Field Trip FAQs

California accredited schools bringing Pre K–12 grade students qualify for a FREE field trip to La Brea Tar Pits!

Field trip reservations apply to groups of 10 or more students who attend an onsite, accredited academic institution at least three days a week. Groups that do not qualify for a school field trip are welcome to book through our Group Sales department to receive a special group rate. We also offer free admission to L.A. County residents from 3–5 pm, Monday through Friday. Unsure if you qualify? Contact us at info@tarpits.org or 213.763.3529.

Are you a homeschool student or parent? Learn more about our free Homeschool Days at La Brea Tar Pits and the Natural History Museum!

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 and performances. Chaperones may not be included due to add-on capacity or availability.

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 two 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 provide free general admission to any school visitors that are walk-ins. 

We request that groups submit at least two weeks in advance of their first choice date. If you are interested in special exhibitions, we recommend submitting your field trip request form as early as possible for the best selection of available dates and programs. These free reservations are extremely popular and fill up quickly! Registration opens August 15 for the Fall 2025 school year (spring registration will open November 25).

All LAUSD schools can book field trips directly through our online booking form. Want to bring the museum to you? Learn more about our Mobile Museums here.

The date you have chosen may be at capacity or reserved for a special event. But don’t worry! The museum's Call Center can help you figure out the next best available date for your field trip. Please email info@tarpits.org or call 213.763.3529 to connect with our Call Center staff.

Yes, we do reserve a limited number of spaces for school groups who can only visit on the weekends. Please note that all weekend field trips to La Brea Tar Pits are self-guided and we do not offer add-on reservations for weekend visits.

We require a minimum of 10 students for a field trip, there is no maximum. Exceptions may apply, so contact our Call Center at info@tarpits.org or 213.763.3529 for more information.

We require a minimum of one adult chaperone for every ten students and a recommended maximum of one to five. However, chaperones beyond the 1:5 ratio are still welcome. Due to capacity limitations for certain programs and special exhibits, all of your adults may not be able to participate if you exceed the recommended 1:5 ratio. To prioritize student accessibility to special experiences, chaperones may not be included in add-on reservations and may need to purchase full-price tickets for Field Trip Add-Ons (i.e. Ice Age Encounters). Check your confirmation to see if your group is booked for any add-ons.

We offer an array of educational programs at La Brea Tar Pits & Museum for every grade level and based on state standards.  All of these special opportunities have capacity limitations and require an additional reservation made in advance (at least two weeks prior to your visit date) when booking your onsite field trip. Field trip add-on reservations are not guaranteed and are based on availability and capacity. Take a look at all of our educational programs and field trip add-ons here. 

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 (full-time museum educators) and floor volunteers in the museum. This group of trained educators 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! 

Absolutely! Please see our Learning Resources web page for free, downloadable activities to utilize on-site during your field trip, as well as suggested pre- and post-visit lesson plans, to round out your museum experience. Check out our Before Your Visit page for additional pre-field trip info!

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)! La Brea Tar Pits offers free admission to teachers every day with school ID.
• Learn more about the museum & excavation sites online to see the different spaces your students can explore with excellent connections to curriculum and standards.
• 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. 
• Dive deeper into our Research & Collections by attending one of our free Educator Workshops.

Classes may eat at the picnic tables or picnic in the surrounding Hancock Park. Take this opportunity to see the Lake Pit, find asphalt seeps, and, of course, roll down the hill!

If you visit us on a rainy day, we have limited indoor lunch areas for you to use. Rainy day lunch spots can be reserved with the front desk when checking in.

Nearby restaurants and food trucks can be found on Wilshire Blvd. and the surrounding area. 

With millions of fossils in the museum's collection, we unfortunately do not have any room to store school lunches! Lunches should be left on the bus, in the car, or securely zipped in backpacks. Planning on purchasing lunch? Click here to find a list of restaurants within easy walking distance of the museum.

Buses park for free on Curson Avenue between 6th Street and Wilshire Boulevard. Personal vehicles and vans can park in the Tar Pits car park for $20 per vehicle. Alternatively if parking is not available on Curson Ave, buses can park on 6th street as well. 

To cancel or reschedule your visit, please 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.