Seattle Free Museum Days — Places We Can Visit Without Breaking the Bank
A running list of Seattle-area museums and cultural attractions offering free admission days, plus a few that are free year-round. We're using this as our cheat sheet for finding interesting places to explore without breaking the bank.
Location: Seattle & Puget Sound, Washington
Type: Museum Guide / Seattle / Things To Do / Free & Low-Cost
Status: WANT-TO-GO 🟡
Why We Made This List
We like museums.
We also like keeping a little money in our pockets.
Seattle has a surprisingly good collection of museums and cultural attractions that offer free admission on certain days, and a few places that are free all the time.
So rather than paying full admission every time we want to wander through a museum, we're putting together a list of places we can visit when the calendar and the admission price line up.
This is our Seattle Free Museum Days list.
We'll use it to plan future outings—and we'll update it as we discover more places.
The Big One: First Thursday
The first Thursday of the month is worth remembering.
Several Seattle museums offer free admission that day, although the hours and ticket requirements vary from place to place.
For us, this could turn an ordinary Thursday into a pretty inexpensive Seattle day.
Here are some of the places currently on our radar.
Seattle Art Museum
First Thursday: FREE
The Seattle Art Museum, or SAM, opens its doors free to everyone on the first Thursday of every month. The main museum is currently open from 10 AM to 8 PM on Free First Thursdays.
That's a pretty good deal considering regular adult admission is currently about $30.
And this isn't just a limited portion of the museum—the free admission applies to the museum's exhibitions.
Our idea: Make this an afternoon/evening Seattle outing rather than trying to rush through it.
Seattle Art Museum — Free First Thursday
Seattle Asian Art Museum
First Thursday: FREE
Third Saturday: FREE
The Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park is another excellent one for the list.
Admission is free to everyone on the first Thursday of every month, and the museum also offers free admission on third Saturdays.
This one is especially interesting to us because we already have Volunteer Park Conservatory on our WANT-TO-GO list.
That means we can potentially combine:
Volunteer Park Conservatory + Seattle Asian Art Museum + Volunteer Park
That's starting to look like a pretty good day.
Burke Museum
First Thursday: FREE
The Burke Museum at the University of Washington is another first-Thursday opportunity.
On the first Thursday of each month, admission is free and the museum stays open until 8 PM. The Burke recommends reserving a free timed ticket in advance because these days can draw large crowds.
The Burke covers a pretty broad range of subjects, including dinosaurs and fossils, Northwest Native art, natural history, and cultural collections from around the world.
This is one we'll definitely want to explore.
Tip: If we're going on First Thursday, reserve the free ticket ahead of time.
Museum of Flight
First Thursday: FREE, 5–9 PM
This one might be particularly good for an evening outing.
The Museum of Flight is free from 5 PM to 9 PM on the first Thursday of every month. Regular adult admission is currently $29.
That's enough time to make a serious dent in the museum without paying admission.
And let's be honest—an evening wandering around airplanes and aviation history sounds like a pretty good Thursday night.
Our idea: Dinner somewhere nearby, then Museum of Flight from 5–9.
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
FREE — Every Day
This one doesn't require waiting for a particular Thursday.
The Seattle unit of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park is free year-round, with no entrance pass required. It's located in the historic Pioneer Square neighborhood.
The visitor center includes exhibits about the Klondike Gold Rush and Seattle's role in it, and the National Park Service also offers ranger programs and occasional walking tours.
This could easily become part of a larger Pioneer Square day.
Our idea:
Klondike Gold Rush → Pioneer Square → lunch → wander downtown
No admission fee required.
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park — Seattle
Volunteer Park Conservatory
First Thursday: FREE
This is one we've already put on our WANT-TO-GO list.
The Volunteer Park Conservatory offers free admission on the first Thursday of each month, making it an especially interesting companion to the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
We're planning to visit the Conservatory soon, so we'll eventually have a first-hand report to add here.
For now, it's firmly on our list.
Possible day:
🌿 Volunteer Park Conservatory
🎨 Seattle Asian Art Museum
🌳 Volunteer Park
☕ Coffee or lunch nearby
A Few Ways To Stretch The Budget Even Further
Free museum days aren't the only way to do this.
SAM currently lists several additional ways to get free or reduced admission, including museum passes available through the Seattle Public Library and King County Library System, plus programs such as Museums for All.
So before paying full admission, it's worth checking the museum's current discount page.
Sometimes the best admission price is $0.
How We'll Use This List
We're not trying to visit every museum in Seattle.
That's not really the point.
We're looking for interesting places that fit naturally into things we're already doing.
A museum can become:
A rainy-day outing.
Part of a Seattle day trip.
A stop before dinner.
A reason to explore a neighborhood we've neglected.
Or simply something to do on the first Thursday when we're looking for somewhere different to spend a few hours.
And when we can do it without paying admission?
Even better.
Some Combinations We're Thinking About
Volunteer Park Day
Volunteer Park Conservatory
→ Seattle Asian Art Museum
→ Wander Volunteer Park
→ Coffee or lunch
Pioneer Square Day
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
→ Pioneer Square
→ Explore downtown
→ Lunch
First Thursday Art Day
Seattle Art Museum
→ Downtown Seattle
→ Dinner
→ Evening wander
Aviation Night
Museum of Flight — 5–9 PM
→ Dinner
→ Home
UW Day
Burke Museum
→ University of Washington campus
→ Lunch
→ Explore the neighborhood
The nice thing about this approach is that we're not treating the museums as isolated destinations.
We're building days around them.
Keep Checking Before We Go
Free admission programs can change.
Hours change.
Ticket requirements change.
Special exhibitions can have different rules.
So this page is our planning list, not a guarantee that every museum will be free every time we show up.
We'll check the museum's official website before heading out.
The Do206 Seattle Free Museum Days roundup is another useful reference for finding current free museum opportunities and events.
Seattle Free Museum Days — Do206
Our Take
WANT-TO-GO 🟡
This isn't really a review yet.
It's a list of possibilities.
But that's exactly why we're keeping it.
There are plenty of places around Seattle we've driven past, talked about visiting, or put on the "someday" list.
A free admission day gives us a pretty good excuse to finally go.
And if we find a place we really like?
We'll give it its own post.
