The Atwater and Smith Libraries have a variety of free and discounted passes to local museums and cultural attractions. To reserve a pass, please call us at 203-315-6020 for the Atwater Library or 203-484-0469 for the Smith Library. Passes may be reserved in advance and can be borrowed for 2 days. The borrower must be at least 18 years old with a valid library card. Passes are $10.00 per day if they are returned late and cannot be renewed. Passes can only be checked out at the owning Library and must be returned to the Library from which they were borrowed.
Beardsley Zoo
Location: 1875 Noble Avenue Bridgeport
Admits: Up to 6 people
Discount: $5 per person
Regular Admission: $15 Adult | $12 Child 3-11 | $11 Senior 62+ | Child 3 & under FREE
The state’s only AZA accredited zoo features more than 300 animals, primarily from North and South America, including several endangered species, a tropical rainforest with free-flight aviary, New England farmyard and an antique carousel.
Please call the Smith Library for pass availability.
Generously sponsored by the Northford-North Branford Women’s Club, GFWC
Connecticut’s Old State House
Location: 800 Main Street Hartford, CT 06103
Admits: 2 adults + 2 children
Discount: Free ($5 validated parking)
Regular Admission: $6 Adult | $3 Senior 65+ | $3 Child 6-17 | Child 5 & under FREE
Dating back to 1796, this is the very spot where CT’s government was born. You’ll meet the people who made it happen and find out how they did it. Also on display are Mark Twain’s bicycle, a two-headed calf, and dozens of other eccentric pieces from CT’s history.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
CT Science Center
Location: 250 Columbus Boulevard Hartford
Admits: General Admission
Discount: Coupon 20% off For up to 4
Regular Admission: $23.95 Adult | $21.95 Senior 65+ | $16.95 Child 3-17
At the Connecticut Science Center, you can explore more than 165 hands-on, minds-on activities and exhibits in 10 galleries, a state-of-the-art 3D digital theater, four educational labs, plus daily programs and events. Explore the solar system, dig for dinosaur bones, see yourself in 360 degrees, build a race cart, get up-close and personal with native Connecticut creatures in the marine touch tank or watch science come alive in the state-of-the-art 3D movie theater.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
CT State Parks
Locations: Throughout CT
Admits: 2 adults & 4 children
Discount: Free admission to buildings & museums (Dinosaur State Park, Gillette Castle, Fort Trumbull)
As of January 1, 2018, CT residents will no longer be required to pay a parking fee at CT State Parks and Forest recreation areas through the Passport to Parks Program.
Regular Admission: $6 Age 13 and over | $2 Ages 6-12 | Child 5 & under FREE
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
Discovery Museum & Planetarium
Location: 4450 Park Avenue Bridgeport
Admits: 4 children
Discount: Free, with 1 pd. adult
Regular Admission: $11 Adult | $9 Senior | $9 Child 3-17
Offers three floors of hands-on exhibits for children to enjoy live science demonstrations. Young science fans can enter the night skies through live and full-dome Planetarium shows. A dining court is also available offering a full view of the ropes course at The Adventure Park.
Please call the Atwater Library for pass availability.
Florence Griswold Museum
Location: Old Lyme
Admits: 2 adults & 2 child under 12
Discount: Free
Regular Admission: $10 Adult | $9 Senior | $8 Student | Child 12 & under FREE
Located on thirteen acres in Old Lyme, this art museum serves as the home of American Impressionism. In the early part of the 20th century, Miss Florence opened her mansion (once a wealthy sea captain’s home) to many young artists. It soon became renown as the Lyme Art Colony. Right behind the home is a magnificent walking garden. Café on premises.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
I
magine Nation Museum
Location: Bristol
Admits: Up to 6 people
Discount: Half price
Regular Admission: $10 per person, age 1+
Encourages curiosity, critical thinking, and confidence. Engage with art materials, experience the properties of water, engineering and design. Get to understand wildlife, physical sciences, and experiment in the Playbox Theatre. Do all this and more using hands-on fun methods! Includes energy and outdoor learning in a natural environment all year long. Kids can even create their own inventions.
Please call the Smith Library for pass availability.
Maritime Aquarium
Location: Norwalk
Admits: Up to 6 people
Discount: $2 off each Adventure Pass
Regular Admission: $24.95 Adult | $22.95 Senior & Youth (13-17) | $17.95 Child (3-12)
See animals of Long Island Sound and those who live beyond the Sound. There are harbor seals, jellyfish, sharks, otters, and sea turtles. You can touch live moon jellies or view a documentary in their IMAX theater.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
Mystic Aquarium
Location: Mystic
Admits: 2 adults + 2 child
Discount: $6 off Adult | $4 off Child
Regular Admission: $36.99 Adult | $31.99
Senior | $30.99 Youth (13-17) | $26.99 Child (3-12)
Offers a hands-on watershed model and touch experience with native invertebrates using a 12-foot long water table. Encounter dinosaurs that come to life! (12 animatronic dinosaurs). See thousands of fish, penguins, and several sharks. Boasts the largest outdoor Beluga whale exhibit in the U.S. Watch from above and below the water.
This museum is currently NOT accepting library passes.
