New York City is the place to go to for a museum vacation within the US. It’s no secret that town is filled with historical past and tradition. And this cultured surroundings makes it extremely well-suited to museums due to all of the subjects and tales it will possibly cowl. Its vary of museums are among the metropolis’s most superior issues to do.
New York has all the things from a Jewish Museum to the Tenement Museum and New York Transit Museum. New York City is iconic, and its museum scene is just too. So, earlier than you get any additional, our first recommendation is to dedicate as a lot time as doable to seeing the most effective museums in NYC.
Top Museums in NYC
You might need a love for modern artists. You could wish to glimpse New York’s maritime historical past or a time machine-like transportation again to the Middle Ages. In this information, we’ll provide the lowdown on the place to go to to get your museum repair. These high 18 museums are the most effective in New York City.
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Top Museum Tickets And Tours in NYC:
1. 9/11 Memorial & Museum
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum is essentially the most well-known of all of the museums in New York and, arguably, essentially the most somber too. The museum stands subsequent to the place the Twin Towers fell, with two huge swimming pools marking their foundations. Undoubtedly, the 2001 (and earlier 1993) terrorist assault is certainly one of historical past’s most catastrophic occasions. The complicated story is already acquainted to many. After the hijacking of two planes in a nationwide assault, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center have been focused in a terrorist assault.
Flying the planes immediately by way of the towers, the 2001 attackers induced an estimated dying toll of two,977 individuals. A large group of firefighters, paramedics, and workplace staff misplaced their lives, and mid-way by way of the rescue proceedings, the towers tragically collapsed, inflicting unprecedented additional lack of life.
The museum is a harrowing however lovely ode to the people who misplaced their lives and survived the ordeal. Some extremely impactful accounts of the tragedy embrace Michael Hingson, who was led from the tower and saved by his information canine, Roselle. It additionally covers the opposite assaults orchestrated throughout the US on the identical day. United Flight 93 famously crashed in a subject in Pennsylvania after passengers sabotaged the hijacker’s efforts – saving the lives of these within the proposed goal space of Washington, DC.
Walk amongst the displays and permit not less than 3 hours to course of and completely discover the museum. There is such nice consideration to element, so count on a lot of little displays, particular person tales, and a few movies.
2. Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Opening occasions: Closed Wednesdays, open 10 am till 5 pm Sunday to Thursday, and 10 am till 9 pm Fridays and Saturdays
- Cost: $30. Get Your Tickets Here.
Get prepared for an enormous assertion; the Metropolitan Museum of Art is an enormous deal. It’s one of many grandest artwork galleries on this planet – of all of the artwork museums in New York, the Metropolitan Museum is essentially the most revered. To be sincere, its mixture of historical trendy, and modern artwork is astounding. The museum covers over 5,000 years of paintings and artwork historical past. You’ll discover all the things from previous grasp work to Egyptian statues. ‘The Met,’ as it’s affectionally referred to as by native New Yorkers, is the biggest artwork museum within the metropolis and the third largest museum.
Alongside its substantial everlasting assortment, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a spread of short-term displays. These embrace displays just like the fabulous Van Gogh’s Cypresses and the African Origin of Civilization. The Met is someplace you may go to to browse extra typically or look forward and choose short-term displays to deal with as particular occasions. This makes the Metropolitan Museum of Art extraordinarily thrilling for severe artists. While for individuals who aren’t normal artwork fans, it may be useful to cherry-pick what to see.
3. American Museum of Natural History
- Opening occasions: 10 am till 5:30 pm
- Cost: Suggested $25.
Every main metropolis has a museum devoted to the pure world. And the American Museum of Natural History is a museum situated in New York City devoted to doing exactly that. The museum options all the things from dinosaurs to house historical past. If you desire a full time out, it’s the excellent resolution.
Just to stroll the displays takes round 3 hours. But then the museum has particular exhibits and exhibitions, every taking upwards of an hour. And there’s a present store on the finish. It’s finest to go to with the restriction of a time restrict looming over your head, so go away a day for this museum. The American Museum of Natural History hit the bottom working in 1869 and has continued accumulating displays and the most recent analysis info since. David Attenborough could be proud; let’s simply put it that approach.
The American Museum of Natural History is a part of the Smithsonian Museums’ establishment. It is conveniently situated simply off of Central Park. It is a superb museum to mix with an early morning Central Park stroll.
4. Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is likely one of the most fun museums in New York City. The museum covers three main subjects: sea, air, and house. So naturally, it options well-known displays from every three, together with an plane service referred to as Intrepid and an area shuttle referred to as Enterprise. It supplies an actual ‘show and tell’ strategy to sea, air, and house training. And younger youngsters particularly will discover this thrilling strategy extra partaking.
You can see an actual submarine and be taught the way it observes ocean life and performs a navy position as a missile submarine. And you may stand up near the world’s quickest jets.
This museum is fascinating, and that is the one museum prefer it in New York City. Heavily military-focused but additionally only a nice basic perception into sea, air, and house historical past, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is a good go to.
5. Ellis Island National Museum
- Opening occasions: 9:45 am till 4:45 pm
- Cost: $25
It’s no secret; Ellis Island National Museum is certainly one of New York City’s most well-known museums and for glorious cause. Find the Statue of Liberty and also you gained’t be removed from Ellis Island. Ellis Island National Museum is within the Upper Bay area of the Hudson River. The museum was as soon as the primary port of name for immigrants arriving in New York and was a former processing station. Nowadays, you may retread these footsteps. Passenger information and artifacts provide you with a transparent perception into the people and their lives earlier than stepping onto New York soil and beginning afresh.
Highly individual-focused and a very good museum for social historical past, Ellis Island National Museum is likely one of the finest museums in NYC. We’d additionally suggest visiting as a option to move by the Statue of Liberty without cost, and it is likely one of the finest points of interest to mix with admiring Lady Liberty herself.
6. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Opening occasions: 11 am till 6 pm Sunday to Monday, 11 am till 8 pm on Saturdays
- Cost: $25. Get your Tickets Here.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a haven for modern artists. The huge assortment can also be displayed in one of many metropolis’s most lovely exhibition areas – making Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum probably the greatest museums in NYC for an aesthetic inside. The well-known ramp format is rife on social media, particularly Instagram. And the intense white museum spirals up from the ground to the skylight in a ramp across the exterior wall, leaving a dizzying drop within the center. The format is classy. And it completely matches the post-impressionist, impressionist, modernist, and modern artwork it showcases.
Visiting Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is non-negotiable in case you are after iconic and various structure in New York City. As an artwork gallery, it additionally matches an ideal area of interest extra anybody wanting modern and impressionist paintings. It positively ticks a extremely sought-after field, and it seems to be gorgeous whereas doing it.
7. Brooklyn Museum
- Opening occasions: 11 am till 6 pm Wednesday to Sunday
- Cost: $16 basic admission, $25 ticketed exhibition, and free entry on the primary Saturdays of the month between February and August
Brooklyn Museum is undoubtedly one of many finest issues to do in Brooklyn. The imposing Beaux Art landmark is the second-largest museum within the metropolis and is an attraction simply due to its structure. Its displays are simply as spectacular, although, and Brooklyn Museum incorporates a rotating exhibition of round 500,000 objects.
The museum focuses on world cultures and confronting colonial legacies. So, in fact, you’ll see paintings from all around the world, together with African artwork and Egyptian treasures. There’s a large vary in paintings intervals, too, with displays from the period of Egyptian pharaohs but additionally trendy artwork items on subjects like environmental justice.
Brooklyn Museum is likely one of the hottest museums in New York. The mixture of a considerable everlasting assortment and the fixed refreshing of short-term exhibitions make Brooklyn Museum an thrilling spot to go to. And if you wish to see a museum that challenges you and your worldview, that is the artwork gallery to take action.
8. New York Transit Museum
- Opening occasions: 10 am till 4 pm Thursday to Sunday
- Cost: $10
New York Transit Museum is suitably situated in a 1936 subway station, so that you enter by heading down steps from road stage. The museum options many immersive displays, together with classic subway vehicles you may sit on. Transit historical past is (admittedly) fairly a distinct segment topic of curiosity. But you don’t want a large curiosity in New York’s transit historical past to get pleasure from this museum, due to its immersive design and format. NYC historical past has by no means been extra aesthetic, and the recreated classic transit scenes are a successful contact.
The New York Transit Museum is right for a half-day exercise. It solely actually requires two hours or so, so it’s straightforward to squeeze into what’s going to undoubtedly be a busy New York itinerary. The subway system is essentially the most prized and influential achievement in New York’s engineering historical past. This makes it probably the most essential issues to study and have a good time when visiting – particularly as you’ll possible be catching a lot of subways to get round.
9. Rubin Museum of Art
- Opening occasions: 11 am till 5 pm from Thursday to Sunday, with 11 am till 10 pm on Fridays.
