream and a ginger lemon drink. Everything was quite good. We also shared a caramel custard which seemed to be their specialty. That was good too.

After a 5 minute walk, we reached the Nehru Science Center and after taking the ticket, it was almost 3 pm. Right opposite the ticket counter is a park with science-related experiments in a play setting. We spent almost an hour there and the daughter had a lot of fun.

nehru science centre park area

nehru science centre park area

The main science center is a small walk up from the park. On the way, there are models of a steam locomotive, an electric locomotive, and a fighter aircraft.

nehru science centre fighter aircraft model

There are dinosaur models below the science center building. After going up the stairs, there is a baggage counter before the entrance to the building.

entrance to nehru science centre

The science centre was buzzing with activity and lots of people. There are different sections in the centre like science for kids, light and sound, biology etc. There are also a couple of shows which you can see there but we were late for them. I think the last show is at 5. The centre closes at 6 pm. We were not able to see the prehistoric section and the daughter was very upset about it. But we were so tired that we couldn't be upset for long :)

walking piano at nehru science centre

science for kids at nehru science centre

sound section at nehru science centre

I think if you want to see everything in the centre including shows then you need at least 4 hours, or 5 if you want to do it without rushing in the crowd. If we go the next time, it would be best to reach at 9:30 am when the centre opens and finish around 3. It would also be less crowded in the morning.

We had taken tickets for a science odyssey show, which started at 6:45 pm. I would say it was a waste of time. They show a documentary (anything similar can be found on the internet now) on a dome. The daughter fell asleep during the show.

After the show which ended at 7:30 pm, we decided to walk down to the High Street Phoenix mall. It was ideally a 10-15 minute walk but the entrance Google took us to was closed, a little further up the entrance was only for vehicles and finally, we reached the third entrance which was for pedestrians. We walked an hour!

holiday display at high street phoneix

inside high street phoneix mall

walkway at high street phoneix mall

The daughter immediately got a McVeggie burger to recover from all that walking. After that, we decided to eat at Jamie's pizzeria by Jamie Oliver. We wanted to go to a place which was not available in Thane. Yes, it did live up to Jamie Oliver's name.

We had a very authentic pizza and pasta experience. We ordered garlic bread to start with. It was very different from regular garlic bread. It was a flat bread cut into strips and topped with flavorings. Next was red rocket pizza. We were told it is not spicy and that's exactly what we wanted. It was quite good but I was expecting more rocket leaves on top. The pizza dough is exceptional and that's what makes the pizzas great. The pasta was good, but too much sauce to be authentic. If I go there again, I would stick to pizzas. We also had their house-made non-alcoholic ginger beer. It was the right balance of ginger, sweetness, and fizz. In all, a good dinner to top off the day.

garlic bread with dip

red rocket pizza

pink pasta

After dinner, we walked to find our friend, bus number 154. Thankfully, we found it at a traffic signal and boarded it. Reached Byculla station around 11 pm. The train was relatively empty at this late hour. Reached thane station around 11:40. We had booked an Ola to go home but it made us wait half an hour as the driver was dealing with a drunk passenger. We finally reached home after 12:30 am. Very tired and ready for bed.

In retrospect, this trip would be best done by car since there is parking space available at the planetarium, science centre, and the mall. We would have saved some time and a lot of energy if we had gone by car. But we also wanted the daughter to experience public transport. She did get a full public transport experience and she loved it.