>Museums are free in the UK now, and I'm a member of the National Trust whereby, for an annual subscription, you can go to any of their locations: Stately homes, castles, old mills, old mansions, gardens, etc. for free. Don't use that enough though!


Most museums here in the US are not free (the notable exception is the Smithsonian in Washington, DC--a dozen or so free museums, mostly on the National Mall). But one thing many people don't take advantage of, I think, is that membership in one museum often gets you free or reduced admission to others. For example, we belong to the Franklin Institute Science Museum here in Philly. We've gotten into quite a few other science museums using that membership card.


We were in Budapest in June and ran into a model we'd never encountered before. A couple of museums we visited were free _unless_ you wanted to take pictures. Then you had to pay.

Tamar