- Cost: $20
Rubin Museum of Art is far more area of interest than the opposite massive artwork galleries in New York City. The museum has an in depth assortment of paintings from Himalayan Asia, together with displays from Tibet and Bhutan. The exhibition house incorporates all the things from work to statues – famend for its various strategy to showcasing artwork. Rubin Museum of Art is a lovely ode to Himalayan Asia’s inventive historical past.
It is price awaiting the packages and occasions that the Rubin Museum of Art additionally runs. In the previous, this has included mindfulness and meditation courses. And there are many Buddhist-angled exhibitions to be taught extra in regards to the practices driving Himalayan paintings. Keep a two-hour block in your schedule for this museum.
10. Tenement Museum
- Opening occasions: 10 am till 6 pm
- Cost: $30
Tenement Museum is a lovely idea of a museum on the Lower East Side. The museum captures the tales of working-class historical past by way of a collection of Nineteenth-century to Twentieth-century recreated tenement residences. Tenement Museum is people-focused, uncooked, and genuine.
The 1863-built constructing is filled with character and, if you happen to like social historical past, is well one of many high museums in New York City. Stepping from tenement to tenement is outstanding. And the museum has accomplished an excellent job of expressing every household’s distinct character and story in every condo. Each exhibition house has a novel character – reminiscent of Mrs. Wang from China and Natalie from Prussia.
Aside from its displays, Tenement Museum has digital and precise strolling excursions all through the Lower East Side. This is a novel contact amongst the museums in New York, and you’ll get away from the confinements of museum partitions and see historical past in the neighborhood.
11. Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art is likely one of the hottest New York City museums. We aren’t exaggerating once we say that New York City is 90% artwork galleries. However, the Whitney Museum actually stands out inside its area of interest. Whitney Museum solely options American paintings somewhat than historical paintings from totally different international locations.
You’ll solely discover artwork from the Twentieth century and the twenty first century. In truth, the Whitney Museum is so trendy that the majority of its artists are nonetheless dwelling. Most artwork museums in New York take a posthumous have a look at artists and their work, a defining marker of individuality.
The museum is in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, an space you’ll possible spend sightseeing in any approach. The mixture of everlasting and rotating exhibitions can also be good, as there’s all the time one thing recent to see and the everlasting displays. The Whitney Museum seems to be company and weird from the skin, with an oddly-designed stacking format. It isn’t removed from the Museum of Illusions (not featured on this information however a notable point out) and Carrie Bradshaw’s Apartment. So visiting is sensible.
12. Jewish Museum
- Opening occasions: 11 am till 8 pm on Thursdays, 11 am till 6 pm Friday to Monday
- Cost: $18 however free on Saturdays
The Jewish Museum is likely one of the finest museums in New York City in order for you an expertise totally devoted to Jewish tradition. This area of interest museum maintains a lovely documentation of Jewish historical past and traditions. You’ll discover displays on conventional marriage contracts and choose Jewish experiences just like the Holocaust by way of the eyes of artists – as an example, housing paintings on Anne Frank and blended media sculptures.
Unlike the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Jewish Museum has an actual artwork focus. The historical past, group, and particular person sentiments are channeled creatively to create a elegant assortment of paintings that represents lived expertise.
While each the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Jewish Museum are glorious museums in New York to go to. We really feel just like the Jewish Museum is essentially the most wrongly ignored. The artistic lens it makes use of to doc the Jewish expertise all through historical past is far more summary. The Museum of Jewish Heritage is extra fact-based, with over 40,000 artifacts devoted to memorializing the Holocaust.
13. American Folk Art Museum
- Opening occasions: 11:30 am till 6 pm
- Cost: Free
Ready for a healthful perception into American artwork historical past and past? This is a museum devoted to self-taught artists and American people artwork. Forget your run-of-the-mill trendy artwork and modern American artwork; these highly effective items could be something from watercolors to tapestries. The American Folk Art Museum is deliberately candid and goals to highlight real, uncooked inventive processes. This is a distinct segment of an artwork gallery that ticks a specific field. And if you happen to fancy a extra ‘organic’ artwork expertise in New York City, that is your prime contender.
The American Folk Art Museum is free to enter (and ‘always will be’). It is a profound, non-stuffy perception into an on a regular basis relationship with artwork. And a fabulous celebration of self-taught and folk-style items.
14. Museum of Broadway
- Opening occasions: 9:30 am till 18:30 pm from Sunday to Friday and 9:30 am till 8 pm on Saturdays
- Cost: $25. Get Your Tickets right here.
