Pasadena Museums: How To Pair The Huntington And The Norton Simon
Pasadena holds two of the most rewarding museum collections in the Los Angeles area, and both charge admission. Here is what each one costs, when it is closed, when it is free, and how to see both in a single day.
Short answer
Pasadena's two major museums are The Huntington, $34 admission, closed Tuesdays, and the Norton Simon Museum, $20 admission, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The Huntington is free the first Thursday of the month with an advance ticket; the Norton Simon is free the first Friday of the month from 4pm to 7pm. The two sit about ten minutes apart by car and pair well in one day.
Pasadena is the one corner of the Los Angeles area where a museum visitor can be genuinely spoiled. The city holds two collections that would anchor a mid-sized European city on their own: The Huntington, with its Gainsborough and its famous gardens, and the Norton Simon Museum, with one of the strongest collections of European old masters anywhere on the West Coast. Both charge admission, both close at least one weekday, and both sit roughly ten minutes apart by car, which makes them the most pairable museum day trip in the region.
The honest framing matters here. Los Angeles museum guides routinely tell readers that museums in the area are free, and that is not true for Pasadena. Eleven of the thirty museums covered across this site are free, and neither of Pasadena's two is among them. What Pasadena offers instead is value: two dense, serious collections that reward a full day, plus monthly free windows that a flexible visitor can use to cut the cost in half. This guide lays out the real prices, the closed days, the free windows, the parking situation and a workable one-day itinerary, all from the museums' own published details.
What Are The Best Museums In Pasadena?
Pasadena has exactly two heavyweight museums, The Huntington and the Norton Simon Museum, and they are different enough that ranking them misses the point. The Huntington is a library, art collection and expansive garden complex in San Marino, admission $34. The Norton Simon is a compact single-building art museum in central Pasadena, admission $20, holding old masters, Impressionists and South Asian sculpture. Serious visitors do both.
The Huntington, at 1151 Oxford Road in San Marino, is the bigger commitment. Its art galleries hold Thomas Gainsborough's "The Blue Boy" and Joshua Reynolds's "Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse," its library displays a Gutenberg Bible and an original manuscript of Chaucer, and its gardens span the Japanese Garden, the Chinese Garden, the desert garden and one of the most photographed rose gardens in California. It is the kind of place where the art and the landscape compete for your attention, and a half-day disappears quickly.
The Norton Simon Museum, at 411 West Colorado Boulevard, is the opposite shape of visit. Everything hangs in one building surrounding a central sculpture garden, and the density is remarkable: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Goya, Degas, Van Gogh, Monet and one of the finest collections of South and Southeast Asian art in the country. A focused visit runs two hours; a slow one runs three. Where The Huntington rewards wandering, the Norton Simon rewards looking closely.
For readers weighing Pasadena against other corners of the city, the comparison guide to the best museums in Los Angeles puts these two in context against the Getty, LACMA and The Broad. The short version: Pasadena is the strongest museum suburb in the region, and it is the only one where both headline collections charge for entry.
How Much Do The Huntington And The Norton Simon Cost?
The Huntington charges $34 admission and the Norton Simon charges $20, and each has one monthly free window. The Huntington is free the first Thursday of the month with an advance ticket. The Norton Simon is free the first Friday of the month from 4pm to 7pm. There is no Los Angeles CityPASS covering either museum; Go City Los Angeles is the region's real attraction pass, from $94, and neither Pasadena museum is a reason to buy it.
Those are the full adult prices, taken from the museums' own published rates. The Huntington's $34 is the steepest standard admission of any art institution on this site's roster, and it buys access to the galleries, the library exhibitions and all the gardens. Reservations are required at The Huntington on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and peak-season days, so a weekend visit means booking ahead rather than turning up.
