Los Angeles

La Brea Tar Pits and Museum Admission Ticket with Excavator Tour

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La Brea Tar Pits and Museum General Admission
  • 2 hours
  • Mobile ticket

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Overview

Uncover something amazing during your L.A. visit with this admission ticket to the city’s famous La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. Explore the bubbling tar pools that harbor a wealth of amazing Ice Age specimens like mammoths, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, ground sloths. Then head inside the museum to explore the beautifully-preserved fossils of these ancient creatures and watch paleontologists hard at work cleaning and preserving their recent finds.
  • Explore the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum with this admission ticket
  • Discover this unexpected scientific site right in the heart of Los Angeles
  • Admire the range of prehistoric fossils from mammoths, saber-toothed cats and ground sloths found in the pits
  • Learn about ongoing efforts by scientists to continue excavation, collection and discovery
  • Experience what life was like in prehistoric Los Angeles
  • Great option for families and children

What's Included

  • Excavator Tour
  • Pit 91 Access
  • Pleistocene Gardens
  • Atrium Access
  • Souvenir photos (available for purchase on-site)
  • Ice Age Encounters show and 3D Film (tickets are available on site when you arrive)

Meeting and Pickup

Start time

Opening hours

  • 3/24/2024 - 5/15/2025

    Monday - Sunday : 09:30 AM - 05:00 PM

What To Expect

See science in action during a visit to the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, a constantly evolving scientific site and exhibit showcasing a range of Ice Age creatures. This one-of-a-kind facility offers visitors the perfect chance to watch paleontologists as they recover well-preserved creatures that once roamed Los Angeles millions of years ago.

Watch the tar bubble and ooze at the Lake Pit and visit prehistoric dig sites where site scientists are constantly making new finds. Once you head inside, you’ll have the chance to wander past Ice Age fossils from animals like saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, mammoths and ground sloths, learning about the habits of these prehistoric creatures. Want to learn more about how scientists collect and preserve specimens? A special clear-glass paleontology room inside the museum offers a sneak peek of the scientists hard at work.

Anyone looking for more insight into this unexpected Southern California site should check out the Excavator Tour, free with admission, which chronicles the history of the Tar Pits themselves along with the museum’s Fossil Lab, Observation Pit and Project 23 (one of the Pits’ newest excavation sites).

La Brea Tar Pits and Museum

Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

  • Confirmation will be received at time of booking
  • Wheelchair accessible
  • Involves a moderate amount of walking
  • Stroller accessible
  • Service animals allowed
  • Near public transportation
  • Most travelers can participate

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

  • For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
  • If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
  • Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
  • Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

Traveler Photos

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Reviews

4.5
125 reviews
Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews
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Reviews by Viator travelers.
Showing 1-10 of 125 reviews
LaBrea....fun for the whole family.
Deanna_M, Apr 2024
Educational, interactive and fun for all ages. Such amazing fossil history in the heart of downtown LA.
Step back in time
Patricia_H, Mar 2024
Amazing that this exists in the middle of a bustling city. You could smell an oil smell slightly and see the bubbling up. To see an active dig was amazing as well.
Fascinating displays and information
Kay_B, Jan 2024
We got a lot from the mini videos and the docent tour outside. Becca was an engaging enthusiastic educator. Mindblowing prehistoric facts and hard to imagine right from the middle of LA!
Fantastic
Michael_S, Oct 2023
Entire visit to LA Brea tarpits was fantastic. So very much to see and plenty of time to take it all in.
The 3D movie gave a good...
Christine_K, Aug 2023
The 3D movie gave a good overview what led to the discoveries that were made in the area. Pre-sale of the tickets helped us skip the lines to get in.
Family fun day
Matthew_H, Jul 2023
It was awesome as usual. Took my kids here for the first time. Definitely a nice day trip for the whole family.
A Unique Family Outing.
joan_g, Jun 2023
A unique opportunity to learn about our La Brea Tar Pits and the Ice Age Animals. Highly recommend the Excavation Tour (included in cost of admission).
Eh, okay.
Alice_L, Jun 2023
The actual tar pits are a little underwhelming, but the museum was cool. We couldn’t believe how many animals that were found.
Not to miss while in LA
Vardit_R, Mar 2023
Very interesting findings. The history of la brea pits, the museum is very friendly to adults and kids aljke. The park surrounding the museum is pleasant to walk in in goid weayher
Worth to see at least once
Sally_O, Mar 2023
La Brea Tar Pits isn't a big place, and in my opinion not as good as Natural History Museum. It is however, worth at least one visit! I love dinosaurs and prehistoric museums. If you do too, you should see La Brea Tar Pits!
Great family trip
Carmen_V, Dec 2022
The exhibits are all intriguing. Live people in lab & touch allowable displays very engaging. Teen grandsons got a kick out of it
Great place to take the family
Michele_K, Aug 2022
Great place to take the family. You can explore the outdoor tar pits for free. First museum that I've been to that encourages you to touch a lot of the exhibits.
Museum
A_S, Jul 2022
The Museum is the best part of the whole thing. We really liked all the murals on the walls and the bones.
Neat place!
Krystal_A, Jun 2022
La Brea has a nice museum. Very nice if you are interested in the Ice Age. I really liked the fossil lab.
Was very informative and...
Tom_P, May 2022
Was very informative and my grandkids really enjoyed it. It was very nice. It was nice. It was nice.
Oozing tar from the ground
Carmen_O, Feb 2020
We arrived when there was a short line. The employees weren't sure the tickets were valid. Once they scanned them, they gave us our wrist bands. It was a little unnerving at first but relieved. You still need to wait in line.
Nice museum visit.
Margaret_E, Aug 2019
Interesting to see an active archeological dig in down town Los Angeles. Some interesting information . It is not a very big museum and the teens with us did not find it interesting. Not much active work going on.
Wasn't much different from my last...
SHARIE B, Oct 2017
Wasn't much different from my last trip there nearly 20 years ago. Not much interactive, just bones in displays mainly. The reconstructed skeletons were cool, but there wasn't a lot to keep the kids interested, it took all of half an hour to see it all. The one movie wasn't running and the other movie didn't seem to be letting people in, maybe I misinterpreted it, but no one there seemed very friendly or inviting, and there were only a handful of other people in the museum. We did see several school buses as we were pulling in they getting ready to leave so maybe the staff was overwhelmed from the kids. The grounds were nice, but we choose the hottest day of the year to visit, so couldn't enjoy the outdoors much. They were doing much in the pits because of the heat and there wasn't much signage to inform about the pits, only that most of the work had been done 30 years ago. They have built a huge modern art museum on the same grounds, but my grandkids aren't much into modern and contemporary art. We did go to the Farmers Market and the Hollywood walk of fame then up to Griffith Park Observatory, the observatory was the highlight of the trip. I spent 12 to park at the museum, which was half what I spent on the 3 tickets, seems awfully high price to park for an hour.
Very cool. Lots of interesting facts...
Ariana B, Aug 2017
Very cool. Lots of interesting facts and info about past researchers in the area, animals that used to roam the LA La Brea area and the asphalt/tar pits in general. My son wasn't as impressed, but definitely a fun place to visit and learn about those who've lived well before us, animals and humans alike!
Grandsons along with us enjoyed this...
Silver Lake, Aug 2017
Grandsons along with us enjoyed this exhibit. Learned alot!

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up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

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