Park City & Olympic Heritage Excursion
The 2002 Winter Games venues, then free time on a silver-mining Main Street.
8 hoursMax 14
From
$129 per adult
Salt Lake City Museum Tour
Three indoor stops, one guide, zero parking stress. The tour built for a weather day.
- 5.5 hours
- Hotel pickup included
- Instant online booking
Embark on a captivating day tour exploring Salt Lake City's rich history and vibrant culture through a series of captivating indoor sensory adventures. This unique experience will immerse you in the wonders of three of the city's landmark buildings and collections:
The Asher Adams Hotel and the historic Union Pacific Depot, where the railroad arrived and the city changed shape around it. The Cathedral of the Madeleine, whose stained glass and murals are among the finest interiors in the state. And the Natural History Museum of Utah, up on the foothills at the Rio Tinto Center, where the dinosaur collections drawn from southern Utah are world class. We allow three hours there, and most guests use all of it.
This tour is designed to provide a multi-sensory experience, engaging your senses of sight, sound, and touch as you explore these unique and captivating locations. It runs five and a half hours with hotel pickup from 11:30 AM and drop-offs by 5:30 PM, which also makes it our best option on a day when the weather has turned.
Your day, hour by hour
Itinerary11:30 AM
11:30 AM
to 12:00 PM Hotel Pick-ups
12:00 PM
Explore Asher Adams Hotel and Historic Union Pacific Depot
1:15 PM
Visit Cathedral of the Madeline
2:00 PM
Experience the Natural History Museum
5:00 PM
Return to your hotel
5:00
5:30 PM Hotel Drop-offs
The three stops
The Asher Adams Hotel and the historic Union Pacific Depot
The depot opened in 1909, at the point when the railroad was the reason this city mattered to the rest of the country, and its Grand Hall (stained glass, murals of the driving of the golden spike, a vaulted ceiling) survived the century mostly intact. It has now been restored as part of a hotel, which means you can walk into it. The tour starts here because it explains how a city founded as a refuge for the Mormon pioneers became a junction in the westward expansion, as more people moved west and the railroad reached Utah.
The Cathedral of the Madeleine
Consecrated in 1909, seat of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, and the single most surprising interior in Utah for most visitors. Romanesque outside, Spanish Gothic inside, with a painted vaulted ceiling, a full program of murals, and stained glass from Munich. It is a reminder that Salt Lake City has always been more religiously mixed than its reputation suggests. It is also an active parish; the tour visits respectfully and around services.
The Natural History Museum of Utah at the Rio Tinto Center is where the tour spends its longest block: three hours, and you’ll use them. The building itself is copper-clad and set into the foothills above the university, laid out so you climb through it like a hillside. The paleontology is the headline: Utah is one of the richest fossil states in the world and the Cretaceous ceratopsian material collected from the Grand Staircase–Escalante is among the best in the country, including species that exist nowhere else. There is also serious Indigenous history, Great Salt Lake ecology, and one of the best views of the valley from the top-floor terrace.
The architecture in between
The drive between the stops isn’t dead time. This is a guided tour, and the route takes in the downtown built environment, the university campus and the east bench.
What to wear and bring
- Comfortable shoes
- You’ll be on your feet on hard floors for most of five and a half hours, and museum fatigue is real. This matters more than anything else on the list.
- Layers
- The museum runs cool for conservation reasons and the cathedral is stone. You’ll be moving between climate-controlled interiors and whatever the weather is doing outside, several times.
- Modest dress
- Shoulders covered for the cathedral, as a courtesy in an active place of worship.
- Photography
- The museum permits non-flash photography in the permanent galleries; the cathedral asks for discretion and no flash. Leave the tripod behind; neither venue allows it.
Lunch isn’t included and the tour runs 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM, so eat before you’re picked up or carry something. The museum has a café.
How the day runs
Hotel pickups run 11:30 AM to 12:00 noon, which makes this a good choice if you want a slow morning or arrived on a late flight the night before.
From there: the Asher Adams and Union Pacific Depot at 12:00, the Cathedral of the Madeleine at 1:15, and the Natural History Museum of Utah from 2:00 to 5:00. Hotel drop-offs run 5:00 to 5:30 PM.
Five and a half hours in total, groups capped at fourteen. Adults $89, children $69. Solo travelers are welcome to book; we just can’t run a departure for a single guest, so if nobody else takes your date we’ll move you to another departure or refund you.
Note that museum admission, the guide and the transport are what you’re paying for. This tour isn’t wheelchair accessible as operated, though the museum itself is fully accessible. If mobility is a factor, contact us and we’ll tell you which stops will and won’t work.
Photos
Before you book
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- Enjoy a more personal experience with our small-group tour (minimum of two guests required)
- English, Dutch, German, and French
Salt Lake City Museum Tour: your questions answered
Which museums does the tour visit?
Three stops: the historic Union Pacific Depot, now restored as the Asher Adams Hotel; the Cathedral of the Madeleine; and the Natural History Museum of Utah at the Rio Tinto Center, where the tour spends three hours. The drive between them is guided and covers the downtown and university architecture.
What time does the museum tour start?
Hotel pickups run 11:30 AM to 12:00 noon, and drop-offs are 5:00 to 5:30 PM, five and a half hours in total. The late start suits a slow morning or a late arrival the night before.
Is museum admission included?
This is the one thing on this tour we won’t state definitively until the operator confirms it in writing. The source listing carries no itemized inclusions, unlike our other tours. Ask us when you book your tour and you’ll get a straight answer for your date rather than a guess.
Is this a good tour for a rainy or very hot day?
It is the tour we built for exactly that. Everything except the walk from the vehicle to the door is indoors and climate controlled. It is also the right choice on a day when snow has closed the canyon roads.
Is lunch included?
No, and the tour runs across the middle of the day, so eat before pickup or bring something with you. The Natural History Museum has a café where the tour spends its longest block.
Can I take photographs?
Non-flash photography is generally permitted in the museum galleries, and the cathedral asks for discretion and no flash as an active place of worship. Tripods aren’t allowed at either. Bring a fast lens instead. This is a low-light day.
Is it suitable for children?
Yes. The Natural History Museum of Utah is one of the best museums for children in the western United States, and the dinosaur galleries land every time. The child fare is $69. Five and a half hours is a long stretch for the very young, so judge accordingly. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Is it wheelchair accessible?
The tour as operated isn’t, although the Natural History Museum itself is fully accessible. Tell us about any mobility requirements before you book and we’ll go through the stops with you rather than have you find out on the day.
Pair this with
The tours our guides most often suggest alongside this one, and why.
Salt Lake City Walking Tour
The outdoor counterpart: three miles of downtown history on foot, for $44.
Hardware Ranch Elk Refuge Adventure
The other good winter day out of Salt Lake City, and it’s nothing like this one.
Salt Lake City Highlights Driving Tour
Three hours covering the whole valley with far less walking, easy to pair on the same day.
Read before you go
Longer background on where this tour goes, written by the people who run it.
Salt Lake City in winter, if you aren’t skiing
Half the people who land here in January are attached to somebody else’s ski trip. This is the guide for them.
6 min read
Still have a question about the Salt Lake City Museum Tour?
Ask us anything the FAQ above did not cover: pickup points, fitness level, what to wear in November. We answer within one business day.
Other tours from Salt Lake City
Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island
Wild bison, a 7-mile causeway across the lake, and the oldest ranch house in Utah.
6 hoursMax 14
From
$145 per adult
Salt Lake Antelope Island Dark Sky Experience
A certified International Dark Sky Park, 45 minutes from your hotel lobby.
4.3 hours
From
$145 per adult
From
$89per adult