The Norton Simon's $20 is more conventional, and its concessions are generous: students, visitors under 18, members and military are always free, no monthly window needed. The first-Friday evening window from 4pm to 7pm is the standing free opportunity for everyone else, and it fits neatly after a morning at The Huntington on the first Friday of a month that begins on a Thursday, a pairing worth checking a calendar for.
| Museum | Adult admission | Closed | Free window | Reservation rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Huntington | $34 | Tuesday | First Thursday of the month, advance ticket required | Required Friday to Sunday, holidays and peak season |
| Norton Simon Museum | $20 | Tuesday and Wednesday | First Friday of the month, 4pm to 7pm | Not required for standard entry |
On the pass question, the honest answer is a warning. There is no Los Angeles CityPASS. The product that carries a similar name, Southern California CityPASS, covers Disneyland, SeaWorld and LEGOLAND, and it is not a museum pass in any sense. Go City Los Angeles is the real multi-attraction pass for the region, from $94, or from $244 for the Plus version with Universal Studios, and the detailed breakdown lives in the Los Angeles museum pass guide.
One more cost note that belongs here rather than scattered later: The Huntington's free first Thursday is genuinely free, but the advance ticket is the whole game. The museum releases those tickets ahead of the date and they are limited. Set a reminder for the release rather than planning to arrive on spec.
Can You See Both Museums In One Day?
Yes, and it is the best way to do Pasadena. The Huntington opens the day better because its gardens reward a full morning, and the Norton Simon's smaller footprint suits a focused afternoon visit of two to three hours. The drive between them is about ten minutes. On the first Friday of a month that follows a free first Thursday at The Huntington, the pairing can be done for $20 total per adult.
The standard shape of the day: arrive at The Huntington when it opens, spend four hours across the galleries and whichever gardens matter most to you, break for lunch in Pasadena, then spend the afternoon at the Norton Simon. The Norton Simon does not need more than three hours even for a slow, close look at everything, and it is the more comfortable of the two for tired legs late in a museum day.
The order matters less than the timing. Both museums close on Tuesdays, and the Norton Simon also closes Wednesdays, so Thursday through Monday are the live days for the pairing. The Huntington's reservation requirement on weekends means a Saturday version of this day needs a booking made in advance; a weekday version can often be arranged much closer to the date.
| Time | Stop | What to prioritize |
|---|---|---|
| Morning, at opening | The Huntington | The Huntington Art Gallery for "The Blue Boy" before crowds, then the Japanese and Chinese gardens |
| Midday | Lunch in Pasadena | Colorado Boulevard has the closest concentration of options to the Norton Simon |
| Early afternoon | Norton Simon Museum | Old masters wing first, then the Impressionist galleries and the sculpture garden |
| Late afternoon | Norton Simon Museum | South and Southeast Asian collection, one of the strongest in the country |
Visitors building a longer route can extend this pattern with the one-day plans in the Los Angeles museum itinerary guide, which sequences central LA's Museum Row and Downtown options for a second day.
How Does The Norton Simon Compare To The Getty?
The Norton Simon and the Getty Center overlap in European painting but differ in shape and cost. The Getty's admission is free with a free timed reservation, while the Norton Simon charges $20. The Getty's collection is broader and its hilltop architecture is an event in itself; the Norton Simon's is denser and easier to see in one focused visit. Parking separates them too: Getty Center parking is $25 per car, dropping to $15 after 3pm.
The Getty comparison is the one Pasadena visitors always end up making, because both museums hold serious Impressionist and old master holdings and both sit on the west side of the metro area. The Getty Center in Brentwood charges nothing for admission and nothing for its timed reservation, and its collection spans medieval manuscripts to contemporary photography. The Norton Simon's European collection is arguably deeper in its strongest rooms, particularly the Rembrandt and Degas holdings, and it delivers them without a tram ride or a reservation scramble.
The cost comparison is closer than the ticket prices suggest once parking enters the math. Norton Simon visitors parking near the museum pay for city or lot parking, while Getty Center visitors pay $25 per car, $15 after 3pm, confirmed on the Getty's own parking and transportation page at getty.edu/visit/center/parking-and-transportation. A car of four pays $5 more per person to park at the free museum than to enter the $20 one, which is the Los Angeles museum math in miniature.
