Visiting the Metropolitan Museum: all you need to know
The Metropolitan Museum is a must-see attraction when visiting New York City. The museum sees nearly 3 ½ million visitors annually and for good reason.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world's largest art museums. Its collection is beyond impressive with 1 ½ million works of art spanning an amazing 5,000 years.
The The Temple of Dendur on exhibit at the Metroploitan Museum.
Table of Contents
Getting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located on the upper East Side of Manhattan, directly adjacent to Central Park.
New York City subway and busses take tap to pay. It’s a wonderful improvement, no need for a prepaid MetroCard, just tap your credit card or phone at the turnstile and you are all set.
Subway:
For the subway take the 4, 5, or 6 train to 86th Street and walk three blocks west to Fifth Avenue. The walk to the Met takes approximately 10 minutes.
Bus:
The Met is located on 5th Avenue, which is one-way running south. Take the M1, M2, M3, or M4 bus along Fifth Avenue (from uptown locations) to 82nd Street or along Madison Avenue (from downtown locations) to 83rd Street. From Madison Avenue, it’s just a short walk to Fifth Avenue.
Driving:
There is a parking garage inside the museum at Fifth Avenue and 80th Street. There are also private parking facilities in the surrounding neighborhood. Keep in mind that these lots can be expensive and an app such as “Best Parking” can help you find a cheaper reservation.
Planning your visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Keep in mind that the museum will be crowded, very crowded but it’s also huge so you can always find areas to escape from fellow visitors.
The main entrance is via the iconic steps at the front of the building. While we have visited many times over the years we almost gave up on our most recent visit when the security line snaked all the way down the steps. Luckily the museum uses new security screening equipment that doesn’t require bag checks so the line moved quickly.
We’d strongly suggest buying advance tickets online.
The cost is $30 for adults; $22 for seniors; $17 for students.
Tip - If you are a Bank of America has a wonderful free museum admission program for its customers.
On the first full weekend of every month, Museums on Us offers free admission to 225 cultural institutions across the United States.
Each person with their own Bank of America ATM or Credit Card is admitted free.
It saves us a lot of money each year.
What to see at the Metropolitan Museum
It’s impossible to see everything at this gigantic museum so you can adopt two possible plans.
The first way is to just wander around and discover exhibits serendipitously.
The other way is to look at the map they provide and pick a few exhibits. We chose to follow this approach.
Here are a few of our favorites.
Part of the The Temple of Dendur exhibit.
The Egyptian Art Exhibit
The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art is one of our favorite exhibits.
The highlight of the Egyptian exhibit is the massive The Temple of Dendur. It really feels like you’ve been transported to Egypt, all while looking out the ceiling-to-floor view of New York City.
It was dismantled by the Egyptian government as part of the effort to save the monuments of Nubia from rising waters caused by the building of the Aswan High Dam. The sandstone temple was given to the United States and assembled in a new wing at the Met in 1978.
In 2018, the museum built an exhibition around the first-century coffin of Nedjemankh. Investigators determined that the artifact had been stolen from Egypt, and the museum has agreed to return it.
The American Wing
The Met’s American artwork wing is large enough to be its own museum.
The collection includes 20,000 works of art by Latin American, African American, Euro-American, and Native American.
One of the highlights is the enormous painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware.
The American Wing also houses an impressive collection of period of rooms highlighting artifacts from various periods and cities. They are set up like you are actually visiting these rooms as they once existed.
The European Collections
As you might imagine The European sculpture and art collection is one of the largest departments at the Met, comprising in excess of 50,000 pieces.
With an amazing collection of English and French furniture, visitors can enter dozens of completely furnished period rooms, similar to the rooms in the American Wing.
Fabergé Collection
Debbie is a big Fabergé fan so the Met’s impressive collection was on our list.
The exhibition features three of the fifty Imperial Easter Eggs created for the Romanov family by Peter Carl Fabergé.
A highlight of the exhibition is the Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket, often considered to be Fabergé's floral masterpiece.
The exhibit is small and easy to miss. It’s located in Gallery 555 near the European sculpture exhibition.
Arms and Armor Collection
The Arms and Armor Collection is impressive not only in the number of exhibits but in the way it is displayed. Life-sized horses and soldiers, both wearing a coat of armor, is sure to impress.
In addition to European armor, the collection includes armor from China, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, and India.
The Armor exhibit at the Met
You can view an interactive map of the Met here:
Dining at the Met
The Met has no shortage of dining options, with a wide variety of cuisines and prices.
The Cantor Roof Garden Bar
Perhaps the most memorable restaurant on-site is the Cantor Roof Garden Bar on the fifth floor.
You can enjoy cocktails and snacks with stunning views of Central Park and the surrounding skyscrapers.
It is open Sunday–Tuesday and Thursday from 11 am–4 pm. It’s open late on Friday and Saturday, allowing you take in the sunset - 11 am–8 pm.
You can use the first-floor elevator in European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Gallery, right next to the Fabergé Collection mentioned above.
The Met Dining Room
On the fourth floor is the upscale and pricey Met Dining Room. The fantastic food comes with equally fantastic views of Central Park. Reservations are strongly suggested. You can make reservations here.
Petrie Court Cafe
The moderately priced Petrie Court Cafe on the first floor features drinks and light meals. You can check out the menu here.
It’s open late (8 pm) on Friday and Saturday.
The American Wing Cafe
Adjacent to the huge atrium in the American Wing this restaurant features light snacks, coffee, wine, and beer.
You can see the menu here.
The Eatery
The ground floor restaurant, The Eatery, is moderately priced and features casual dining that offers pizza, sandwiches, salads, soups, and desserts.
It is located by the Robert Lehman Collection Galleries. You can see the menu here
The Gift Shop
The Met Gift Shop is huge and covers traditional museum-type gifts but also has upscale shopping for clothing, tableware, and jewelry. You can also browse their extensive website if you don’t feel like stuffing your suitcase.
What to do after your visit to the Met
View of “Billionaire’s Row” from Central Park
The Met is located directly adjacent to Central Park. We’d suggest walking into the park and then walking toward the south and eventually, you’ll wind up in the area of Columbus Circle or the Plaza Hotel. There are easy transportation options to anywhere from there.
For more info on the park, we have a full blog post: What to see in Central Park.
If the park isn’t your thing you can catch a bus directly outside the front steps. Fifth Avenue is a one-way so all the buses will be heading south towards midtown. The buses are tap to pay, so it’s very easy.
This post was researched and written by John of the Empty Nest Explorers. You can learn more about the Empty Nest Explorers here.
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