I first heard of pop-up museums about a year ago when I saw some bloggers and celebrities posting about this place called Happy Place.  As a mom of a pre-teen daughter, it looked appealing as something she might enjoy, especially with her newfound affection for Instagram and getting the perfect pic but wasn’t really sure what it was entirely.  Shortly thereafter, I saw an ad for another pop-up museum in the LA area called Candytopia.  Knowing both my daughter and niece would enjoy visiting both, we quickly snagged tickets for Christmas.  The girls were ecstatic until about a week after Christmas when both notified us they had lost their temporary locations and needed to refund our money until they found another spot.   Fortunately, both secured new locations and we were able to book our day trip to LA to check out both.

Pulling up to our first museum, we noticed it was on the top of a parking structure near LA Live in a huge yellow tent.  We were skeptical at first but completely astounded when we walked inside.  Each room was carefully  designed to evoke emotions of happiness.  The detail that was put into something that was just temporary was amazing.  Not only did the girls love capturing pictures and Boomerangs in each room, but several of them were interactive, including jumping into the “pot of gold” ball pit, walking into the confetti blaster and several rooms had candy or cake pops to give away too.

From there, we ventured over to Candytopia in Santa Monica.  We had very high expectations of this one after seeing all of the pics and definitely enjoyed the experience but it was dampened by a lack of A/C (may have just been an issue the day we went).  Nevertheless, the girls had a blast in several of the rooms including the cloud room and, of course, the large marshmallow pit at the end.  Candytopia also an additional 3D photo feature in each room which added to the experience as well.  The artistic detail of everything that was made with candy was also pretty impressive.  This one didn’t seem as large as Happy Place but that was the only one we had to compare to.

Since these pop-up museums are usually temporary, you have to catch them while they are in town.  We heard great things about the Museum of Ice Cream Museum but unfortunately missed the window on that one here in LA.  If you are in New York, Miami or San Francisco, you can still catch this one.  Happy Place has since moved to Chicago but hopefully will be back to the LA area at some point.  Candytopia is open in Santa Monica until July 22nd so you still have time to check this one out if you hurry.  From there, they move on to New York.

Overall, we had a great time exploring something new and seeing what the craze was all about.  I would highly recommend it for those with tween or teenage daughters.  Since then, we have seen several others either come into town or promote their upcoming openings.  Other pop-up museums to catch include Saved by the Max (for all of us Saved by the Bell fans), the Museum of Illusion and Cheat Day Land.  Keep your eyes open for more and more themed pop-ups in 2018 and be sure to grab your tickets fast.  With popularity gaining, this craze doesn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon!