Meet Experience Pass, your key to free Philly activities

If you’re a Philadelphians over 18, your free library card is about to bring you to a world beyond books. Although your free library card can already give you access to films, books, and other media, you can now use your card to book experiences across the city.

If your New Year’s resolution is to explore Philly more or just experience, this is the perfect way to motivate yourself. Although this wonderful feature has been around since Dec. 2, there’s no better time to utilize your library card. 

The experiences include anything from gardens to the Eastern State Penitentiary. Some lucky library card users can even book themselves a seat in the mayor’s box at the Wells Fargo Center. 

There’s something for everyone to enjoy. According to freelibrary.org, you can book experiences at any of the below Philly favorites: 

-The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

-Bartram’s Garden

-Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site

-Founder’s Hall at Girard College

-Free Library Author Events Series

-Free Library Culinary Literacy Center

-Glen Foerd on the Delaware

-Johnson House Historic Site

-Mayor’s Box Tickets at the Wells Fargo Center

-Museum of the American Revolution

-Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens

-The Rosenbach

-Woodmere Art Museum

To book your experiences, you need to log in with your free library card and pin at freelibrary.org/epass. Once you get on this, you can browse for passes by attraction or date and book your reservation. After you book, you can either download or print out your passes and bring it with you to the attraction. 

When it comes to reserving passes, you can only book one pass per attraction per year. You can only have two active reservations at a time. If you reserve a pass but don’t use it, it will still count, according to the website.  

Card users can also book guest passes while booking experiences for themselves and their family or friends, according to the freelibrary.org. 

 All experience passes will be released two months in advance. You can try to snag a pass on the first of every month. 

The only stipulation is that you have to be a local Philly resident. If you live outside of Philly, you might still be in luck, local libraries throughout Pennsylvania are starting to offer similar things. For a list of other libraries’ experience passes, check out Mommypoppins.com. 

If you do not have a library card and would like to apply for one, go to know.freelibrary.org. You can apply online or in person.