The Museum of Broadway is an experiential darling on the New York museum entrance. The museum covers all the things Broadway associated, from previous to current and future. You stroll from room to room, gazing at costumes, listening to throwback music and Broadway backing tracks, and studying written exhibit after exhibit. The exhibited Broadway exhibits vary from The Lion King to West Side Story and all the things in between.
For anybody with a ardour for theater, the Museum of Broadway is a dream. It provides a passionate and thorough perception into New York’s most famed performances, and also you’ll completely adore it.
15. Morgan Library & Museum
- Opening occasions: 11 am to five pm Wednesday to Sunday
- Cost: $22
Bibliophiles alert; welcome to Morgan Library & Museum, probably the greatest museums in NYC. Morgan Library is gorgeous, with walnut bookshelves and whole extravagance all through the premises. Wandering its studying rooms and displays is likely one of the most serene methods to spend a couple of hours in New York.
It isn’t simply its books that make Morgan Library so particular both. The museum has that ‘old money’ attraction and, fairly frankly, seems like moving into a movie set. Its grandeur is so intense that many individuals liken coming into Morgan Library to a Harry Potter scene. Despite its comparatively small measurement, it is likely one of the grandest locations within the metropolis and carries some severe oopmh. We suppose (in addition to a lot of the metropolis’s inhabitants) that it’s essentially the most lovely library in New York City – so get it in your itinerary, bibliophile or not.
16. New York Historical Society
- Opening occasions: 9am till 5 pm Monday to Friday
- Cost: $22
New York Historical Society is likely one of the most superb museums New York has to supply from a historic perspective. The museum extensively paperwork American historical past. And New York Historical Society boasts a proper museum with displays, a analysis heart, and a library open to guests.
It was based approach again in 1804 and, momentously, is New York’s very first museum.When we speak about beginning at first, the New York Historical Society is the definition of it. If you’re even barely traditionally inclined, this museum will probably be up your road. The New York Historical Society is a lovely place to understand tons of archives – every representing hundreds upon hundreds of hours of devoted analysis into American historical past.
The New York Historical Society is situated in Upper West Manhattan, simply exterior the boundaries of Central Park. The 400 years of historical past is brilliantly mixed with a stroll in Central Park, the place you may course of all of the data you’ve simply obtained and calm down amongst nature and the most effective mountaineering trails.
17. New Museum
- Opening occasions: Closed Mondays, 11 am till 6 pm Friday till Wednesday, and 11 am till 9 pm on Thursdays
- Cost: $20
New Museum will not be, in reality, only a new museum. The museum is a surprising modern artwork gallery and additional proof that New York is heaven for the artwork obsessed. The shiny white constructing is designed like higgledy-piggledy constructing blocks, oddly stacked on one another with overlaps in random locations.
The basic consensus is that the most effective plan of assault is to discover the three ranges of displays first, head to the cafe after, after which benefit from the roof terrace views. New Museum is suited to artwork fans and is a pleasant place to hang around. It has a lowkey vibe that makes it probably the most relaxed museums in New York to go to.
18. The Skyscraper Museum
- Opening occasions: 12 pm till 6 pm Wednesday to Saturday
- Cost: Free timed entry
The Skyscraper Museum is likely one of the solely of its sort worldwide. The museum is totally targeted on the historical past of the skyscraper, particularly concentrating on documenting New York’s journey to turning into the ‘world’s at first vertical metropolis.’ As of 2023, admission is free till the top of the 12 months, though this might change after this level -s o get your go to in ASAP. It is an excellent option to familiarize your self with New York’s well-known skyline and a very good area of interest focus for a museum.
The Skyscraper Museum is within the lovely Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, the place you may take ferries previous the Statue of Liberty. This attraction is most positively already in your listing. So think about combining the 2 and profiting from the free 2023 entry. Whether you get pleasure from structure or not, it’s a enjoyable, budget-friendly option to get a style and perception into the skyscrapers that make New York iconic.
To Conclude
These finest museums in NYC ought to maintain you ticking over for not less than 4 days or so. New York City is a metropolis of museums. You most positively don’t wish to skip over exhibitions throughout your keep. And with extra data on New York, you’ll be empowered to attach with town on a deeper stage. Through its museum scene, you mainly get to know precisely what makes New York tick. And who wouldn’t wish to join extra deeply with the one-and-only New York City?
Whether you go to the Smithsonian museums or the Morgan Library, these finest museums will maintain you entertained and problem and stimulate you mentally. Looking for extra adventures in your keep in New York City? Here is our final five-day itinerary. Don’t neglect our information on the place to remain, which features a rundown of the most effective neighborhoods relying in your New York itinerary.