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I’m still pretty skeptical about the Newseum - $20/ticket is awfully high, especially since all the ads about it seem to highlight their multiple movies screens.

I don’t know that $20 is all that outrageous. Admission to the International Spy Museum runs at $18 for adult admission. DC is a major metropolitan city like NYC and prices there are pretty high for hotels rooms and restaurants compared to some other cities. On my last trip to DC, I paid about $20 for a lunch for a simple spinach salad and iced tea at a downtown restaurant.

http://www.spymuseum.org/plan/ticketing.php

I went to the International Spy Museum a few years ago and it was really cool and I’d highly recommend it for anyone planning a visit. There were a lot movie screens and displays behind glass, but also a lot of interactive exhibits and hands on displays. For instance, at the beginning of the tour, everyone was given a dossier of their “spy identity”, name, place of birth, profession, etc. and at the end of the tour you had to answer questions about your “assumed” identity to see how much you remembered about your dossier. There was also an exhibit that showed photos of what on the surface appeared to be common street scenes and you were asked to identify on a touch screen what you though appeared to be suspicious in the photos. I did really good at that one like pointing out two people in the photo carrying identical brief cases, a neatly folded paper bag sitting on top of a trash can and a car with a book sitting on its dashboard and keys left in the ignition.

Living in Baltimore, I am pretty close to DC and make at least one annual day trip to DC. And a lot of museums like the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art, the National Achieves, etc. don’t charge any admission.

But I would be willing to pay $20 to go to the Newseum just to check it out.

I love the SpyMuseum, and I’m looking forward to the opening of the National Museum of Crime and Punishment

http://www.crimemuseum.org/

But you’re right, the prices are a bit comparable. My difference has been the exhibits. I guess I’ve been less than impressed with the ads for the Newseum. I’m sure you’ve heard them - all they talk about is having a news helicopter and several floors of movie screens and TVs. I’m sure it must have more, but everytime I hear an ad, I think I’m not paying $20 to watch TV.