Black History Museum
 

The timed tickets for the Black History Museum are issued on the first Wednesday of the month. We wish to visit the Museum on Dec 5, which is the day before the December tickets are available. Logically, Dec 5. should be issued with the November tickets. Is this correct?

The phone menu for the Museum is useless.

Thank you.

Timed tickets are released several months in advance. December tickets should have been available starting in September.They sell out in minutes so you are out of luck there.

You have two options: try for same day online passes (you have to be online at 6:30 am on 12/5 to get them) or same day walkup passes. More details on those options are at the link below:

https://nmaahc.si.edu/visit/passes

Thank you.

We went to the site and none are available. The site says they are available monthly but did not specify how many months in advance they were available.

It's really tough to get advance tickets. They release a couple months worth of tickets and they seem to go at once. Your best options are same day tickets either at 630am or 1pm. Or, if you have a vet, active military, or first responder in your group, that person and one guest can enter. I'd probably line up for the 630 tickets and head to a nearby coffee shop and settle in for some people watching until the museum opens. I believe the Castle opens fairly early so you could hang out there as well.

Thank you Hobbert.

It is possible (not probable) to just show up just before they open at 10AM and speak to a ticket person at the entrance door. It happened that way with us in mid-September. We thought it was unlikely, but it worked.

We arrived in DC and really wanted to see the Nat’l Museum of African American History and Culture, having heard excellent things about it. It is incredible, really incredible and well worth the four hours we spent inside. Six floors, so much there! We tried to book on-line using the 6:30am web instructions and couldn’t get it to work. So we just walked there to see if we could book tickets at the desk inside. We didn’t have to do that since we were let in with the first wave of people lined up.

You can’t count on this method, but it’s a worth a shot if you plan on being in town anyway. And it is well worth any amount of time that you have.

Thank you for your advice.

We tried to get advanced tickets and couldn't. I was online when they became available, but wasn't quick enough. We postponed our trip until we can visit the museum.

As a completely different but potentially satisfying alternative the National Gallery will have a Vermeer exhibit starting this Sunday through much of January.

I managed to get tickets for a Sunday afternoon in January on the last go-around (first Wed in October), and I didn't even log on until about 9:45 am (they start at 9). I was surprised but grabbed it as even though it was late in the day (2 pm, I think), that is actually enough time for me in a museum, until 5:30 or 6 or whenever it closes. I figure I can try again for another day to cover more territory and some day it probably won't be as difficult to visit.

At that time when I logged on, you could still get some tickets about 2 pm or later for some Sundays, I didn't even look weekdays as I work, but imagine same thing or easier. January isn't a peak time for tourists, obviously. So February will be sold first Wed in November online. So all passes are not sold out in minutes, but probably early morning times are. Also, more popular months probably were, like last summer.

Now if you don't live here and want to spend more than 3-4 hrs there, I think that's still tough.

Thanks, we will be there from a Monday to a Friday with no time for sightseeing on Friday.