One of the best things about getting a little older? Senior discounts. After you’ve reached a certain age, you get to pay a little less for all of your favorite restaurants, gardens, museums, and historic sites. Here are the 10 best senior discount offers in South Dakota.
With over 30 hot entrees, a huge salad bar with eight different prepared salads, homemade soups, and decadent desserts and Belgian waffles. Opened in the 1960s, Royal Fork has been serving up delicious meals for decades and they’ve only gotten better with time. Seniors age 60 and older can request a stamp card for free that never expires. After 10 stamps, the next meal and beverage are absolutely free. Mondays are double stamp days for seniors, so mark your calendar!
Reptile Gardens is one of the most interesting tourist attractions in the state and is a can’t-miss for everyone both young and old. The facility has more species and subspecies of reptile than any other zoo in the world and has the world record for the world’s largest reptile zoo! Reptile Gardens includes Rattlesnake Gulch, gold panning, a giant crocodile (roughly 1,250 pounds!), giant tortoises, prairie dog town, the tropical oasis of Sky Dome which is filled with unique flowers, and animal shows. Reptile Gardens offers both senior and military discounts.
Just steps away from “Deadwood’s friendliest casino,” the Tin Lizzie, is Deadwood’s friendliest restaurant, the T-Grill. Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the menu features fresh soup, salad bar with a variety of offerings, sandwiches, wraps, flatbread pizza, pasta, steak, and prime rib dinner every Friday and Saturday night. With a senior player card, prices are incredibly affordable for senior citizens. Make sure to check out their tasty daily senior specials!
With exhibits about archaeology, Native American culture, pioneers, paleontology, and geology, the Journey Museum in the heart of Rapid City has something for everyone. The museum highlights parts of the Black Hills and South Dakota’s unique history. It also provides hands-on experiences like digging up dinosaur bones, seeing a working fossil lab inside a field tent, walk the boardwalk of a pioneer town, feel rocks and gems that can be found in the hills, and much more. There is a small admission fee, but senior discounts are available.
With breakfast served 24/7 as well as a fresh soup and salad bar from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sioux Falls’ Fryn Pan is a must-stop restaurant. With locations in Yankton, Fargo, Wahpeton, and Moorhead, even when traveling in the tristate area, you’ll be able to enjoy this unbeatable restaurant. Menu favorites include the biscuits and gravy, sirloin tips, and supreme omelet. For senior, there is both a senior menu and 10 percent discount off the bill! That’s an unbeatable deal!
Pierre’s Cultural Heritage Center tells the story of South Dakota itself, from the Native American culture to the arrival of Europeans and early pioneer history and through the end of the 20th century. History truly comes alive with these unique and hands-on exhibits. Admission for seniors is a steal at only $3. In addition to senior discounts, kids 17 and under receive completely free admission!
Mount Rushmore is one of the most recognizable symbols of democracy in America, depicting Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. But seeing the famous four faces doesn’t have to break the bank! Admission is only $5 for seniors 62 years of age and older.
Hot Spring’s Mammoth Site is an active paleontological dig site where new mammoth remains are being uncovered all the time. In fact, so far 58 Columbian mammoths and three woolly mammoths have been uncovered. In addition to seeing the exciting active dig site, admission also includes an introduction video about the site, a 30-minute guided tour around the sinkhole, and entrance into the exhibit hall with full sized replicas of creatures that have been uncovered. Seniors get a reduced admission rate and children three and under get in for free, so this is the perfect spot for an educational, interesting family day trip.
This drive-thru wildlife park has arctic wolves, badgers, beavers, bighorn sheep, bobcats, buffalo, lynx, coyotes, elk, mountain lions, porcupine, foxes, reindeer, otters, mountain goats, and, of course, grizzly and black bears. Reduced price admission is available for senior citizens.
Learn about bison and their relationship with the native people of the Dakotas at Tatanka: Story of the Bison. An admission discount is available for seniors, military, veterans, and AAA.