The fuller head-to-head, including the Getty Villa's separate ancient-art collection in Pacific Palisades, is laid out in the art museums in Los Angeles guide, which ranks the region's painting collections by strength rather than by fame.
Is The Huntington Worth The Admission Price?
The Huntington is worth $34 for most first-time visitors because no other Los Angeles institution combines a European and American art collection, a rare-books library and expansive themed gardens in one ticket. It is worth less to visitors who only care about paintings, since the galleries are one part of a large property. The free first Thursday with an advance ticket is the best value route in.
The case for the price is the range. In a single morning a visitor can see a Gutenberg Bible, stand in front of "The Blue Boy," walk a Japanese garden with a moon bridge and a tea house, and cross a desert garden that is among the largest cactus and succulent plantings in the world. The Huntington is effectively three attractions, and $34 is the combined ticket. Visitors who move slowly through gardens could spend the entire day and feel no pressure to leave. Other pages covering the same trip are gathered on Los Angeles Museums.
The case against is pace. The property is large, the walking between garden areas adds up, and a visitor with limited mobility or no interest in horticulture will see a fraction of what the ticket covers. The Huntington also requires reservations on Fridays through Sundays, holidays and peak-season days, which removes the spontaneous drop-in that most museums allow.
Timing questions get a fuller treatment in How Long Should You Spend At The Huntington, and the complete cost breakdown, including the free-day mechanics, lives in The Huntington Cost And Free Day Guide. The short planning answer: budget a half day minimum, and treat the gardens as the main event rather than a side attraction.
What Else Is Worth Visiting Near Pasadena?
Beyond the two headline museums, Pasadena sits close to several worthwhile stops, though most of the region's other major collections are back toward central Los Angeles. The Autry Museum of the American West and Griffith Observatory sit to the southwest in Griffith Park, the Academy Museum and Petersen anchor Museum Row on Wilshire, and the day-trip set of MOLAA and the Aquarium of the Pacific lies south toward Long Beach. None of these are in Pasadena itself.
Pasadena's own museum bench thins out quickly after the top two, which is why most itineraries treat the city as a one-day destination rather than a base. The practical move for a second museum day is to drive back into central Los Angeles. Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard alone holds LACMA, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Petersen Automotive Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits, four stops within walking distance of each other.
The Academy Museum is the strongest film-history stop in the region, $25 admission with visitors 17 and under always free, closed Tuesdays. The Petersen is the region's definitive car museum at $22, open daily, with a star rating of 4.8 on its live listing. Both pair naturally with a Pasadena trip for a visitor who wants a second full museum day without repeating the same genre twice.
For visitors heading south instead, the day-trip tier includes MOLAA, the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach at $15, and the Aquarium of the Pacific at Rainbow Harbor, $49.95 at the door, open daily. Neither is a Pasadena stop, but both reward the drive for visitors already out of the city center.
Where Do You Park At Each Museum?
The Huntington and the Norton Simon both have paid parking, and neither publishes a simple flat figure in the fresh research for this site, so the honest instruction is to check each museum's own site before arriving. Exposition Park and most LA museum districts charge for parking, and Pasadena is no exception. What is verified is that neither museum offers free parking as part of admission.
The parking rule this site enforces everywhere applies doubly in Pasadena: never carry one museum's parking price to another. The Getty Center's verified $25 per car, $15 after 3pm, is a Brentwood figure and has nothing to do with San Marino or central Pasadena. The Huntington sits in a residential San Marino neighborhood where the museum's own lot is the practical choice, and the Norton Simon sits on Colorado Boulevard with city lots and street options around it. For both, the museum's own website is the source of record for current rates.
| Museum | Parking situation | What to do before arriving |
|---|---|---|
| The Huntington | Paid on-site parking at the San Marino campus | Check the Huntington's own site for current rates and opening-hour lot access |
| Norton Simon Museum | Paid city and lot parking around Colorado Boulevard | Check the museum's site and allow time for weekend crowding |
The broader lesson is the one this site keeps returning to: in Los Angeles the museum is often free or cheap and the parking is not. Pasadena inverts that slightly, since both museums charge real admission, but the parking cost still lands on top and still needs planning. Budget for it rather than being surprised by it.
