Reclaiming Wonders

Want to save money on family travel and wondering how to save money on travel? The best museum membership programs save tons of family travel costs as they often include free entrance to other museums throughout their museum reciprocal network. A reciprocal membership program is your golden ticket to unlimited family educational adventures.

With one well-chosen museum association pass, my family of six has saved thousands while exploring incredible museums, gardens, and exhibits. These museum memberships unlock endless learning opportunities—up-close encounters with towering fossils, familiar visits with zoo animals, and hours at hands-on children’s museums—all without breaking the bank.

Let me convince your why a reciprocal museum membership is my best secret of how to save money traveling and on weekday family learning and homeschooling adventures.

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Why Should I Get a Museum Membership?

I strongly believe that, of all that we do for our homeschool, our non-traditional learning is what has been most impactful to helping my kids truly learn and love our world. No amount of book reading can compare! Yes, these opportunities can be big financial investments, but they don’t have to be. 

The best kind of family learning happens when you return the same local museum or zoo over and over. When you are familiar with a place, less energy is seeing the new sights and you can focus on truly absorbing details. No matter how many visits, you will never end a museum visit declaring you saw nothing new.

We always discover new treasures, displays, or facts. Bring guests to “your” museum to give them private tours of all your favorites; museum reciprocity turns your little discoverers into tour guides.

~~~> Are you a homeschool family looking to add more museums to your homeschool life? Make sure you check out this ultimate list of homeschool including our Classical Conversations curriculum, roadschooling, unschooling, and living book lists.

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What Are Museum Reciprocity Programs?

The best museum membership programs offers reciprocity all over the country and, sometimes, world. Our homeschool family travels sure abuse use them on our cross-country travels for free admission. Make sure you keep your membership card and your driver’s license with you to prove membership.

Another perk of these reciprocal membership programs is that you detour travels to new cities simply because you have seen an amazing museum on the reciprocal museum list. I admit to planning a family vacation or road trip based solely on which museums I can hit along the way. When you have a membership, you also have an automatic free stop for a wiggle-break on a long driving day. A new children’s museum is better than a rest area any day.

A word of caution. Sometimes on the list I see museums which are free of charge to all and aren’t technically reciprocity. I find this pretty sneaky. But it still helps you find free places!

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How Much Does a Museum Membership Cost?

Usually, a family museum membership for the whole year is the same as the price of two one-day trips. It ends up being about $125 for my family of six. This seems to be the average for an arboretum, zoo, or museum. Depending on the location, having a membership can also provide early entrance some mornings and discounts for special events, educational programs, I-Max movies, and gift shop purchases.

A note. Sometimes a museum has different levels of membership, and you might have to pay $20 or so for the higher level that offers reciprocity. Get this and start adventuring.

Plan ahead. If you know you want to save money on travel within the next year, definitely look at that area’s museums. For the cost of one trip to the local museum plus one museum on vacation, you have practically paid for a year’s membership. Just make sure you do it far enough in advance to have proof of membership with you in your wallet.

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Saving Money on a Museum Reciprocal Program

Quit searching for how to save money homeschooling. Here’s my top homeschooling tip – quit buying curriculum and get the best homeschool activities by heading to a museum, garden, zoo, or aquarium.

• Ask about an educational or homeschool teacher discount. It never hurts to ask. Make sure you keep your homeschool ID or proof of enrollment with you just in case.
• Check on Groupon. Search by city and “things to do”. Museums often have one day ticket deals as well as discounts for a year’s membership. This is especially beneficial in more tourist-heavy cities. Make sure you check the details listing how long before using Groupon that it has to be purchased. Some required it to have been bought 24 hours before use.
• Ask for memberships for family gifts for Christmas or Mother’s Day or even “Happy First Day of Homeschooling”! Best gifts ever.
• Don’t forget that many museums offer discount days (not on membership) for military families and may have a Bank of America free day for cardholders.

~~~> Do you get stressed when planning road trips? Make sure you read “10 Tips to Less Stress on Road Trips” and these detailed itinerary road trip Virginia itinerary and Yellowstone itinerary.

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Where Should I Get My Museum Association Membership?

If you buy your membership in a large city that has several museums on the list, there is often a requirement that you can’t use your membership within 90 miles of your home museum. That means that the reciprocity doesn’t do you much good unless you travel often. For example, the Houston Health Museum membership won’t allow free admission to the Johnson Space Center in south Houston because it’s too close.

Consider buying a membership for a museum not in your home city. The museum near Grandma’s house or even on a trip might be $40 cheaper for the year than your local one. Smaller, less popular museums tend to offer cheaper membership rates. Double check on their website for the little ASTC logo on their membership page or consider calling them directly. You get the same reciprocity no matter the location of your home membership.

Now, as a disclaimer, I had a person comment on Facebook one time that she’s had museums check her home address to make sure it’s in the same place as her home museum. I have never heard of that happening anywhere else. I’ll keep trying and keep you posted. (If it happens, fight for it. 🙂 )

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Should I Join a Museum without Reciprocity?

Not all museums are involved in an museums. The only way to know this is to check the museum website or even call them directly. Museum reciprocity lists change, so make sure you are looking at the most recent one. Additionally, some have identification requirements that you won’t know about otherwise.

