We actually made a special trip over fall break just for this and one other attraction in the area. First, Google maps absolutely does direct you right to the museum, we had absolutely no difficulty finding this. Second, the tours of the homes are staggered. One home runs tours on the hour (10, 11, 12, etc…) and the other home is on the half hour (10:30, 11:30, 12:00, etc…). You can walk or drive to both homes. We did walk to the tour at the “white” house, then visited the gift shop and museum (which are in the same main building), then we drove to the rock house, where we had a picnic before the tour on the pretty grounds. There’s a little path by the parking lot that leads to Almanzo’s ice house, quick walk and nice to see but everyone else missed it while we were there. After the tour at the rock house, we did go to visit their graves as well (which I highly recommend).
We LOVED this experience!! It was disappointing that there are no photos in the homes or museum, and our tour guides could not tell us why. I definitely would’ve taken pics of Pa’s fiddle. The only running water bathrooms are in the main visitor’s center, fyi. You can watch the film about Laura there too, though we did not watch it (you can hear it while in the museum). To get to the museum at the main building, you walk through the theater/where the film is running on a loop. That is where you will see Pa’s fiddle, letters Laura wrote, her china, her sewing, Rose’s clothing, etc…. We spent a lot of time in this museum, as we are fans, and learned new things while there. ASK QUESTIONS if you’re unsure of where to go/etc. (We also could see a museum at the gift shop and simply asked how to get to it.) We found absolutely everyone there friendly, kind, and knowledgeable. I highly recommend this stop. We had planned to spend the whole day, and only spent about 4 1/2 hours, which included our picnic and visit to the graves.
I did try to purchase our tickets in advance on their website and it said “unavailable at this time”. I did call to make sure we could still buy tickets/not sold out/etc and the person I spoke to said that was absolutely incorrect and they said it would be fixed as they really don’t ever sell out. Just fyi to anyone else who may want to purchase online and can’t.