The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History is available for group visits at no cost to Monterey County schools. Request a trip that meets your curriculum needs. Do you want a self-guided tour? Do you want a docent to walk around with your group? Do you want a talk about some topic relevant to your curriculum? Do you want a hands-on activity in the Education Room? Just ask!
LOCATION: The Museum is located in downtown Pacific Grove, at the intersection of Forest and Central Avenues
HOURS: The Museum is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.
FEE: Admission to the Museum is free, but please note that we survive on donations. The only fee that might apply to a group visit is for having a hands-on activity in the Education Room. In this case the cost is $1.00 per student.
GROUP VISITS: SSchool groups must have a reservation to visit the Museum, even for self-guided tours. Up to 60 students can visit the Museum at one time, although large groups may be divided into smaller groups of about 20 for greater accessibility to exhibits, talks, and/or activities.
TOPICS: The Museum staff is available to give talks and/or offer hands-on activities about a wide range of natural history subjects. We will tailor these to your class's grade-level and curriculum study. Just tell us what you're interested in.
RESERVATIONS: To make a reservation for a group visit, call the Museum at 648-5716, ext. 17. Please have the following information available: name of school or group; name and phone number of a contact person; number and age level of students; preferred date and time of visit; and focus of visit.
PARKING: 90-minute limit on Forest Avenue; two-hour limit on Central Avenue and on Grand Avenue (one-way going south - recommended for school buses). Unlimited parking on three sides of Jewell Park, directly across the street from the front entrance of the Museum.
FACILITIES: The Museum building and restrooms are handicapped accessible, with a wheelchair ramp and handicapped parking located at the front of the Museum on Central Avenue. An on-site wheelchair is also available. No food or drinks are allowed in the Museum, but Jewell Park is located directly across the street, and the picnic areas at Lovers Point are only a 3-5 minute walk from the Museum.
WHEN YOU ARRIVE: Please be on time! There may be a group scheduled after yours, and we want you to have enough time to explore the Museum. The entrance to the Museum is on Central Avenue to the left of the life-size whale sculpture. If your group arrives early, please send someone into the Museum to check with us. Usually your group can spend time exploring the Museum until your program time, but if there are other groups ahead of you, it is better to remain outside. Feel free to allow your students to climb on "Sandy" the Gray Whale while you wait.
DURING YOUR VISIT: Supervision is the responsibility of teachers, parents, and other group leaders. Feel free to touch objects which are not protected in exhibit cases. The elevator is for freight and handicapped/elderly use; it is not a toy. The Museum Store is available for student purchases, at your discretion. Please set limits on spending or prohibitions on shopping before your arrival at the Museum. We only have a limited number of Museum Store volunteers to handle purchases, so please allow only four or five supervised students at a time to shop.
AFTER YOUR VISIT: There are many other interesting places to visit in the vicinity of the Museum. The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History coordinates the volunteers and handles group reservations for two sites: (1) Monarch butterflies overwinter in Pacific Grove at the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. Docent-led tours are available from October through February (2) Point Pinos Lighthouse is also open for school tours.
In addition, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is nearby, as are the many historic buildings of Old Monterey. Asilomar State Beach has a dune preservation program, and there are many good spots along the coastline for beach or tidepooling excursions.
CANCELLATIONS: Please let us know as soon as possible so that we can make room for other group reservations.
We look forward to seeing you at the Museum!