La Brea Tar Pits Museum

The La Brea Tar Pits Museum is an absolute gem in the heart of Los Angeles. It’s one of those rare places where science, history, and curiosity come together in the most fascinating way. Watching bubbling tar right outside the museum feels surreal - it’s a living window into the Ice Age. Inside, the exhibits are brilliantly designed, bringing prehistoric Los Angeles to life with impressive fossils, life-sized animal reconstructions, and engaging displays that make learning irresistible for visitors of all ages. The museum strikes a perfect balance between education and wonder. You can actually see scientists at work in the fossil lab, sorting and cleaning real bones uncovered just a few steps away. Staff and volunteers are friendly, knowledgeable, and clearly passionate about what they do. The outdoor grounds are equally captivating, with active excavation sites and open-air displays that make you feel like part of the discovery process. Whether you’re a local or just visiting LA, this museum is a must-see destination. It manages to make deep time feel vibrantly immediate, and every visit leaves you with a renewed sense of awe for the world’s ancient past and the ongoing exploration happening right now on Wilshire Boulevard.

We got our tickets through Groupon, and we parked across the street, which was $5 cheaper. The museum was beautiful and really interesting — my kids absolutely loved it. We also walked around outside, where you can see the asphalt bubbling and even smell it. It’s a unique urban park and museum where natural asphalt seeps have preserved fossils from the last Ice Age. Millions of fossils have been discovered here, including plants, insects, and a wide range of animals like dire wolves, ground sloths, and mammoths. The dire wolf collection was especially impressive. A great experience overall.

It was amazing to see the fossils and hear about the history. The displays make it easy to picture what the area was like thousands of years ago. It’s a place that’s fascinating to wander through, and worth the visit. We booked the tickets online but the queue to get in was short. Easily reached using public transport (bus).