Alphonso Shurland loves to go to Balboa Park, but the price of the museums keeps him away sometimes.
Darla Pieters likes to go to the park with her daughter but says it's hard to do it on a budget.
"We want to be cost-efficient and save money where we can," said Pieters.
Both could benefit from a new annual pass offered by Balboa Park for the first time. The annual Explorer pass allows 365 day access to the park's 17 museums. A pass for a family of six costs $199, that is for two adults and four children. The pass does not have any black-out dates.
Adult passes cost $129, Senior and Student passes are $99.
The cost for an adult to visit all Balboa Park museums and pay full prices is approximately $135 dollars. Some museums like the San Diego Natural History Museum and the San Diego Air and Space Museum cost nearly $20 for one adult pass.
Peter Comiskey with the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership says anyone visiting the park three times can save money buy purchasing an annual pass.
Comiskey also says the pass encourages people to visit the lesser known museums without making an extra payment.
"The Model Railroad Museum a fantastic museum for all ages," said Comiskey, "Some people would walk by and wouldn't visit it. So suddenly you can explore that museum as well."
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Comiskey says while most of the passes are being purchased by San Diego County residents he says they've sold Explorer passes to visitors from Arizona, Canada and Mexico.
So far the park has sold 11,497 Explorer passes. The money from the passes is divided by the 17 museums.
