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Get Free Museum Entry with Discover & Go

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Discover & Go is a terrific program to get FREE museum day passes.

It’s literally one of the Bay Area’s best kept secrets: an incredible freebie under the radar to many, but one that will completely change your cultural life. The program is called Discover & Go, and it gets you and your kids in free to some of our most popular museums and attractions for zero dollars.

To get access to a great roster of free museums and attractions, all you need is a local library card — the Berkeley, Contra Costa County and Oakland public libraries are all part of the Discover & Go network — and a printer.

toddler with light wall
Take a trip to CuriOdyssey for free with Discover & Go | Photo: Julie Herson

How to use Discover & Go passes

The only catch is that you can’t just show up. Like borrowing a library book, the pass you want may not be up for lending when you’re ready to go. Here are the steps:

  1. Find the Discover & Go section of your library’s website. (Here’s the link for Oakland and Berkeley)
  2. Log in with your library card
  3. Select the date you want to go. Double check on the venue’s website to see if you’ll need to make a reservation with them as well and that the day you want is available.
  4. Choose the venue from a list available for that day, and print.

Passes are released midnight of 1st of every month, two months in advance. On July 1 midnight- they released passes for September. Some of the more popular and expensive museum passes “sell out” within few hours of release.

Pro tip: Set an alarm to grab the passes for the hot locations.

Some of the places we have successfully used Discover & Go free passes include, the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, the Pacific Pinball Museum, the Botanical Garden at UC Berkeley, and USS Hornet Museum in Alameda. You can also get a free day pass to the Oakland Museum of California, Children’s Creativity Museum, Conservatory of Flowers, Lindsay Wildlife Experience, and so many more! Some favorites like the Cal Academy of Sciences and the Lawrence Hall of Science are not available right now due to Covid-19 limitations, but keep checking back since venues continue to expand capacity limitations.

Gardens at SF Conservatory of Flowers
Outdoor lunch in the gardens at SF Conservatory of Flowers | Photo: Mishi Booker

A couple of important caveats:

  1. There are a finite number of free passes for each venue, so sometimes you will have to search a bit for available dates.
  2. Each library card holder has a limit on the number of times per year that they can print a Discover & Go pass — for high-demand venues such as the California Academy of Sciences, for example, you can go for free once a year.
  3. Some passes are good for a family of four, others are for one adult and one child. It varies from venue to venue.
  4. Some passes can be issued on smartphones, but some must be printed, so double check when you make your reservation.
  5. Many venues and attractions require the additional step of making reservations on their website because of Covid-19 precautions. Double check on the venue’s website to see how far in advance you’ll need to make reservations, and make sure that date aligns with your Discover & Go reservation. Keep in mind proof of vaccine requirements as well.
Children's Creativity Museum looks fun from the outside
Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco | Photo by Jac via FourSquare

Now, go discover!

Here are a few library links to get you started:

kids doing art in masks
Get messy at the Bay Area Discovery Museum | Photo: Bay Area Discovery Museum

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