The Met and Central Park Semi-Private Tour, 8 Guests Max

1000 5th Ave, New York

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

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The day starts at the Met, in the Great Hall, before the guide takes you to the museum's key galleries. Its collections span ancient Greece and Egypt through to modern European art. In medieval Europe you hear about the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace and see armor worn by Henry VIII. The American Wing holds the staircase from the Chicago Stock Exchange and the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. In the European galleries the guide tells the turbulent, often inspiring stories of Vermeer, Seurat and Van Gogh. The building has its own story too: how an American museum, started before the country was even 100 years old, grew up alongside Europe's older institutions.

Central Park

After a lunch break, the walk moves into Central Park, laid out to give New Yorkers room to breathe. It is also a place of monuments, with statues honoring Bolívar and Martí, Balto the sled dog and Hans Christian Andersen. The guide tells the park's history as you cross Gapstow Bridge toward the zoo, walk the tree-lined Mall past its statues of literary figures, and reach Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, backdrop to countless film scenes. Then over Bow Bridge to Strawberry Fields and the Dakota, where you hear about John Lennon's murder at his memorial, past Tavern on the Green and into Sheep Meadow, where New Yorkers come to step away from the city for a while.

432 Park Avenue

Near the equestrian statues of Latin American heroes at 6th Avenue and 59th Street stands one of the park's curiosities: a surviving ASPCA horse drinking fountain, put there in 1912 and still meant for horses. A little further on, the view opens up to the new supertall towers south of the park. 432 Park Avenue is one of them, a slender residential skyscraper looking straight down over Central Park.

Time Warner Center

Next is the pair of glass towers at Columbus Circle, long known as the Time Warner Center: two towers joined by a multi-story atrium, with upscale shops below and offices and apartments above. Another one for the camera.

Bow Bridge

Bow Bridge is a cast iron span from the 19th century with a Classical Greek feel. Most bridges in the park try to blend into the scenery; this one is meant to be noticed, with its railing of interlocking circles and decorative work under the arch.

Gapstow Bridge

Gapstow Bridge, in grey schist, was first built in 1874. From the middle you get one of the classic views of the Manhattan skyline over the pond, and a good spot for photos.

Turtle Pond

Next comes the Great Lawn, 55 acres of grass where New Yorkers picnic in spring and sunbathe in summer. Right beside it is Turtle Pond, home to many of the park's turtles.

The Dakota

Across the road stands the Dakota, one of the city's best-known cooperative apartment buildings. Finished in 1884, it has kept much of its original character. John Lennon lived here from 1973 until 1980, when he was shot in the building's archway.

Costo extra

Strawberry Fields

Strawberry Fields is a 2.5-acre section of the park dedicated to John Lennon. It is a designated quiet zone, planted with elms, shrubs and flowers among the rocks, a calm spot in the middle of the walk.

Central Park South at Seventh Avenue

Along the way you reach the Angel of the Waters on top of Bethesda Fountain, at the center of Bethesda Terrace. It was the first major public artwork in New York City commissioned from a woman.

Central Park Zoo

The tour ends at the Central Park Zoo, in the park's southeast corner. You can stay on and keep exploring the park, or the guide will walk you to the nearest subway.

Costo extra