Metropolitan Museum of Art

What you actually pay, and the one ticket that covers two sites

The detail most UK visitors get wrong is the famous “pay-what-you-wish” line. It exists, but it only applies to New York State residents and to students from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut who show ID at the desk. As an overseas visitor you pay the flat general admission — $30 (roughly £24) for an adult in 2026, $22 for over-65s, $17 for students, and free for children twelve and under.

The fee is better value than it first looks because a single general-admission ticket also covers The Met Cloisters, the medieval-art branch in Fort Tryon Park at the northern tip of Manhattan — but only on the date printed on the ticket. The Met dropped its old three-day pass; the ticket is now same-day, two-site. If you want both, start at Fifth Avenue when the doors open at 10:00, then take the A train up to the Cloisters in the afternoon. If you only want the main building, ignore the Cloisters entirely.

The museum sits on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street on the Upper East Side, with its back against Central Park — pair it with a park walk rather than stacking it against another big indoor sight the same day.

When to go, which wings, and is it worth it?

The one fixed rule: the Met is closed every Wednesday. It also shuts on Thanksgiving, 25 December, 1 January and the first Monday in May (the night of the Met Gala). Open days run 10:00–17:00, except Friday and Saturday when it stays open to 21:00 — a late-afternoon arrival on those two days is the best way to dodge the midday school groups and tour buses. Weekday mornings just after opening are the other quiet window.

Don’t try to see all of it; the building is enormous and an attempt at everything turns into a tired blur. Pick two or three collections and go deep: the Egyptian wing with the Temple of Dendur, the European paintings on the second floor, the American Wing, or the Costume Institute if there’s a fashion show running. Allow three to four hours for a focused half-day, or a full day if you want it unhurried — and remember the ticket is single-date, so the Cloisters has to fit into the same day or wait for another paid visit.

The Met earns its reputation, and at $30 (about £24) the flat fee is fair rather than steep for the scale of the place. It is the one New York museum to prioritise if you only do one — give it a proper half-day, not the rushed hour people squeeze in between Central Park and dinner.