Affordable Fun

How to get into Dallas' best museums and attractions on the cheap

With schools now out for the summer, many parents will be looking for ways to entertain their children — and cheaply. The new Dallas CityPass is one way to accomplish that goal, as it gives discounted admission to some of the city's best attractions.

For $30 for children 3-12 and $44 for anyone 13 and over, you get tickets to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and Reunion Tower Geo-Deck, and then a choice between the Dallas Zoo or the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, and George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum or Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden. With a maximum regular cost of $46 for kids and $65 for adults, that's quite the savings.

Of course, there is a hitch: CityPass is mostly aimed at tourists, so you must visit all four places within a period of nine days once you hit up the first location. But you can start the CityPass at any time and visit the attractions in any order you choose, which offsets the compressed time period a bit.

If you find that you don't want to make a choice between the last four places, the booklet also contains small discount coupons for the Sixth Floor Museum, George W. Bush Presidential Library and Dallas Arboretum. Keep in mind that the CityPass is only good for regular admission to the arboretum; admission to the Rory Meyers Children's Adventure Garden, which is a must-see, is $3 extra per person.

Purchases of the CityPass, which is also available in 11 other cities in North America, can be made online or at the box office of each of the attractions. And if you buy one and forget about it for a while, no worries — you have until February 28, 2017, to start using it.

The view from Reunion Tower should be experienced by locals and tourists alike.

Photo by Alex Bentley

The view from Reunion Tower should be experienced by locals and tourists alike.

unspecified

This Week's Hot Headlines

Round of restaurant closures leads Dallas' most-read stories this week

Photo courtesy of On the Border

undefined

Editor's note: Recent and impending restaurant closures, along with department stores downsizing, lead the top Dallas news of the week. But there is also an exciting update for fans of supermarket chain H-E-B, which finally has plans for a store in Dallas proper. Read our most popular stories of the week below, then find our guide to Martin Luther King Jr. Day events around DFW here.

1. Some surprising names in this list of Dallas restaurant closures. The end of one year and beginning of another often provokes soul-searching and some closing of doors. That's definitely the case in the Dallas restaurant world, with a rash of closings that have taken place in recent weeks. These six restaurants have either just closed or are about to.

2. Macy's and Kohl's to shutter these Dallas-Fort Worth stores in 2025. A major department store name is contracting its presence in Dallas-Fort Worth: Macy's is planning on closing five of its locations throughout DFW by the end of April in 2025. Macy's is not alone: Clothing retailer Kohl's will also be shuttering 27 underperforming stores by April 2025, including its North Dallas location.

Macy's Macy's and Kohl's are shuttering stores in early 2025. Courtesy photo

3. Dallas Fire Rescue deploys firefighting posse to Los Angeles. On January 11, Dallas sent a firefighting posse to Los Angeles, where multiple ongoing fires have burned tens of thousands of acres near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties since January 7.

4. Supermarket chain H-E-B acquires site for its first store in Dallas. Dallas is finally in line to get an H-E-B. According to a release, the Texas supermarket chain has purchased property in Dallas: a 10-acre site at the southeast corner of Hillcrest Road and LBJ Freeway.

5. New Dallas coffee shop opens with good coffee — and great hair. A new coffee shop with some serious styling has opened near downtown Dallas: Called Common Good, it's located at 1619 N. Hall St., right off Ross Avenue, in what was previously a retail outlet for Rakkasan Tea Company, who left the space in mid-2024.