Ford's Theatre Tours Tickets

My overall experience at the Ford Theater was good. The ranger did an excellent job describing in detail the events that took place the night Lincoln was assassinated.

Going to Ford's Theater is free, unless you want to take the Tour with audio which is $5.00. It is also wise, at least during busy times, to get your "free" tickets online ahead of time which comes with a fee of around $4.00 (well worth the price between mid-March and at least August). AUDIO TOUR WARNING: If you purchase the audio tour, be sure to take the initiative to ask someone about it when you enter the Box Office room before going downstairs. I thought there would be instructions inside or, if not, that someone would inform me what to do. Instead, we were rushed downstairs with no instructions about anything related to the tour and, when I asked someone downstairs, the answer I got is that I was supposed to get the audio device when I entered the Box Office area. By this time, it was too late for me.

This was one of the highlights of our recent trip to Washington. Our children, age 8 and 10, love history and we all found this museum very interesting. The information was very well presented and appealing to all ages. The one problem was that our tickets allowed us 45 minutes to see the museum before the ranger talk and that was not nearly enough time. My daughter started snapping pictures, so she could read the displays later!

The adults and teen children in our family group all loved visiting the Ford's Theatre site: the multi-media Lincoln museum downstairs, the theater above, and the Ranger-talk included, as well as use of the Acoustiguide tour device. I would recommend choosing a tour time that includes the museum, the theater, the ranger-talk and paying extra for the acoustiguide wands. History really comes alive here!

We thouroughly enjoyed our visit to Ford's Theatre. The museum was very interesting and it was amazing to see the gun that Booth used but the time allowed in the museum is way too short to see everything. We would have really liked to have gone back in and read more about the events of that night and see the rest of the exhibit. The ranger that gave the presentation in the theater did an unbelievable job of articulating what took place and really brought history to life. This was our last tourist stop on our week long trip to DC and her talk was by far the best and most informative. We would have loved to have seen the Peterson House but is wasn't yet reopened :(

Appalled that my granddaughter (12) and her best friend (13) have acquired so little history of our country through public school, my wife and I took them on a firehose tour of Washington. At every venue, particularly Ford's Theatre, the NPS narrator was suplerlative and really brought home the history of how we came to be the people and country we are.

As a history teacher I was so excited to go to Ford's Theater. It was a wonderful tour. I would love to go back and see a show there.