So should I consider a yearly museum membership if they aren’t in a network? Absolutely if the museum is awesome and has tons to offer for repeat visits throughout the year. It may not save you money on travel, but the benefits of being able to visit your favorite museum for a whole year out-weigh this fact. The Houston Museum of Natural History will forever be one of our favorite places and returning feels like going to see old friends. We still talk about one of the mummies by name every once in a while. Its lack of reciprocity didn’t keep me from renewing our family membership to this favorite museum year after year.

~~~> Best and most popular museums that stand alone without reciprocity? Add the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum to your family road trip plan with these posts.

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Top Reciprocal Museum Programs in the United States

• NARM Art and History Museum Membership
• ROAM Art and History Museum Membership
• SERM Art and History Museum Membership
• Time Travelers History Museums
• ASTC Children and Science Museum Membership
• AZA Zoo Membership
• AHS Garden Membership

NARM Museums – North America Reciprocal Museum Association

With the purchase of our NARM reciprocal membership to the Carlos Museum in downtown Atlanta, we got to add North America Reciprocal Museum (NARM) to our list of museum reciprocal programs. With our full admission price covered by the one family membership, we’ve been able to go to many history and art museums around the United States.

If you’re looking to see if there is a NARM museum near you, the NARM association list shows a map of involved organizations. There are more than 1000 art museum memberships, historical museums, and gardens on the NARM reciprocal list to explore. If you’re looking for a membership with a great reciprocity, the NARM membership is the one to get!

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ASTC Museum Reciprocity – Association of Science and Technology

The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) passport program is my favorite membership to get and includes children’s museums and science museum reciprocity. By using the ASTC Travel Passport Program, you get in completely free to other amazing museums just by showing your membership card. This science museum membership has given my kids great hands-on play and experimentation; a much-needed break from all the history museums Mom drags them to.

This list of ASTC museums lets you search museums by state, “the closest ASTC museum near me”, and tells details like how many people will be admitted with your museum membership card. Isn’t saving money on vacation fun?! 🙂

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Association of Zoos and Aquariums – AZA

While the zoo reciprocity with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) isn’t 100% free, distant zoos will give either 25% of 50% off of the full price ticket. In my experience, these zoos only very rarely cover the full cost of a family visit. However, since my family lives at the zoo some years, we definitely get our membership’s worth of visits out of this investment… even without traveling. Wild Kratts + Zoo = more animal knowledge than you could ever find elsewhere. Find a zoo for your travels here on the AZA-accredited list of zoos and aquariums.

An aquarium membership often applies the same discount as a zoo association membership. Sometimes zoos are included under garden memberships with the American Horticultural Society, so double check the AHS list too. This is especially if it’s listed as a “zoo and garden” or a place with significant planting areas.

Several years ago, I tried to go without a zoo membership. It lasted six months. Sadly now though I admit, that the kids are older and the zoo is no longer as exciting as it once was. Soak up those years of little kids!

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American Horticultural Society – AHS

When I realized how much my kids enjoy walking around the Atlanta Botanical Garden and did the math, it just made sense to get an American Horticultural Society (AHS) membership. Since we have bought the botanical garden membership, we have explored numerous gardens around the country – for free! It’s been a great addition to my reciprocity arsenal and brings with it some awesome outdoor botanical garden adventures with the cost 100% covered with my membership. It’s been a great investment! Check out this AHS garden network map to look for a garden near you today.

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Time Travelers Museums

Although I feel that the Time Travelers museum list is pretty extensive, this a group of museums which aren’t discussed as often as the others. I will add that this museum benefit usually goes along side NARM or another history based museum membership. Some of these are the same as on the other lists, but some are unique. With that said, I wouldn’t go out to just get the Time Travelers membership, but definitely reference the list if you are traveling and know you have it.

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SERM Museums (Southeastern Reciprocal Membership)

A SERM membership covers a smaller group of museums in the Southeast – think Alabama to Kentucky to Florida. In my experience, SERM museum membership association usually is found with other history-based museum memberships like NARM or Time Travelers. Check out this SERM list of all the art, history, and even science museums which are included.

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ROAM Museums (Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums)

With more than 500 participating ROAM museums on the ROAM list of amazing art, history, and cultural destinations, there will be a museum on this list near you.

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The Best (Secret!) Museum Membership You Need

Sometimes, you can find a museum or zoo that covers several different memberships. One example of this would be a museum with a garden. Because it’s technically two types of museums, they might offer a reciprocal visit to a museum and a garden. When you get a membership to this type of place, you’re technically getting two memberships for the price of only one. Score!

An excellent example of this is the Kern County Museum in California. For the cost of the $125 family travel membership, you can get access to NARM and Time Travelers and ASTC. That’s a nation of children’s museums through the ASTC plus all kinds of history and art with NARM.

I know what you’re thinking: “You don’t live in California”. You’re right. I don’t. I’ve never been to this museum. However, when I chose to support it as my home museum, I don’t get blocked with that 30 mile radius clincher. All of Georgia is free to me.

While they are quite a few museums who offer multiple history museum group reciprocities (like NARM + Time Traveler), this one is special because science museum and history museums are two different groups usually.

Hope this helps you save money on family travel with museum and zoo memberships. Let’s take family learning on the road. Ask me if you have any questions!

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Hope this inspires you to go check out some new places!