The hottest ticket in Utah right now isn’t a seat at a Utah Mammoth NHL playoff game. It’s the “Inside a Temple” tour at the new Salt Lake Temple Visitors’ Center.
And the tour doesn’t even open until May 18.
Free reservations opened two weeks ago. Every available spot was taken within hours. If you try to book one at TempleSquare.org right now, you won’t be able to find an opening.
Fortunately, that’s just temporary. Here are two ways to scoop up a free reservation.
First, TempleSquare.org will release another limited set of reservations on June 1. If you manage to get in, you’ll find some openings in June and July.
Additional releases will follow every second Monday after that.
Here’s the official word:
“The church is grateful for the strong interest in the ‘Inside a Temple’ tour at the Temple Square Visitors’ Center,” according to a statement. “Beginning June 1, tickets will be released in batches every other Monday, with reservations available up to 60 days in advance.”
The new Temple Square app is the second way to find reservations. The app will push out notifications for unscheduled releases of reservations.
“If tickets are unavailable, we invite you to download the Temple Square app to receive notifications about future releases or to check back during an upcoming release. Reservations can be made online or through the Temple Square app.”
There are reports of a limited third avenue. Temple Square officials continue to test the tour, and that includes a soft opening that apparently is underway right now, according to social media posts.
Another person replied to that social media post and indicated that the hours will change over each of the next two weeks leading up to the May 18 official opening.
A few words of caution: Those hours will fluctuate daily for training purposes. Also, the reason reservations are so difficult to get is that each tour is limited to 20 people. A soft opening in short windows of time for a very limited number of spots will go quickly.
The run on reservations for the “Inside the Temple” tour is certainly an indication of the intensity of interest for the 2027 Salt Lake Temple open house celebration.
But reservations for that event, which will run from April to October next year, will be far easier to land. Church leaders are preparing for 3 million to 5 million visitors.
The temple itself is far larger than the visitors’ center, and instead of 20 people per tour group, there could be 100 or more in a group at the open house.
In both cases, it really is a question of when, not if, you can get a reservation.
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