Do you love to visit museums but find the admission to be cost-prohibitive? Especially if you aren’t sure how great the museum will be? Then let’s learn how to save money on museum visits!
One of the things that we love to do when traveling, or even just keeping busy around our own town is to visit museums. I always like to know of a few in the area in case the weather is bad, we need something to do, or just feel like checking someplace new out. However, since we visit them often, for a family of four, the cost can really add up.
Here are five of my favorite ways to save a little money while still enjoying museum visits:
Annual Memberships
- Look into annual memberships. This is my all-time favorite tip. If you know you’ll visit a museum more than once, it’s often less expensive to buy a membership and you often get additional benefits like free parking, discounts on food and shopping, etc. When my kids were little, we had memberships to the zoo, children’s museum, and Conner Prairie. In addition to saving on admission, we never felt like we had to spend the whole day there – we could just visit for a few hours and then head home for naps or something else.
Museum memberships are a fantastic gift too, so if the Grandparents don’t know what to get your family for Christmas, this would be an excellent suggestion.
Save with coupons
- Coupons. Ever seen the Entertainment Books? How about deals on Groupon or Living Social. I’ll often find buy one get one free deal for museums so I’ll check these places out when planning a visit. Another great option for larger cities is to check out CityPASS. For example, the Chicago CityPASS offers over 51% savings!
Get your tickets online
- Purchase tickets online. Some locations offer a better deal if you purchase your ticket online. Or they might have some kind of special going on. Always a good idea to check the website before you visit.
Reciprocal Memberships
- Reciprocal Memberships. Closely related to tip #1 is reciprocal memberships. There are several programs out there that allow for reduced or even free admission to hundreds of museums and/or zoos if you belong to one of the organizations in your area. There are often stipulations such as they have to be 90 miles away from your membership site, or only allow for basic admission, but regardless this is a FANTASTIC way to save a lot of money when you travel.
Thanks to our membership to our local Indiana State Museum, on our recent trip to Chicago, we got free basic admission to Adler Planetarium, The Field Museum, AND The Science and Industry museum. Those three visits more than paid for our local membership.
The five programs that I’m aware of are ASTC (Association of Science & Technology Centers), NARM (North American Reciprocal Museum), Smithsonian Affiliates, Time Travelers, and AZA (Association of Zoos & Aquariums).
I always check out the listing for any of these organizations that we belong to and see if there are museums located where we are headed for vacations. Not only is it low-cost entertainment, but we’ve also discovered some really cool places that we would never have visited on our own.
Since I know that these organizations are often non-profit and struggling to make ends meet, if we’ve visited for free, I’ll often put a bit of money in the donation jar and/or be sure to spend a little in the gift shop or cafeteria. That way it’s a win for both of us!
Find a free day!
- Free Days. Most organizations offer a free day each month. Sometimes it’s just for local residents but often anyone can go. Definitely worth checking out.
And now for a bonus option: If you are lucky, your local library might have memberships you can check out – mine offers a family membership to two Indianapolis Museums. We can check out the membership for one week and visit for free.
Do you have other ideas on how to save money on museum visits? Do you like to visit museums? Any favorites to share?
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Living in DC I never had to pay for museums, but these are really helpful tips if I ever move away from the city!
Katie, you are lucky with that aspect of living in DC!
I LOVE reciprocal memberships! We really enjoy going to museum and have seen quite a few that we otherwise would have visited by doing this! Thanks for the great tips!
Erin, us too – and it gives you something else to do when traveling for those days the weather isn’t ideal.
I’ve actually used all of these options, but never thought about checking with the library for memberships. Great idea!
Cathy, I saw it on our library website when I was putting some books on hold and it was a great benefit – saved us $50+ per museum. Even if your library doesn’t do it, it would be worth suggesting.
This is one of the reasons I love DC so much…all of the Smithsonians are free to visit some or all of the displays.
Marianne, isn’t that the truth! We were just there in May and you can’t beat the quality of the museums either!
Great tips!
These are great tips. We always look for free times at museums when we travel as buying tickets for 5 can get a bit pricy. Thank you.
It does add up quickly, doesn’t it?
Great ideas! We were in Chicago over the summer and hit the museums offered in the CityPass. We really enjoyed the perk of VIP entry. Saved us TONS of time. Also, if anyone works in education, many places offer free or reduced admission with valid school I.D.
Thanks for the other ideas!
