Free admission to parks, museums
Posted
Sep 21 2009, 12:06 PM
by
Teresa Mears
Rating:
This Saturday, Sept. 26, there is no excuse for sitting alone in your room.
Via two promotions, you can either visit any of the 391 U.S. national park for free as part of National Public Lands Day or you can get into hundreds of museums free as part of Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day.
The National Public Lands Day is also the National Day of Service, in which volunteers are invited to help clean up and maintain parks. Last year, 120,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, cleared paths and planted trees. Many parks also are planning special activities.
Museum Day provides free entrance to hundreds of museums of all types on Saturday, Sept. 26. A few museums that are closed on Saturday are providing free entry on Sunday, Sept. 27. The promotion even includes some zoos. The venues are as diverse as the Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The J. Paul Getty Museum near Los Angeles and Miami Metrozoo.
To get into the museums free, you have to fill out a form online and print out the admission card, which covers free admission to two people. There is a limit of one card per household.
If you're busy this weekend, you can use your Bank of America ATM, credit or check card for free admission to some 100 museums in 26 states and the District of Columbia next weekend, Oct. 3-4, and on the first full weekend of each month. Each cardholder gets free general admission.
Target also sponsors free admission to museums on one or more Sundays (or in some areas, Fridays) each month, including the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York.
Don't forget to check for local promotions. Many museums have free days or free hours at least once a month. And some, like the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C, are always free.
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