The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, known as The Met, is one of the world’s largest and finest art museums, housing over two million works spanning 5,000 years of global culture. Located on Fifth Avenue in New York City, it offers visitors a vast collection of art from various periods and regions, including European paintings, Egyptian artifacts, and American decorative arts. The museum provides guided tours, audio guides, and family programs to enhance the visitor experience. Membership options are available for those interested in supporting the museum’s mission and enjoying additional benefits.

Planning your visit

The Met holds over two million works spanning 5,000 years, and no one sees it all. Fifth Avenue's main building alone runs to hundreds of galleries — Egyptian temples reassembled indoors, European paintings, American period rooms, arms and armour, the Costume Institute. The practical problem for a visitor with one afternoon isn't access, it's triage: deciding what to skip. That is precisely what the guided formats here exist to solve.

Express highlights tours cover the landmark works in a compact run, while full guided tours and private tours go deeper at a slower pace. Skip-the-line entry avoids the queue up the Fifth Avenue steps at peak hours. Themed options narrow the focus usefully — art and architecture, biblical works across the collection, or "secrets of the Met" itineraries covering the pieces most visitors walk past. Family tours are structured to keep children moving between highlights rather than stalling. There's also luggage storage nearby for travel days. See current times below.