Mystic Seaport Museum
Location: Mystic
Admits: 2 adults + 3 child
Discount: 50% Off Admission
Regular Admission: $36.99 Adult | $31.99
Adult $28.95 | Youth (13-17) $24.95 | Child (3-12) $18.95
Mystic Seaport Museum is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the rapidly disappearing artifacts of America’s seafaring past, the Museum has grown to become a national center for research and education with the mission to “inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.”
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
New Britain Museum of American Art
Location: New Britain
Admits: 4 people (at least 1 adult)
Discount: Free
Regular Admission: $15 Adult | $12 Senior (62+) | $10 Youth (13-17)
Houses a permanent collection of more than 8,300 paintings, photographs, sculptures, and illustrations by American artists, including Norman Rockwell. There are also colonial and federal portraits, as well as works by artists from the Hudson River School. You can view a prized pastel by Mary Cassatt and each year there is at least one special temporary exhibit by a famous American author.
Please call the Smith Library for pass availability.
New England Carousel Museum
Location: Bristol/Hartford
Admits: 4 People
Regular Admission: 2$ Per ride/ Museum Admission
Discount: Free, 2 Hrs Unlimited Rides
Travel back in time to when the carousel was the pinnacle of amusement park joy. Now on view, over 100 years of carousel art and history are on view in our Main Gallery and throughout our 33,000 square foot building. See examples from turn of the century carvers like Dentzel, Herschell Spillman and Stein and Goldstein. A sample carving bay, hands on activities for little ones and our Venetian indoor carousel make this the perfect family or group outing.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
New Haven Museum
Location: New Haven
Admits: 4 people
Discount: Free
Regular Admission: $4 Adult | $3 Senior (62+) | $2 Student | Child 12 & under FREE
The New Haven Museum was founded in 1862 as the New Haven Colony Historical Society, which remains its corporate name. From the beginning, the institution sought to collect, preserve, and make available for research the materials which document the history of the greater New Haven area. The Museum’s collections date to the early years of the New Haven Colony and include more than 10,000 decorative and fine art objects, an extensive photographic archive, the holdings of the Whitney Library as well as architectural drawings, maps, broadsides, newspapers, and other items.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
Peabody Museum
Location: New Haven
Admits: 4 people
Discount: $6 off
Regular Admission: $13 Adult | $9 Senior (65+) | $6 Child (3-18) | Child 3 & under FREE
*Closed MONDAYS with exceptions
The Dinosaur and Mammal Halls are currently closed for renovation
The entire museum will be closed to the public for renovation starting July 1, 2020.
The Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest university-based natural history museums, with more than 13 million objects. Explore the 4.5-billion-year history of the Earth and its life, all under one roof. From mummies and mastodons to dinosaurs and diamonds, there’s something fascinating around every corner of the Peabody. The Great Hall houses real fossils, including the Jurassic-age skeletons of Brontosaurus and Stegosaurus. The Discovery Room features touchable specimens and live critters. Among the latter are a working leafcutter ant farm, poison dart frogs, pet snakes, bearded dragons, walking sticks and more.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
Pez Visitor Center
Location: Orange
Admits: 4 people
Discount: Free
Regular Admission: $5 Adult | $4 Senior (60+) | $4 Child (3-12) | Free Admission (0-3)
PEZ museum featuring history, trivia & memorabilia related to the classic candy & dispensers. Includes the PEZ motorcycle built by Orange County Choppers, the world’s largest PEZ dispenser, viewing area into the production area, PEZ trivia game, retail area and interactive historical time line.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
Regi
onal Water Authority
Locations: 9 recreation areas located in 13 communities: Lake Bethany (Bethany), Big Gulph (Northford), Lake Chamberlain (Bethany), Genesee (Madison), Lake Hammonasset (Killingworth), Maltby Lakes (West Haven), Pine Hill (Seymour & Woodbridge), Lake Saltonstall (Branford), Sugarloaf (Guilford)
Admits: 4 people
Discount: Free
Regular Admission: RWA Recreation Permits range in cost from $20 for a one-year Individual Permit for seniors, the disabled, veterans or students to $50 for a two-year Family Permit.
Hike, jog, cross-country ski or just meander along almost 60 miles of trails through Regional Water Authority watershed lands. Fish from the shores in the sparkling clean water of five secluded reservoirs or from our 70-foot long, wheelchair accessible dock at Lake Saltonstall. Bike through an 18th century settlement at Little Genesee in North Madison. With nine recreation areas located in 13 communities, there is bound to be an area close to you. Photos from the annual photo contest will give you an idea of how much there is to offer. Pass includes maps and parking permit.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.
Shore Line Trolley Museum
Location: East Haven
Admits: 6 people
Discount: 50% off admission
Regular Admission: $10 Adult | $9 Senior (62+) | $7 Child (2-15)
A visit to the museum is a multisensory voyage into the past, from the growl of the motors to the feel of rattan seats and varnished hardwood detailing. The railway is the oldest continuously operating suburban trolley line in the U.S. Some cars you may ride and some are just for viewing.
Please call the Atwater Library for pass availability.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Location: Hartford
Admits: 2 adults
Discount: Free admission to general museum only, additional fees to exhibitions
Regular Admission: $15 Adult | $12 Senior | Child 18 & under FREE
Founded in 1842, the collection exceeds 50,000 works of art. This includes sculptures, costumes, textiles, and Contemporary Art. On-loan exhibits change periodically.
Please call either the Atwater or Smith Library for pass availability.