After checking the ticketmaster website for advance tickets, I'm trying to figure out whether tickets for the ranger talk and museum are enough or whether the audio component is worth the extra $18.00 it will cost for three of us. This is for 2 adults and our 13 year old son. I appreciate any input!!!

What I didn't realize is that Ford's theater is tiny.. as two adults we only spent about 15 minutes there without a tour. SO I don't know that I'd even buy the tour unless it's the only way to guarantee entry when its busy.

We bought tickets to a play the day before and viewed the exhibits on our own before the show. As the previous poster said it is small. We enjoyed ranger talks at other DC sites which would make me inclined to skip the additional audio tour.

Personally, I would just walk in and see it. If it is something that is highly interesting to you or you really like all the details, then the more the better. I don't think we spent more than 30 minutes there and it was probably more like 15 minutes as mztery metions.

I am going to say "ditto" to everyone else. I purchased tickets online because the site indicated that there were only so many slots available. When I go there I walked right in and it was not crowded. I stopped listening to the audio after the first stop because I could hardly hear it and it was not giving me any more info than the plaques on the wall. Personally, I would skip it all together but then maybe I have heard the Lincoln story so many times that I did not learn anything new.

I took the ranger tour and museum and thought that was enough. It also includes a tour of the house across the street.the only reason to go there is to see the bed and bedroom where the president died.

Bear in mind that the interior of Ford's has been pretty much totally reconstructed so that it looks as it did the night Lincoln was shot. The place has been used for a number of things over the years including a stable for horses.

It is, as others have mentioned, quite small, and can easily be thoroughly "seen" in less than an hour.

If your visit will be after Feb 21, it may include the vastly expanded museum across the street from the theater. That might be something a Lincoln buff would want to allocate more time for. See this recent NY Times article about it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/ar...r-complex.html

Thanks Kayd for the article! The museum was still under construction when I was there in October and I am sorry we missed it. I wouldn't recommend the audio tour. We saw the museum, the inside of the theater, and the Peterson house and I felt we got the entire experience. We did all three in about an hour (and we were both history buffs).

Thank you all for your replies. I think we'll just wing it the day we are there and see how it goes!!