Travel for the Independence Day holiday is already underway, with AAA predicting that about 71 million people will travel more than 50 miles from home between this weekend and next.
Whether you’re planning a road trip or not, you’ll want to include a museum visit on your itinerary. Here are a few museums that offer free admission on July 4th, holiday weekends, and all summer long.
The Museum of Flight in Seattle is offering free admission all day on Thursday, July 4 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). The museum recently opened a new exhibit. House Beyond Earth Explore what it's like to live and work in space.
Museums on Us: Free Admission Holiday Weekend: July 6th and 7th
(Courtesy of Alder Planetarium)
Bank of America offers free admission to major museums nationwide on the first weekend of every month to anyone with a Bank of America credit or debit card. The next free weekend is July 6 and 7.
The list of participating museums across the country is quite long, including museums like the Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, and the Alder Planetarium in Chicago, and general admission can be quite expensive. This is also a good option if you are looking for an activity to avoid bad weather or extreme heat.
The Blue Star Museum Program offers free admission to active-duty military members, including National Guard and Reserve members, and their families.
The 2024 Blue Star Museum program is currently underway and will run through Labor Day, Monday, September 2, 2024.
Participating Blue Star Museums include a variety of children's museums, art museums, history and science museums, zoos, and nature centers.
Check this list to see if there's a participating museum near you.
More ways to get free museum admission
Many museums have regular days or times when admission is free, discounted, or “pay what you want.” To find out when, check the “Tickets” page on the museum’s website and you may have to scroll down (quite a bit).
A membership card from a museum affiliated with the North American Inter-Museum Association provides free admission to more than 1,000 member museums in the U.S., Canada, and beyond.
In some U.S. cities, museum groups may offer free admission on the first Thursday or Friday of each month. Some sites, such as the Field Museum in Chicago, offer free admission to residents on certain days of the week. And in Washington, D.C., admission is always free at Smithsonian Institution sites, including the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Zoo.
Museums for Everyone programs offer free or discounted admission year-round to visitors with an Electronic Benefits Tax (EBT) ID, and many public libraries now sell museum passes that anyone with a library card can check out for free.
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