Met Museum of Art and Central Park Semi-Private Skip-the-Line Tour in New York, NY

At the Met, your guide will show you a collection that rivals those of the Louvre and British Museum. With no less than 2 million works of art and artifacts on hand, the Met showcases objects from Ancient Greece and Egypt as well as modern art from Europe and beyond. During this tour, you’ll start at the sumptuous Great Hall before moving to the museum’s most important galleries. In the Medieval Europe Gallery, you’ll learn about the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace as well as armory worn by Henry VIII. The American wing hosts the staircase from the Chicago Stock Exchange as well as the iconic portrait of Washington crossing the Delaware River. Learn about the turbulent and inspiring lives of several European painters including Vermeer, Seurat, and Van Gogh in the European wings. The museum itself has stories to tell, and your guide will explain how this American gallery differs from its older European counterparts, especially since it began before the United States was even 100 years old!

After a break for lunch, we head to Central Park designed to give New Yorkers a breath of fresh air. More than just green space, it’s also a venue for memorials and artwork honoring figures like Bolivar and Marti, as well as Balto and Hans Christen Andersen. As your enthusiastic young guide shares the park’s history, you’ll cross the famous Gapstow Bridge on your way to the Central Park Zoo. You will follow the tree-lined Mall and discuss the literary figures memorialized in statues on either side. You will discover the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, site of countless Hollywood moments. Cross Bow Bridge on your way to Strawberry Fields towards the Dakota to learn about John Lennon’s assassination at his memorial. You’ll discover the resplendent restaurant, Tavern on the Green, before joining the locals in Sheep Meadow, where New Yorkers of all walks of life can get away from city life for a moment.

Highlights generally include (if the artwork is not on loan or being restored etc.):

• Henry VIII armor
• Tiffany Autumn landscape
• Chicago Stock Exchange Stairs
• Madame X
• Pop culture then and now
• Hudson River School
• Washington Crossing the Delaware
• Jan Vermeer; Madonna with Child
• Picasso
• Seurat
• Van Gogh
• Bethesda
• The Mall
• Duck Pond
• The Dairy
• Checkers and Chess House
• Belvedere Castle
• Boat House
• The Lake
• The Reservoir