artleafy

Museum Mile: the Met and the Fifth Avenue museums

The Met steps, the Guggenheim spiral, and the stretch of Fifth Avenue with more art than most countries.

Photo: Hugo Schneider / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Drafted by Claude — the editor hasn’t walked this one yet. We’ll update this notice once it’s been verified on the ground.

Distance

3 km

Time

~ 70 min

Difficulty

Easy

Start

86 St (4/5/6)

End

96 St (6)

Best at

morning

Right now

24°C· Clear

Mostly sheltered, so it holds up whatever the sky’s doing.

Open in Maps for turn-by-turn, or take it offline as GPX.

There's a stretch of Fifth Avenue between 82nd and 105th Street that calls itself Museum Mile, and the name undersells it. Nine museums, the Met first and largest among them, all backing onto Central Park — more art on one avenue than several countries can muster, and a three-kilometre walk that takes the best of it without trying to do all nine.

Start at the Met, because everything else is a footnote to it; sit on the steps, go in, and surrender to the scale rather than fighting it. Out the front, cross to the park side and walk the stone wall north past the reservoir, the silver sheet that gives the whole avenue its light. Then back to Fifth for the climb: the Neue Galerie and its Klimt, the Guggenheim and its spiral — take the lift up and walk down, the way Wright intended — the Cooper Hewitt in Carnegie's mansion, the Jewish Museum in the Warburg house.

You won't go into all of them. Pick two, look properly, and let the avenue do the rest. The 6 from 96th Street takes you home.

The route

On the map.

A soft dashed line, numbered stops. It’s a suggestion, not a turn-by-turn.

Elevation

↑ 117 m·↓ 108 m·38–59 m ASL

Stops along the way

Things to notice.

01
1
The Met steps
Walk down to 82nd Street first and sit on the steps before you go in — the city does its people-watching here. Inside, the scale defeats everyone; pick two wings and admit defeat on the rest. Pay-what-you-wish only if you can prove you're a New York State resident.
01
The Met steps
Walk down to 82nd Street first and sit on the steps before you go in — the city does its people-watching here. Inside, the scale defeats everyone; pick two wings and admit defeat on the rest. Pay-what-you-wish only if you can prove you're a New York State resident.
02
2
The reservoir and the park wall
Cross to the park side and walk the low stone wall north. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir is the silver sheet beyond the running track — forty acres of water with the West Side skyline stood up behind it. You don't have to run it; most people are just walking.
02
The reservoir and the park wall
Cross to the park side and walk the low stone wall north. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir is the silver sheet beyond the running track — forty acres of water with the West Side skyline stood up behind it. You don't have to run it; most people are just walking.
03
3
Neue Galerie
The smallest of the mile and the most particular — German and Austrian art in a Fifth Avenue mansion, Klimt's gold *Adele* in the front room. Café Sabarsky downstairs does the Viennese cake properly. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays; check before you climb the steps.
03
Neue Galerie
The smallest of the mile and the most particular — German and Austrian art in a Fifth Avenue mansion, Klimt's gold *Adele* in the front room. Café Sabarsky downstairs does the Viennese cake properly. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays; check before you climb the steps.
04
4
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright's white spiral, finished in 1959 and still arguing with every building around it. Take the lift to the top and walk down the ramp — that's the way Wright meant you to see it. The building outpaints most of what hangs in it, and that's allowed.
04
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright's white spiral, finished in 1959 and still arguing with every building around it. Take the lift to the top and walk down the ramp — that's the way Wright meant you to see it. The building outpaints most of what hangs in it, and that's allowed.
05
5
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Design, not fine art — housed in Andrew Carnegie's old mansion, which is half the point. The garden behind it is one of the few you can sit in on this stretch without paying for a museum. Worth it for the house alone.
05
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Design, not fine art — housed in Andrew Carnegie's old mansion, which is half the point. The garden behind it is one of the few you can sit in on this stretch without paying for a museum. Worth it for the house alone.
06
6
The Jewish Museum
Another Gothic mansion, the Warburg house, with a serious collection of Jewish art and history across four thousand years. The ground-floor café (Russ & Daughters) does the appetising the Lower East Side is famous for, this far uptown. End here and walk over to 96th Street for the 6.
06
The Jewish Museum
Another Gothic mansion, the Warburg house, with a serious collection of Jewish art and history across four thousand years. The ground-floor café (Russ & Daughters) does the appetising the Lower East Side is famous for, this far uptown. End here and walk over to 96th Street for the 6.

Museum Mile: the Met and the Fifth Avenue museums

On the map.

Things to notice.

The Met steps

The Met steps

The reservoir and the park wall

The reservoir and the park wall

Neue Galerie

Neue Galerie

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum

Two more, on similar days.

Central Park: the southern loop

The Upper West Side: brownstones, the Hudson, and the blue whale