Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Tours at Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History tours cover one of the largest natural history collections in the world, held in a Beaux-Arts building on the National Mall in Washington DC that opened in 1910. The museum houses more than 145 million specimens across geology, biology, anthropology, and palaeontology, including the Hope Diamond and a full-scale North Atlantic right whale skeleton.

Guided tours move through the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils, the Sant Ocean Hall, the Hall of Human Origins, and the gem and mineral galleries. Entry is free to the permanent collection, and Washington DC attractions of this scale rarely require advance booking, though timed-entry passes may apply to special exhibitions.