One parking-adjacent note worth knowing: the Petersen Automotive Museum's live listing states its price excludes a $17 parking fee, which is a useful reminder that listings and door prices do not always include the drive. Where this site has a verified figure it prints it, and where it does not, the museum's own site is the answer.
When Is The Best Time To Visit Pasadena's Museums?
The best time to visit Pasadena's museums is a Thursday or Friday, because Tuesdays close both museums, Wednesdays close the Norton Simon, and the two monthly free windows land on the first Thursday and first Friday. Mornings are quieter at both. The Huntington's gardens are at their best from late winter rose pruning through spring bloom, and the Norton Simon is a genuinely all-season indoor visit.
The weekday logic is simple arithmetic. Both museums close Tuesdays. The Norton Simon adds Wednesday. That leaves Thursday through Monday, and of those, Thursday and Friday carry the free windows: The Huntington's first-Thursday free day needs an advance ticket, and the Norton Simon's first-Friday evening window runs 4pm to 7pm. A first Thursday followed by a first Friday is the cheapest possible two-day Pasadena museum run, and a single day pairing them in reverse order, Norton Simon morning and Huntington afternoon, works when the calendar gives you a free first Thursday.
Season matters differently at each. The Huntington's gardens change character through the year, and the rose garden's peak bloom draws the biggest crowds of the calendar, so visitors who want the gardens quiet should prefer weekday mornings outside peak bloom weekends. The Norton Simon is climate-controlled, compact and identical in every season, which makes it the reliable fallback for a hot August afternoon or a rainy day, and the rainy-day options across the region are collected in the indoor museums guide.
Crowds follow reservations at The Huntington. Because weekends, holidays and peak-season dates require booked entry, the museum controls its own density on those days, and a reserved Saturday can feel calmer than an unreserved weekday in rose season. The Norton Simon has no standing reservation requirement, so its quiet hours are the ordinary ones: opening time and weekday afternoons.
The pairing, in one paragraph for the calendar-minded: book The Huntington for a first Thursday with the free advance ticket if you can get it, lunch on Colorado Boulevard, and return Friday for the Norton Simon's free 4pm to 7pm window. That is the entire cost of Pasadena's two heavyweight museums reduced to lunch and gas, and it is the single best value play in Los Angeles museum planning, provided the tickets are secured in advance rather than hoped for.
Common Questions About Pasadena Museums
What Are The Best Museums In Pasadena?
The Huntington and the Norton Simon Museum. The Huntington combines European and American art, a rare-books library and expansive gardens in San Marino. The Norton Simon holds old masters, Impressionists and South Asian sculpture in a single compact building in central Pasadena.
How Much Does The Huntington Cost?
Admission is $34 for adults. The Huntington is free the first Thursday of the month, but only with an advance ticket, and reservations are required on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and peak-season days.
How Much Is The Norton Simon Museum?
Adult admission is $20. Students, visitors under 18, members and military are always free. Everyone else can visit free the first Friday of the month from 4pm to 7pm.
What Days Are Pasadena Museums Closed?
Both The Huntington and the Norton Simon close on Tuesdays, and the Norton Simon also closes Wednesdays. Thursday through Monday are the live days for visiting both.
Can You Visit The Huntington And The Norton Simon In One Day?
Yes. The drive between them is about ten minutes. The standard plan is a full morning in The Huntington's galleries and gardens, lunch in Pasadena, and a two to three hour afternoon at the Norton Simon.
Is There A Los Angeles Pass That Covers Pasadena Museums?
No. There is no Los Angeles CityPASS, and the similarly named Southern California CityPASS covers theme parks, not museums. Go City Los Angeles is the region's real attraction pass, from $94, but neither Pasadena museum is the reason to buy it.
Where Do You Park At The Huntington And The Norton Simon?
Parking at both is paid, and neither museum's current rate is published in this site's verified research, so check each museum's own site before arriving. Never assume one museum's parking price applies at another.