Field Trip FAQs

California accredited schools bringing Pre K–12 grade students qualify for a FREE field trip to the Natural History Museum!

Field trip reservations apply to groups of 10 or more students who attend an onsite, accredited academic institution at least three days a week, exceptions may apply. We also offer free admission to L.A. County residents after school Monday–Friday from 3 pm to 5 pm (except on the first Tuesday of the month, when the Museum is closed). Unsure if you qualify? Contact us at info@nhm.org or 213.763.3529.

Are you a Homeschool student or parent? Check out our Resources for Homeschool Students.

Admission is free for all students, teachers (including school administrative staff, teaching assistants, and one-to-one aides) and chaperones.* We require a minimum of one adult for every ten students.

*Some add on experiences are fee based, please see our Field Trip Add-On page to see which ones. We prioritize student admission into all add-on programs, performances, Butterfly or Spider Pavilions, or exhibitions. Chaperones may not be included due to add-on capacity or availability. Check your confirmation to see if your group is booked for any add-ons and contact our Call Center at info@nhm.org to change or update your reservation.

Yes! Making a reservation in advance ensures a spot on the day of your visit, gives you the opportunity to sign up for add-on reservations, and expedites your check-in process. We ask that all schools fill out and submit an online reservation request form at least three weeks in advance of your visit. Please allow us time to process your request; we do our best to accommodate last-minute requests, but we cannot guarantee availability. If you are trying to schedule multiple visits, each trip will require a separate online request form.

We request that groups submit at least three weeks in advance of their first–choice date. If you are interested in special exhibits or experiences, we recommend submitting your field trip request form as early as possible for the best selection of available dates and programs. Add-on reservations are extremely popular and fill up quickly! Sign up for our mailing list to get notified when registration opens for the school year!

We require a minimum of one adult chaperone for every ten students. We ask that the number of chaperones does not exceed the number of students in your group.

Please note: To prioritize student accessibility to special experiences, chaperones may not be included in add-on reservations (i.e. Butterfly or Spider Pavilion). Check your confirmation to see if your group is booked for any add-ons and contact our Call Center at info@nhm.org to change or update your reservation.

We offer an array of educational programs at the Natural History Museum for every grade level and based on state standards. Learn more about our Guided Programs here. Can't get to the Museum? You can also find asynchronous learning resources such as lesson plans, videos, activities, and more on our Learning Resources page.

Our Field Trip Add-Ons are first come, first served when submitting booking requests and have specific date, time, capacity, and grade level limitations. We highly recommend you review the information about our Field Trip Add-Ons listed on our website before booking to make sure it’s available for your group’s date, size, and grade span.

Many add-ons, such as Butterfly Pavilion or Encounters shows, will book up extremely quickly. Sign up for our mailing list to get notified when registration opens for the school year!

*Policy for Field Trip Add-on Equity: To provide an equitable museum experience for all school visitors, we require that all students in your order be booked into any add-on reservation. Additionally, schools are limited to only one add-on per visit (pending availability and capacity) to ensure equal opportunity to all interested school groups booking a field trip to the Museum.

*Please note: To prioritize student accessibility to special experiences, chaperones may not be included in add-on reservations (i.e. Butterfly or Spider Pavilion). Check your confirmation to see if your group is booked for any add-ons and contact our Call Center at info@nhm.org to change or update your reservation.

Research shows students learn better and retain more long-term interest when allowed to self-select their museum experiences. Your school will not be assigned a Museum docent during your self-guided field trip, but look for our knowledgeable Museum Educators and volunteers in the Museum. This group of trained educators and interpreters will be able to provide more information about the Museum's exhibits and a deeper understanding of the Museum's collection. They will be happy to answer all your questions!

We are so excited that you are bringing your students to the Museum for a field trip! With over 35 million objects in our collections, we understand that visiting the Museum with a class can be overwhelming. To make the most of your first field trip, we recommend you:

Visit the museum on your own first (without your class)! The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County offer free admission to teachers every day with school ID.
View our exhibitions online to see the different galleries your students can explore with excellent connections to curriculum and standards, such as California history in Becoming Los Angeles or the rock cycle in our Gem and Mineral Hall.
Review the Before Your Field Trip page to cover all the bases before your visit.
Download one of our Learning Resources to introduce your students to museum content during class time. We also have a Museum Visit Social Narrative, Sensory Guide, and Visual Scheduler to help prepare visitors with sensory sensitivities.
Dive deeper into our Research & Collections by attending one of our free Educator Workshops.

School groups have designated outdoor lunch areas on the South Lawn or in the Rose Garden (See Field Trip Guide). Due to the volume of school visitors, the restaurant at NHM, Cafe Patio, and Nature Gardens cannot accommodate school lunches.

On very rainy days, we provide indoor lunch areas. We will not let your students eat outside in the rain! Reserve a spot for a lunch area in the Museum at check-in on the day of the visit.

We unfortunately do not have any storage facilities for school lunches! Lunches should be left on the bus, in the car, or securely zipped in backpacks. Food may be purchased to-go from the NHM Grill and eaten in designated areas offsite around the museum, either on the South Lawn or Rose Garden. Thank you for keep our collections safe!

Yes!

School Groups are welcome to purchase lunches to-go or pre-order lunch for pick-up at the Neighborhood Grill. A minimum of 35 lunch orders must be placed at least 5 business days in advance. Details and pricing can be found on the South LA Cafe Lunch Boxes Menu. Please reach out to aaron@slacmanagement.com for any inquires and to place your order. As a reminder, we ask that school groups eat in designated outdoor lunch areas (indicated on our museum map).

Schools scheduling field trips to the museums are required to arrange for their own transportation. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer bus scholarships at this time. As an alternative mode of transportation, we recommend using the Metro Fareless System Initiative program as a way to get free public transportation for your students to visit the museum, check participating schools here. Two Metro Expo Line stops are located directly across the street from the museum on Exposition Blvd.

Bus parking is available in the Pink Lot and Yellow Lot off of Hoover Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. If the Pink and Yellow Lot become full, buses will be allowed to park on Exposition Park Drive. All yellow schools buses pay $20 per bus, charter buses and all other oversized vehicles pay $42 per bus. Personal vehicle parking is available for $20 per car in the NHM Car Park on Bill Robertson Lane, with overflow parking available at the Blue Lot (located next to the California Science Center) for $20. Please see our Field Trip Parking & Directions Map for more information.

To cancel a visit, please contact the Museum's Call Center at 213.763.3529 or info@nhm.org. To reschedule, submit a new online request form. Make sure to have your original order number handy when canceling or rescheduling a field trip!

Note that all existing reservations will be released when your new request is submitted. We do our best to preserve your original schedule, but we cannot guarantee that everything you had scheduled on your first date will be available on your new date. Your new request will be added to the general queue and processed in the order in which it was received. You will receive your updated confirmation within two weeks of submitting your new request.