This summer, your family can travel in your own city for free, using the New Orleans Public Library’s Culture Pass program. This service allows Orleans Parish residents and Library cardholders to visit a variety of attractions across the city for free.
Culture Pass Partners include The Audubon Nature Institute (the zoo and aquarium!), the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses, National WWII Museum, New Canal Lighthouse Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
Passes for all partner organizations admit two adults and up to seven children, depending on the location. All Culture Pass partners require advance reservation for admission. Passes can be reserved online at culturepass.nolalibrary.org. Staff at all Library locations can also help you book a ticket. Just call or stop by your local Library for assistance.
If you’re craving sights further away from home, check out these books sure to inspire the travel bug in your family:
Young Readers:
The Airport Book by Lisa Brown
- A family making its way through a modern-day airport checks their bags, goes through security clearance, and waits at the gate before taking off into the air, at the beginning of a journey that is complicated by the fear that a favorite stuffed toy has gone missing.
Mommy’s Hometown by Home Lim & Jaime Kim
- When a young boy and his mother travel to her childhood home in Korea, the town is not as he imagined until he visits the river where she used to play and sees that the spirit and happiness of those days remain.
Pete the Cat’s Family Road Trip by Kimberly & James Dean
- Pete the Cat buckles up for a cross-country family road trip to some of America’s grooviest destinations, from Niagara Falls and Savannah to New Orleans and San Francisco.
Middle Grade:
National Monuments of the U.S.A. by Cameron Walker & Chris Turnham
- Travel through America’s incredible history and amazing wild places with maps and fascinating facts about the history, architecture, flora, and fauna in some of the most visited National Monuments in the United States.
Mexikid by Pedro Martín
- Pedro Martin grew up in the U.S. hearing stories about his legendary abuelito, but during a family road trip to Mexico, he connects with his grandfather and learns more about his own Mexican identity in this moving and hilarious graphic memoir.
Teen:
Our Not-so-lonely Planet Travel Guide vol. 1 by Mone Sorai
- Super serious Asahi Suzumura and laidback, easygoing Mitsuki Sayama might seem like an odd couple, but they made a deal; they’ll vacation around the world and when they get back to Japan, they’ll get married. As they travel from country to country, the different people, cultures, and cuisines they encounter begin to bring them closer together.
Rules for Rule Breaking by Talia Tucker
- When Korean American teens Bobby and Winter reluctantly go on a college visit road trip together, the sworn mortal enemies discover they might actually be a perfect pair.