Free city walking tours are great but I found the real hack with the library card

In Lisbon last month I skipped the 25 euro guided tour and used my local library's free 'Culture Pass' partnership. Turns out many big cities have these deals with resident library systems, you just need to ask the front desk. I got into 3 museums and a castle for zero cost over 4 days. Anyone else ever found hidden perks through their library card while traveling?

1 comments

1 Comment

sarah_mason16d ago

Hang on, the Culture Pass thing is actually a New York Public Library program, not a general "many big cities" deal. I looked into it when I was planning a trip to Chicago and their system does have museum passes, but it's not the same thing and you usually have to be a resident with a physical card, not a tourist. I tried to get a pass in Boston once and they flat out told me it was for locals only, so that Lisbon success story might have been a super specific partnership or maybe a lucky librarian who was feeling generous. The real hidden gem is checking if your home library has reciprocity agreements, my small town library in Ohio has a reciprocal card with Cleveland and that got me into the Rock Hall for free last year. But yeah, don't bank on rolling into a random city and getting passes handed over, you gotta do the research before you pack your bags.