CityPass is another GREAT idea – thanks for sharing!!!
Great advice! We too used to love having the annual zoo membership when our kids were little, so we didn’t feel obligated to spend a whole day there. It was great!
Kristie, I think that is the best part – getting to just go for a few hours without feeling guilty!
Lots of good information, thank you!!! Can’t wait to try some of your tips!
Heather – I hope they help you save some money and have some fun!
We have really taken advantage of reciprocal memberships. It’s amazing what things you can get into with only one membership!
It is, isn’t it? I always search for them wherever we go – you never know!
Such great tips as always Pam! Thanks!
Thanks!
I really like memberships amd reciprocal use. Our zoo and our children’s play museum do them.
Also, Bank of America card holders get some free museum days. I’m not sure if other banks do this too?
Great tips!
Tiffany – I have heard of that from Bank of America – what a great benefit – thanks for sharing.
Love all of these tips! I am always watching for free days at our local museums, zoos, and aquariums so I can take the whole family 🙂
Shar – absolutely – get on their newsletters and sometimes you’ll get a heads up.
These are great tips. Yes, We love to visit museums. I love the free days.
Missy, I love the free days too – especially if you can get there early before things get busy.
Excellent tips! I am planning a few museum visits with my kids in the near future and these will come in very handy! 🙂
Good – hope you find a few that work for you.
Great tips Pam! Since my NY trip, I’ve definitely seen the benefit to preplanning stops. Saved a lot of money and time and made the trip so much more enjoyable!
Great tips Pam! I bought ahead for stops on my recent NYC trip and it did save a lot of money as well as time and aggravation!
Yes, you are right – buying ahead is also a timesaver – can’t believe I didn’t mention that! Thanks!!
I did not know that libraries had such a thing! We were at a resort recently that had state park passes that we could check out to go to the state parks free. I thought that that was a neat idea, too.
Great idea about the resort – I can totally see that as an option at some resorts.
Any money saving tips are welcome with me. Really nice post.
Thanks – I’m with you! We like to do a lot as a family, so if we can save some money along the way, that just means we can do more!!
Great tips! I’m asking the grandparents to buy our kids the reciprocal membership at their local museum for Christmas this year. And I’m a frequent Groupon user. =)
Kristi – we’ve tried to convince the grandparents to do this for years … I know I’ll do it if I’m a Grandma someday.
Great tips for saving!!! We’ve done the annual memberships before and used the reciprocal option, as well.
Every little bit helps! Especially if you like to visit museums often.
It’s not a vacation without at least one museum visit. Yay for money saving tips!!
So true!
I’m definitely a fan of the free days! Though they tend to be crowded, it opens up the chance to try out new places.
Exactly!
I love these tips. I love reciprocal memberships, that’s how we’ve managed to see so many different museums.
Agreed – it is a good way to visit museums you might not normally get to.
These are great ideas, especially for kids.
Thanks!
Our host in Hawaii had an Entertainment Book that saved us a bunch of money! Great ideas!
We were at a resort once that had an Entertainment book for guests to use – I forgot all about that!
I love these ideas! Annual memberships are the best!
I can spend hours wandering museums. They are top of my list whenever I’m traveling. Thanks for these great tips!
Me too! Hope they help.
This is so helpful! There are so many great museums where I live, and I wish I could go more!
It amazes me how many are out there – we actually stumbled across a new one just an hour from home today!
I love museums! I love saving money! I love this post!
Me too! Thanks!
I am always looking for free days at museums. There is so much to learn, and so much to gain from visiting them.
Agreed – I love visiting museums.
Great ideas! I love going to museums. I often look to my local library for free passes.
Glad to hear our library isn’t the only one who does this!
Great advice! We love checking out local museums!
Us too – we found another one just last weekend!
Great ideas! Love the idea of reciprocal memberships.
The library bonus is great. Our library does that too and I wondered how many people know about it.
So glad to hear other libraries do it too – I think it’s a fantastic benefit.
Great ideas. I really think its a good idea to support museums with annual memberships. keep museums going strong!
I agree! Plus it means lots of fun visits throughout the year for your family.
I’m a total sucker for a good museum visit! Thanks for the tips to finding discounted tickets!
I hope some of the tips work for you!
I love free days at the museum! I definitely took advantage of that when I was in college.
Yes, they are great!
it’s such a good idea! I love going to museums but it does gt real expensive real quick when you are with a family. super helpful post.
Glad it helps!