It's so crazy to imagine giant pools of sticky traps or fly paper strong enough to trap mammoths and sabre-tooth cats. If you want the budget version, the outdoor space is free and has great signage and interpretation. You can save more money by parking on the nearby streets. We got there about 20 minutes before close and they let us in free, but I wouldn't recommend that. We had to speed run and miss out on some areas and shows. The skulls and skeletons are amazing! They really give you a feel for the time in contrast to modern-day LA. They even have sections where you can watch folks doing the real work of excavation. I highly recommend for anyone who is contemplative or interested in geology in the least.

$18 for a ticket and a $18 for parking. Museum takes around 5 mins to look at. Very sparse and poorly put together. Tar pits are really dirty pools of water or just dirt surrounded by a fence. Not work the money.

Although we didnt have a lot of time and it was late in the afternoon, we popped in for a visit as I always wanted to see the grounds. It was too late for the museum but I enjoyed walking the grounds and viewing the various pits with various explainations posted on signage in various locations. It was an interesting walk.

I was not impressed at all with this place. The outside had little to offer of any interest. I found nothing worth photographing. And the inside was not much different than any natural history museum I've ever visited. I'm sure that experts might see something of interest in the wall showing dozens of wolf skeletons, but I sure didn't.

We didn't take any tour, we just went on our own. It was an amazing experience overall in the middle of a big city like Los Angeles. The write ups were very helpful and useful... Overall, it was a very pleasant surprise and a great experience.

Fascinating part of history. If you are interested in the past and what the world looked like back then. Museum was smaller than expected but still worth a visit.

My wife and I spent about 2 hours touring the museum and walking around the grounds. We both agreed that the overall experience exceeded our expectations and the museum was truly a highlight. We are not big museum people but the exhibits in this museum are interesting and engaging. The museum volunteers roam the exhibits and offer additional insights which are helpful and round out the experience. We also enjoyed seeing the fossil lab and watching actual fossil cleaning work in process. The outside exhibits were helpful in increasing our understanding of the nature and composition of the area and added to the realness of the overall visit. We definitely recommend stopping by for a visit. The museum parking lot is convenient although certainly a bit pricey.

One of the places I had to see on my first visit to trip LA was one of the places I had to take my friends on this trip, the La Brea Tar Pits. While the stories of the pits fascinated me as a child, the visit is for any age. Rarely do you find places where oil makes it to the surface. However, it is even more amazing with that place is such a repository of fossil remains from thousands of years. The museum is very interesting with a wall of Saber-tooth Tiger skulls and prehistoric animals. However, the park and grounds are equally interesting with displays to teach the formation of the ponds and the history for prehistoric to 20th century. The first thing you see is pond with decoy mammoths showing the struggle that so many animals faced. As you walk the grounds you will see smaller tar areas fenced and while they don't have creatures, they will have storyboards discussing how for 200 years Los Angeles residents have used the tar pits as a free source of asphalt and tar for roofs and road uses. For me it is both fun and educational. Everyone in our group enjoyed.

If you come to Los Angeles, you have to stop by the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum at least once. This was my second time visiting the tar pits and the entire outdoor area is under renovation to have more viewing areas of the naturally occuring pools of pitch / tar / asphalt (or "brea" in Spanish.) While it is free to walk around the grounds, be aware that a not insignificant amount of people bring their bloodsport dogs to the grounds. I've seen these dogs pull on their leash and lunge at small children. The city or whomever runs the outside area needs a strict service-dogs only policy for the safety of visitors. The entire grounds sit atop naturally occuring tar pits, so there are cones in the parking lot and grounds where some of this tar is starting to come up in places outside of the fenced off pits. I saw people putting sticks in this tar and messing around with it. I'd avoid doing that for health and safety reasons. Watch where you're stepping! The museum does cost money for a nominal fee. The world's largest collection of bird fossils and late pleistocene era fossils are in the museum. On Fridays there are people in the laboratory cleaning up the fossils pulled from the pits, as excavations are still ongoing. While the museum isn't huge, it is popular with families and school groups. Be warned if you don't want to run into field trips of loud kids - stick to early morning week days. If you're the type of person who doesn't read, sure, you could be in and out quickly. If you read placards and want to watch the film, budget at least 2 hours. Overall, I think it's definitely worth coming to visit at least once, even if you don't have kids. Visited: March 2024

The tar pits themselves are not much to see but they are free. They behind fenced off areas in the public park. You should go into the museum first to see what has been found in the tar pits and to put everything into context. There is a laboratory in the museum where you can watch workers chipping away at material found in the pits to reveal the fossils inside.

Fossils and tar pits in the heart of the city! Such an amazing learning experience! Definitely recommend spending a few hours in the tar pits and the museum. The tar pits are outside and a free park. The museum has an entrance fee. The combined experience helps paint a picture of life at the end of the ice age in LA. There are windows to the scientists working on cleaning and preservation. The museum exhibits are well done to be fun, engaging, and educational.

Wow! What a thrill! We went through the whole experience. Just knowing that the animals of the past entered thinking it was just water and they got stuck was sad. But the amount of animals that they pulled out of the tar pit is astounding! This is a great museum and worth the drive. If you like historic information this is the place for you.

This is a MUST-SEE experience in L.A. As sturdy midwesterners, our geology is familiar to us in a way that being at the tar pits was an absolutely WILD experience. We parked next to seeping tar, and none of us could get over its ability to just...exist...everywhere! The grounds are lovely for walking and stretching your legs, the parking is easy, and the museum is top notch. The kids loved the interactive portions of the exhibits, and the restroom facilities and gift shop were great too! If you are in L.A. at all, this feels like a no brainer! The history here is well-preserved, and watching geologists work behind the fences was fascinating. One had found a bone, and she was so excited, she came over to show my kids! This is fantastic experience for couples, adults, and multi-generational families as well.

Wonderful, educational museum about the LaBrea Tar Pits. Great exhibits/fossils all about the local area. The museum can be completed in about an hour, great for families. Then head outside to see the actual Tar Pits. Amazing to see these in the middle of LA.

My friend took me here while visiting him in the Loa Angels area. It's a place I have always wanted to see. It was very interesting to look and walk around then we went into the Museum. That was really good! Only thing I didn't like was you had to pay $18.00 just to park and then it was $15.00 to get into the Museum! I got in for $12.00 for senior rate. My friend being a Veteran got in for free. Having to pay to park just didn't sit well with me. In my book, that also should have covered the entrance fee to the Museum! Totally overpriced! Overall, it was worth seeing.