Private Met Museum and Central Park Tour with Your Own Guide

1000 5th Ave, New York

In the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at the Information Desk, in front of the Egyptian pharaoh statue.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

It begins in the Met's grand Great Hall and moves on to the key galleries, with collections that run from ancient Greece and Egypt to modern European art. The medieval rooms hold the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace and armor worn by Henry VIII. In the American Wing you see the staircase from the Chicago Stock Exchange and the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. The European galleries bring the eventful lives of Vermeer, Seurat and Van Gogh. The museum has its own story as well, and your guide explains how an American institution started before the country was 100 years old compares with its European elders.

Central Park

A lunch break, then Central Park, built to give New Yorkers some air. The park is also full of monuments, to Bolívar and Martí, to Balto and to Hans Christian Andersen. Your guide covers its history as you cross Gapstow Bridge toward the zoo, stroll the tree-lined Mall between statues of literary figures, and stop at Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, which have appeared in countless films. Bow Bridge leads on to Strawberry Fields and the Dakota, where the guide tells the story of John Lennon's murder at his memorial. Then past the grand Tavern on the Green and into Sheep Meadow, where all sorts of New Yorkers come to escape the city for a while.

432 Park Avenue

By the equestrian statues of Latin American leaders at 6th Avenue and 59th Street you enter the park and soon pass a surviving ASPCA horse drinking fountain, placed there in 1912 and still meant for horses. A short walk west brings the new supertall towers into view. 432 Park Avenue is one of them, a residential skyscraper that looks out over Central Park.

Time Warner Center

Then the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle: two towers linked by a multi-story atrium, with upscale shops at the bottom and offices and apartments above. One more skyscraper for your photos.

Bow Bridge

Bow Bridge is a 19th-century cast iron bridge with a Classical Greek look. Where most park bridges fade into the landscape, this one is built to be seen, with a railing of interlocking circles and ornament beneath the arch.

Gapstow Bridge

Gapstow Bridge, faced in schist, was first built in 1874. It gives one of the best-known views of the Manhattan skyline, so have your camera ready.

Turtle Pond

Next is the Great Lawn, a 55-acre field where people picnic on spring afternoons and sunbathe in summer. Close by is Turtle Pond, home to many of the park's turtles.

The Dakota

Then the Dakota, one of New York's most famous cooperative apartment buildings. Completed in 1884, it still keeps much of its original character. John Lennon lived here from 1973 until 1980, when he was killed in the building's archway.

Costo extra

Strawberry Fields

Strawberry Fields is a 2.5-acre part of the park dedicated to John Lennon. It is a designated quiet zone, lined with elms, shrubs, flowers and rocks.

Central Park South at Seventh Avenue

On the walk you also reach the Angel of the Waters, on top of Bethesda Fountain in the middle of Bethesda Terrace. It was the first major public artwork in New York City commissioned from a woman.

The Dakota

The whole day in brief. The first part starts in the Met's Great Hall and takes in the medieval galleries with the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace and Henry VIII's armor, the American Wing with the Chicago Stock Exchange staircase and 'Washington Crossing the Delaware', and European painters such as Vermeer, Seurat and Van Gogh, with the guide explaining how an American museum founded before the country turned 100 set itself against the older museums of Europe. After lunch comes Central Park: its monuments to Bolívar, Martí, Balto and Hans Christian Andersen, Gapstow Bridge, the Mall and its literary statues, Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, Bow Bridge, Strawberry Fields and the Dakota with the story of John Lennon's death, Tavern on the Green and finally Sheep Meadow, where New Yorkers of every kind take a break from the city.

Central Park Zoo

The tour finishes at the Central Park Zoo, in the southeast corner of the park. Stay and enjoy the park at your own pace, or have the guide walk you to the nearest subway.

Costo extra