by Many of our followers are wondering how much money we have been spending on our adventures, probably pondering if they can afford to do this, too, right?
As an accountant, I had of course tried to put together a budget, but it was near impossible. We are, however, tracking many of our expenses, and I’m here to talk about Entrance/Activity Fees at all the museums and attractions that we have been visiting. Hopefully, this post will save you some money, too. I am also interested in hearing about any tips you have for us (who doesn’t like saving money?).
We have roughly been traveling about three months, so let’s break it down.
NARM
My biggest discovery –– and I honestly cannot believe I didn’t know about this before –– is that you can buy a membership at one museum that gives you free access to a network of other museums all across the U.S.
For instance, we paid $120 for a two-person membership at the New Britain Museum of American Art, which is a member of NARM (National Association of Regional Museums).
Our NBMAA membership card notes that they are part of NARM, and so we have used that card to save almost $600 on admission fees at other museums in just three months. And it was easy. I was worried that museums in the association would give you a blank stare when you mention NARM, but nope, we just showed our cards and in we went.
The Shelburne Museum where we spent almost five hours? Didn’t spend $50 to get in. Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home? Didn’t spend $46 to get in. New England Air Museum? Didn’t spend $42 to get in! (Hint: every picture in this post, which are all new to the blog: didn’t pay to get in!)
The best part is that museums you might pass by are now covered, so you can explore places that you otherwise might not have considered.
If you only spend twenty minutes before deciding it isn’t for you, you’re not left with regret about the money you spent (I’m looking at you, New England Air Museum).
But sometimes you find a real gem, such as the Saratoga Automobile Museum, which we probably wouldn’t have visited if it weren’t for our NARM membership.
Note, the NARM privileges generally include just regular admission. If there is a special program, exhibit, or other add-on, you must pay for that.
Also, some museums limit reciprocity on museums within a certain geographical distance of your home museum. Check out where you hope to use your NARM card before joining a museum –– you might want to join a museum out of town if you’re looking to use it a lot close to home.
ROAM and ASTC
Another similar national museum program is ROAM (Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums). So far it seems to have a lot fewer museums in it (though are also in NARM).
Instead of paying for admission for two adults at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, we purchased a $105 membership which included admission to the Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and The Andy Warhol Museum, all of which were on our list and would have cost us $100 if we had just purchased tickets to the museums. The Carnegie Museums are part of the ROAM network, which opened up a whole new network for us for an the additional $5.
And because the Carnegie Science Center is part of the Carnegie Museums, their membership includes access to the ASTC (Association of Science and Technology Centers), another network of science museums.
So far we have saved $224 entering museums with the ROAM pass. Not as exciting as our NARM savings, but the year is still young.
Other Networks
There is also a network for zoos and another for botanical gardens. We haven’t joined these, as we’re not yet seeing the math work, but they could make sense for someone who goes to a lot of these.
I’m also looking at membership in the National Trust for Historic Preservation that can be used to visit historic homes.
I’m sure there are more of these to be discovered! Who’s got intel?
National Parks Pass
We paid $80 for a National Parks Pass, which has so far saved us $40. Yes, that’s a net loss for now, but it’s definitely going to pay for itself at some point. In some cases it also provides camping discounts, though we haven’t used that yet.
“Free” times
Many museums have few hours per week or month when they are free, so it can pay to look at their website and see if your schedule works with it.
I’ve noticed art museums in particular seem to offer this. Lots of cities have “First Friday” programs or similar, which are usually also free. These entries may not include special exhibits, so you do need to monitor that. We’ve so far saved $48 by visiting on free days.
AAA
Remember when you could save money with your AAA card? Times are different! Our total savings with AAA so far: $8 (and yes, that’s for two people).
Library Passes
Did you know that you can borrow museum passes from your local library? It’s pretty easy, and there’s quite a few museums, though of course these are going to be local to where your library card is. We did manage to save $64 with it, though.
City Passes
Lots of cities have packages you can buy that give overall discounted admission when you go to several museums or attractions.
So far we haven’t been to any cities offering this, or if they did, it didn’t include museums we were interested in.
Doug points out that as he is on the cusp of senior citizenship we have occasionally received a senior discount for him, which will only increase as he gets older! We haven’t used our AARP card for any attractions yet, but there are some discounts available with that membership.
I would absolutely love to hear your suggestions for saving money. I hope some of you didn’t know about the NARM and similar networks and are now going to save big – though I warn you, looking at the list of museums that are included hurts a little when you see all the museums you paid to visit in the past!
So far we’ve spent almost $1,500 on entrance/activity fees, and “not spent” almost $1,000. I’m pretty pleased with that ratio and can’t wait to see how it continues on.
Good for you plus I am saving lots of money visiting through your pictures. 😊
HA HA HA!!! LOVE IT!!
When your museum memberships are ready to renew, check out the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond as an alternative. Membership there includes both NARM and ROAM (and I think a smaller one that covers the Met?), and the museum itself – which includes a gorgeous sculpture garden, a lily pond with Chihuly glass reeds, an amazing restaurant, and a glass-walled cafe downstairs overlooking the sculptures/pond that was my favorite place to write when we lived nearby – is one of my most beloved museums (along with the Renwick and Hirshhorn in DC).
Great tip – thank you!