Metropolitan Museum of Art: Guided Tour or Orientation with Entry Ticket

Every option on this booking includes an entry ticket to the Met; what changes is how much guiding comes with it. There are three ways to go. The small-group tour lasts two hours with a licensed New York guide, in English or Spanish. The private tour has the same length and a guide just for your party, in English, Spanish, Portuguese or French. The third choice is a 30-minute orientation in English, after which you explore on your own. That option is listed as two hours in total, and the operator suggests allowing at least 90 minutes in the galleries after the briefing. Guided groups have a maximum of 15 people per guide. On the guided routes you cover 5,000 years of art history in the museum's best known galleries: the Egyptian Temple of Dendur, the paintings of the Robert Lehman Collection, and the original stone facade of a Wall Street bank, rebuilt inside the American Wing. Impressionism, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism come up along the way. If there is a particular area you want to see, tell the guide. The Temple of Dendur was built around 15 to 10 BC under the emperor Augustus, when Egypt was a Roman province. The museum does not guarantee that every gallery is open on a given day, and single galleries can close at short notice: the temple was shut for a few days at the end of September 2026 before it reopened. The modern and contemporary galleries are closed until 2030 while the new Tang Wing is built. The operator warns that the route changes with gallery closures and loans, so if one room matters to you, check the museum's gallery closures page before you go. After the tour you can stay until closing. The ticket is valid the same day at The Met Cloisters in upper Manhattan, which are open 10 am to 5 pm from March to October and 10 am to 4:30 pm from November to February. On Fifth Avenue the museum stays open until 9 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, a quieter time to visit, and until 5 pm on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Both locations are closed on Wednesdays. Food, drinks and gratuities are not included.