Good to know before your visit

The museum has wheelchair access from the car park to the entrance. The doors at the entrance to the museum open automatically. You enter and leave the museum through these doors.

The reception is a large space. Receptionists and welcome staff work here. This is where you buy your ticket and can ask questions.

You may want to take off your jacket and place your large bags in a locker. You do this in the corridor to the right of reception. The lockers are made of wood and are different sizes – (65cm x 29cm x 55cm) and (69cm x 57cm x 55cm).

You can borrow a key to one of the lockers in reception. Please give it back at the end of your visit. There are toilets in the same area. One is accessible to wheelchair users.

Toilets

There are toilets on 3 floors. Ask a member of staff where the nearest one is. The toilet next to the shop has a changing room for babies. All the toilets are gender neutral.

You can eat your own food out on the veranda or in the conference room on the 4^th floor or in the educational room on the 3^rd floor if it is free. You may not eat or drink in the exhibition areas.

You can use the lift to get to all the floors. The lift is 2,05m long, 2m high and 1,2m wide. It can take 1125kg in weight. All the stairways have rails on both sides except for the stairway up to the gallery in the old part of the museum.

You can borrow a wheelchair, stools to sit on and ear defenders. Ask in reception if you would like to use these. There are benches to sit on in reception and on the 3^rd floor and there are stools in the exhibition on the 2^nd floor.

You can take a break or read a book in the educational room on the 3^rd floor when there is no group in the room. Ask in reception if you would like more light in one of the exhibitions or would like us to adjust any sound effects during your visit. There are often a lot of visitors during the holidays, at weekends and when there are events (see www.hvalfangstmuseet.no for the times of events.)

Guide dogs are welcome. The museum staff speak Norwegian and English.

There is a shop that sells books, toys, jigsaw puzzles and other things. You can pay for any items in reception.

There is a large room on the ground floor next to reception. You can read and watch films about whaling and there are interactive exhibits. It is a bit dark in here, so just ask a member of staff if you need us to turn up the lights.

Here you can see polar animals and a full-scale model of a blue whale, which hangs from the ceiling.

There is a room for exhibitions, a playroom and educational room on this floor.

You watch a film about whaling here. The film shows whales being caught and cut up. You can also go out to the veranda.

There are skeletons and a film of whales in the ocean. You can watch a film about the ship “Endurance”. It is texted in English.