Mid-range · 6-hour walk · New York City
Museum Mile in six hours
The Frick's old masters, the Met, Klimt's Woman in Gold and the spiral of the Guggenheim, along the edge of Central Park.
The stretch of Fifth Avenue along the east side of Central Park was where the Gilded Age built its mansions, and several of them became museums. Museum Mile proper starts at 82nd Street; this route begins a little south, at the Frick, and walks north. It is more art than anyone can take in one day, so choose your rooms. Each of these museums closes on at least one weekday; check before you go.
The route, stop by stop
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The Frick Collection
Henry Clay Frick's mansion of 1914, with Vermeers, Rembrandts and Holbeins in the rooms they were bought for. It reopened in 2025 after a long renovation.
60 min here Walk here → -
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Five thousand years of art. On a first visit: the Temple of Dendur, the arms and armour hall and the European paintings upstairs. The roof garden opens in summer.
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Neue Galerie
German and Austrian art of the early 20th century in a Fifth Avenue mansion, centred on Klimt's gold portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Café Sabarsky downstairs serves Viennese cakes.
45 min here Walk here → -
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright's spiral of 1959. Take the lift to the top and walk down the ramp.
70 min here Walk here →
More walks in New York City
Grand Army Plaza · The Pond and Gapstow Bridge · The Mall and Literary Walk · Bethesda Terrace · Bow Bridge · Strawberry Fields · Belvedere Castle · The Reservoir
Apollo Theater · Schomburg Center · Abyssinian Baptist Church · Strivers' Row · Sylvia's
Battery Park · Wall Street & Federal Hall · 9/11 Memorial & One World Observatory · City Hall Park · Brooklyn Bridge · DUMBO & Brooklyn Bridge Park
Grand Central Terminal · New York Public Library · Bryant Park · Times Square · St Patrick's Cathedral · Rockefeller Center
The Vessel · The High Line · Chelsea Market · Little Island · Whitney Museum · Stonewall National Monument · Washington Square Park
Tenement Museum · Katz's Delicatessen · Essex Market · Museum at Eldridge Street · Little Italy · Doyers Street · Columbus Park
Battery Park · 9/11 Memorial & One World Observatory · Brooklyn Bridge · Empire State Building · SUMMIT One Vanderbilt · MoMA · Central Park · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
More in New York City
Every walking route in New York City, the full New York City guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.