Latest Google offer: Free museum, zoo, and attraction tickets

The secretive Google division Niantic Labs usually works on apps that meld our real and virtual worlds, including the massive global game Ingress. Now it’s using another of its signature apps to get you out of your smartphone and into some of the nation’s most visited attractions.

This summer, users of Google’s Field Trip app can receive free admission to the Central Park Zoo, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A., President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, D.C., and 19 other attractions around the country. Field Trip, which was built by Niantic Labs, offers a docent-like touring experience, highlighting some of the most interesting, famous, and odd facts about places you’re visiting.

It’s available for both Android (of course) and iPhone.

Above: Google’s Field Trip app helps you explore “reality”

Image Credit: John Koetsier

“If you have Field Trip installed on your smartphone you can get free admission for one person to any of the following attractions (see below) from July 2-July 30 by showing the info card related to that attraction at the ticket counter,” a Google representative told me via email.

Participating organizations include:

• Museum of the City of New York, NYC
• The Museum of Arts and Design, NYC
• Conservatory of Flowers, San Francisco
• Walt Disney Family Museum, San Francisco
• Exploratorium, San Francisco
• Legion of Honor, San Francisco
• de Young Museum, San Francisco
• National Building Museum, Washington DC
• Crime Museum, Washington DC
• President Lincoln’s Cottage, Washington DC
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
• The Field Museum, Chicago
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
• Pittock Mansion, Portland
• Portland Art Museum, Portland
• Portland Children’s Museum, Portland
• Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum, Reno
• Nevada Design Museum, NV
• Bronx Zoo, NYC
• Central Park Zoo, NYC
• New York Aquarium, NYC
• Prospect Park Zoo, NYC
• Queens Zoo, NYC

If you’re interested in taking advantage of Google’s offer, however, you might want to hurry up and use it as soon as possible. Google isn’t sharing specific numbers, but there is a cut-off per museum or attraction.

“People shouldn’t wait to take advantage of the deal, since it may be gone as we get later into the month,” the representative told me.

Google has a Field Trip competitor, Wanderous, which operates a little differently, acting as a treasure map for a route you’ve already determined. It’s unlikely, however, that the small startup has the resources to match Google’s national attraction offer, however.