The Metropolitan Museum of Art
ExperienceHarlem#26 of 50

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York, New York

Photo: Nasrin Ivari

The Met is a city within a city — encyclopedic, overwhelming, and endlessly rewarding. Don't try to see everything. Pick one wing, one era, one idea, and go deep. The American Wing's courtyard is stunning. The Egyptian galleries are world-class. And the rooftop sculpture garden in warm months serves cocktails against a Central Park backdrop that makes you forgive the crowds.

Insider tip

Enter at 81st Street to avoid the main steps. Go straight to the American Wing courtyard, then up to the roof.

Learn More
See all 50 picks in New York

More in New York

You might also like

Di An Di
EatGreenpoint

Di An Di

A Vietnamese restaurant in Greenpoint that treats pho like a religion and the dining room like a greenhouse. The space is all exposed brick and trailing plants, and the food has a precision that elevates every bowl without losing the soul of the cooking. The brunch crowd is real, but dinner is where the kitchen stretches.

Dhamaka
EatLower East Side

Dhamaka

Indian food that has nothing to do with the butter chicken you grew up ordering. Chintan Pandya's menu pulls from the rural corners of India that most restaurants ignore — goat brain, rabbit kidney, offal in ways that would make a French chef jealous. The room on Essex Street is loud and joyful and smells like someone cracked open a spice cabinet the size of a continent.

The NoMad Hotel
StayChelsea

The NoMad Hotel

A grand Beaux-Arts building where every floor feels like a different chapter of the same beautiful novel. The rooms are layered with books, velvet, and the kind of considered detail that makes you want to cancel your plans and just stay in. The rooftop is a scene, but the library is the real living room of this hotel.

Experience picks elsewhere

More experience we love

ExperienceSoMa · San Francisco, California

Ferry Building Marketplace

The Beaux-Arts clock tower on the waterfront houses the best food hall in America. Cowgirl Creamery, Acme Bread, Hog Island Oysters, Blue Bottle's first brick-and-mortar — it's a murderer's row of Northern California producers under one roof. On Saturday mornings the outdoor farmers market transforms the surrounding plaza into a temple of seasonal abundance. Come hungry, leave slowly.

ExperienceDowntown · Miami, Florida

Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)

Herzog & de Meuron designed this waterfront museum and it shows — the building itself is a work of art, with hanging gardens, a stilt-supported canopy, and views of Biscayne Bay that compete with the collection inside. The permanent collection focuses on 20th and 21st-century international art, and the temporary exhibitions are consistently ambitious.