The best museums in NYC in 2026 are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History and the Guggenheim. The Whitney, the newly reopened Frick Collection, the Morgan Library and the Brooklyn Museum are close behind, and the Intrepid is the pick for kids who love planes and ships.
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1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
One of the greatest museums on earth, spanning 5,000 years of world art.
$$Mid-rangeBest for Couples · Solo · Families
The Met's main building on Fifth Avenue holds an encyclopedic collection: the Temple of Dendur and the Egyptian galleries, Greek and Roman sculpture, European old masters, arms and armour, the American Wing's period rooms and a vast modern collection. Its sister museum, The Met Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park, is devoted to medieval Europe.
Admission for non-residents also covers same-day entry to the Cloisters, which makes a good second stop on a long day.
Good to know: Go at opening and head for the most popular galleries first, then wander.
2. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) — Midtown (West 53rd Street), Manhattan
Van Gogh's Starry Night, Monet's Water Lilies and the canon of modern art.
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MoMA holds one of the world's greatest collections of modern and contemporary art — Van Gogh's The Starry Night, Monet's Water Lilies, Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Warhol's soup cans — along with design, photography and film. Its sculpture garden is a calm oasis in Midtown.
A major expansion completed in 2019 added gallery space and rotates the collection more often.
Good to know: The fifth floor holds the most famous paintings — start there, then work down.
3. American Museum of Natural History — Upper West Side, Manhattan
Dinosaurs, the blue whale, the planetarium and the Gilder Center — NYC's family favorite.
$$Mid-rangeBest for Families · Solo · Couples
The Natural History museum on Central Park West is the best museum in New York for children: towering dinosaur skeletons, the 94-foot blue whale, the famous dioramas and the Hayden Planetarium's space shows. The Gilder Center, opened in 2023, added a dramatic sculpted atrium, an insectarium and a butterfly vivarium.
General admission is pay-what-you-wish for residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Good to know: Kosher food is close by on the Upper West Side — Noi Due and Malka are a short walk away.
4. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum — Museum Mile, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Frank Lloyd Wright's spiralling masterpiece — the building is the main event.
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The Guggenheim's white spiral on Fifth Avenue, completed in 1959, is Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous building and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inside, a continuous ramp winds up around a central rotunda, and exhibitions are hung along it.
The permanent collection is strong on early modern and abstract art, from Kandinsky to Picasso.
Good to know: Take the elevator to the top and walk down the spiral.
5. Whitney Museum of American Art — Meatpacking District, Manhattan
American art in a Renzo Piano building at the foot of the High Line, with terraces over the Hudson.
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The Whitney is devoted to 20th- and 21st-century American art, from Edward Hopper — it holds the largest collection of his work — to living artists, and its Biennial is the most closely watched survey of contemporary American art.
Its Renzo Piano building has outdoor terraces with views over the Hudson and the High Line, which starts right outside.
Good to know: Pair it with a walk north along the High Line.
Old masters in a Gilded Age mansion — newly reopened after a major renovation.
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The Frick Collection displays Henry Clay Frick's superb collection of European paintings — Vermeer, Rembrandt, Holbein, Titian — in the Fifth Avenue mansion he built in 1914. It reopened in 2025 after a multi-year renovation that opened the mansion's second floor to visitors for the first time.
It is small enough to see in an unhurried couple of hours, and one of the most beautiful museum experiences in the city.
Good to know: Book a timed ticket — demand has been high since the reopening.
7. The Morgan Library & Museum — Murray Hill (Madison Avenue), Manhattan
J.P. Morgan's jaw-dropping library — rare books, manuscripts and drawings.
$$Mid-rangeBest for Couples · Solo
The Morgan began as the private library of the financier J. Pierpont Morgan, and its original 1906 library, with three tiers of walnut bookcases and a painted ceiling, is one of the most spectacular rooms in New York. Its collection includes medieval manuscripts, early printed books, literary and musical manuscripts and old master drawings.
Changing exhibitions draw on these treasures, and a Renzo Piano addition connects the historic buildings.
Good to know: A quieter alternative to the big museums, and easy to combine with the Empire State Building nearby.
One of the largest art museums in the US, next to the Botanic Garden and Prospect Park.
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The Brooklyn Museum, in a grand Beaux-Arts building on Eastern Parkway, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country, with strong Egyptian, African and American collections and Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party in its Center for Feminist Art.
It sits beside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Prospect Park, and a short walk from Crown Heights.
Good to know: Combine it with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden next door — beautiful in cherry blossom season.
9. Intrepid Museum — Pier 86, Hudson River, Manhattan
An aircraft carrier, a space shuttle and a submarine — the ultimate museum for kids.
$$Mid-rangeBest for Families · Groups
The Intrepid Museum is built around the USS Intrepid, a World War II aircraft carrier moored on the Hudson, with aircraft on its flight deck, the space shuttle Enterprise in a pavilion and the submarine Growler alongside.
Children can climb into cockpits and explore the ship's decks, and the flight deck has views up and down the Hudson.
Good to know: Allow at least three hours, and see the space shuttle pavilion first.
10. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum — Museum Mile, Manhattan
The Smithsonian's design museum in Andrew Carnegie's mansion on Fifth Avenue.
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Cooper Hewitt is the only Smithsonian museum devoted to historic and contemporary design, housed in the Fifth Avenue mansion Andrew Carnegie built in 1902, with a garden open to the public.
Its interactive exhibitions — including design-your-own wallpaper — make it unexpectedly good for curious kids and teens.
Good to know: It is a few doors from the Guggenheim and the Jewish Museum — easy to combine on Museum Mile.
The Met is pay-what-you-wish for New York State residents and NY, NJ and CT students; the American Museum of Natural History is pay-what-you-wish for general admission for residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Several other museums have free evenings or free days — the Jewish Museum, for example, is free on Saturdays. Policies change, so check each museum's website.
What is Museum Mile?
Museum Mile is the stretch of Fifth Avenue along Central Park on the Upper East Side, roughly from 82nd to 105th Street, home to the Met, the Guggenheim, the Jewish Museum, Cooper Hewitt, the Neue Galerie and the Museum of the City of New York, among others.
Which museum is best for kids?
The American Museum of Natural History, for dinosaurs, the blue whale and the planetarium. The Intrepid Museum, an aircraft carrier on the Hudson with a space shuttle on board, is a close second for older children.
How long do I need at the Met?
A focused visit takes three to four hours; you could spend days and not see everything. Pick a few departments — Egyptian art and the Temple of Dendur, European paintings, the American Wing — and leave time for the rooftop in warm weather.