American Museum of Natural History Tickets with Special Exhibition Options

Three things everyone wants to see here: the Tyrannosaurus rex, the 94-foot blue whale hanging over the ocean hall, and the Easter Island head. If you have seen Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller, you already know the building, and the real thing is bigger than the film makes it look. The American Museum of Natural History has more than 45 permanent exhibits spread across over 40 halls, covering animals, fossils, minerals, plants, meteorites and human cultures. It is a lot to choose from, so pick the three headline exhibits and one or two halls that match your interests, and let the rest be a bonus. When you book, you choose one of three ticket levels. General Admission covers the permanent halls on nature and the universe. General Admission plus one special exhibition adds a single ticketed extra: the Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium, the Invisible Worlds show, a giant-screen film, the Hayden Planetarium space show, or another ticketed exhibition. General Admission plus all special exhibitions opens up the whole list. If the planetarium is high on your list, this choice matters: the space show is not part of basic admission. When this listing was written the operator named these ticketed shows: Invisible Worlds, a 360-degree theater show on hidden life from the deep ocean to DNA; Encounters in the Milky Way, a space show narrated by Pedro Pascal; Life at the Limits, on organisms that survive in extreme environments; the year-round Butterfly Vivarium, where up to 1,000 butterflies fly around you; and Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs, on the asteroid strike 66 million years ago and what came after it. The program changes, so check what is running on your date. The operator lists opening hours as 10 am to 5:30 pm daily; hours can change. New York residents have a separate admission arrangement with the museum, so if you live in the state, check that before buying. This ticket is for the Natural History Museum only and does not include the Met across Central Park.