American Museum of Natural History

Recreate your own version of Night at the Museum during the American Museum of Natural History’s special event this Halloween. Inspired by the film, the Museum of Natural History opens up its doors just a few times a year to give families a unique after-hours experience.

Families with children 6–13 can stay overnight at the famous museum. A few events are held in the summer and one on Halloween. Tickets sell out quickly. Guests explore the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins for a spooky and educational look at the human body exhibit. For $125–145 per person, tickets include an evening snack, light breakfast, fossil fact-finding mission by flashlight, a humpback whale film in the LeFrak Theater, a live animal exhibition or presentation and take-home activities.

Photo: Diego Grandi | Dreamstime.com

Guests should prepare to bring a pillow and sleeping bag for each person, flashlights, toiletries and a camera. The Night at the Museum begins at 5:45 p.m. and ends after breakfast at 9 a.m. the next morning. Guests can set up camp to sleep under the beloved blue whale in Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, in the Hall of Planet Earth among any of the geological formations or in the Hall of African Mammals.

Of the entire museum, the first, second, third and fourth floors will be available to guests. Explore the halls and various rooms throughout the night. The second and third floors of the main museum are open 6:45–8:45 p.m.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts each have a special night in November, for guests ages 6–16.  Keep an eye out for various dates and events to pop up over the next few months as tickets sell out quickly.