Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: An Audio Guide

A visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is like going to graduate school for a day, or even an hour.

During this self-guided tour of the famous Washington, D.C museum, you’ll have an opportunity to see exhibits about mammals, ocean life, early man, fossils, gemstones, mummies, asteroids and much more – all encircling Henry the Elephant, who hasn’t moved a step since 1965.

The guide in your ear is award-winning Washington journalist and tour guide Rick Snider, a sixth-generation Washingtonian and the capital’s senior sports writer who spins yarns on his ninth VoiceMap tour like a campaigning politician.

This one-hour tour starts on Constitution Ave, in front of the museum’s entrance. Admission is free. Along the way, you'll learn how to weave your way through millions of years of history amid thousands of fellow visitors. And, the best things in life may be free, but the jewelry collection is still pretty astonishing.

Along the way, you’ll see:

• The museum’s impressive gemstone collection, including Marie Antoinette’s earrings, Napoleon’s empress’ jewelry, and the Hope Diamond. (I’ll also tell you the best time to get a glimpse of this see $250 million stone.)
• Unmissable aquatic specimens including a North Atlantic Right Whale that seemingly floats above visitors’ heads, the megalodon jaws that could devour you whole, and the Lion’s Mane jellyfish that reaches 66 feet – plus 674 other specimens from a collection of 80 million in Ocean Hall
• 274 animals amid a rainforest setting where life-sized lions, tigers and bears (sometimes) get along in the Hall of Mammals. Bonus: learn whether zebras are white with black stripes or black with white stripes
• A Triceratops being devoured by a T-Rex, the king of dinosaurs, in the Hall of Fossils, where one of just six T-Rex skeletons in the country is kept
• 76 skulls of early man and drawings from cave dwellers in the Hall of Human Origins, showing that we’re pretty lucky to have survived millions of years ago!

This tour isn’t all about living creatures, though. You’ll also find:

• Two “morphing” stations that scan visitors’ faces to show what they’d look like in prehistoric days. Perfect for Tinder profiles.
• The statue of the Easter Island head that says “Yum Yum”in the 2009 movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
• Asteroids that once wandered outer space, which you can touch

The tour ends in the Orkin Insect Zoo, where you’ll have a chance to interact with insects and butterflies. By the end of this audio tour, which covers several rooms on the first and second floors, you’ll know a little something about everything on our planet. You’ll also have figured out how to grab a bite quickly along the way.