Best Museums in New York: 90 Picks Worth Your Time

Are there really 90 museums in New York? No, there are actually almost 100!

If you've already seen the most important museums in New York, don't worry, you'll have new ones to visit for a long time. You could spend three full months visiting one of New York's 90 museums every day and still run out of days before you run out of museums.

So if you already know the MoMA, the Met, the Guggenheim New York, the Whitney, the American Museum of Natural History, the 9/11 Memorial or the Museum of the City of New York, it's time to keep exploring.

Below is a list of museums in each New York borough so you can pick which ones to visit (you'll find all the details in the links):

Museums in Manhattan

Beyond the famous ones, this list of more than 90 museums in New York includes other gems that I hope you get to visit:

• Madame Tussauds New York: you'll have a lot of fun here.
• South Street Seaport Museum: a must if you love sailing!)
• Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum: you can step inside a nuclear submarine, a World War II aircraft carrier and see the first Space Shuttle. All real!
• Museum at Eldridge Street: New York's first great synagogue)
• The Morgan Library & Museum: in the former home of banker J.P. Morgan, with a collection that rivals anything in Europe
• Museum of Jewish Heritage: dedicated to honoring the memory of Holocaust victims.
• Museum of Sex: it's genuinely educational (and also a bit of what you're imagining 😉
• Museum of the City of New York
• Fraunces Tavern Museum
• New York City Fire Museum
• The Skyscraper Museum
• Federal Hall National Memorial: a free museum on Wall Street
• Federal Reserve Museum
• New-York Historical Society Museum
• Tenement Museum
• The Frick Collection
• American Folk Art Museum
• Museum of Arts and Design (MAD)
• National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath)
• El Museo del Barrio
• Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)
• Rubin Museum of Art
• Neue Galerie
• New Museum of Contemporary Art
• The Studio Museum in Harlem
• Yeshiva University Museum

Museums in Brooklyn

• New York Transit Museum: set in an abandoned subway station, it gathers historic New York subway cars you can actually climb aboard 🙂
• Brooklyn Botanic Garden: you can visit year-round, but in spring it's famous for its cherry blossom esplanade.
• Brooklyn Museum: one of the oldest museums in New York and the third largest in the city, right next to the beautiful Botanic Garden.
• Coney Island Museum: a small private exhibition with objects, signs and vintage rides from the neighborhood.

Museums in Queens

• MoMA PS1: the MoMA's wing devoted to the latest trends in contemporary art.
• Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum: the studio of the famous Japanese American artist.
• Museum of the Moving Image: all about film.
• Queens Museum: its centerpiece is a huge scale model used in the sixties for NYC urban planning.
• Louis Armstrong House
• King Manor Museum: a colonial mansion with historical exhibits about 18th-century life in the United States.
• Queens Botanical Garden

Museums in the Bronx

• The Cloisters: home to the Met's medieval art collection
• Edgar Allan Poe Cottage (it's amazing that this little cottage survives in the middle of the Bronx bustle!)
• Bronx Museum of the Arts
• New York Botanical Garden: beautiful at any time of year.
• Wave Hill Public Garden & Cultural Center
• Van Cortlandt House Museum

Museums in Staten Island

• Snug Harbor Cultural Center: there's always a new exhibition, surrounded by beautiful gardens.
• Chinese Scholar's Garden: a little-known Asian gem!
• Staten Island Museum
• Historic Richmond Town: where you'll learn about American history in an interactive, entertaining way.

As you can see, New York has museums about everything, for everyone. Art, history, natural sciences, literature and even sex are on display in the Big Apple.

How to get into museums for free

Most New York museums have free admission hours, and if you plan your time well you'll save a lot.

Some museums have a suggested admission price, which in theory means you could pay less. Read how to pay less at New York's museums.

If you're a student, bring your ID, because plenty of places offer a reduced rate.

If you're over 65, you'll also get preferential pricing.

There are special prices or free admission for kids too. Check the conditions on the page we've dedicated to each New York museum.

Tourist discount passes

On short trips it's hard to line up your schedule with the free hours at every attraction. In that case, consider buying one of the New York tourist discount passes.

These are practical products that let you pay up to 50% less than the face value of the tickets, far more convenient than buying each one separately.

Buy ticket bundles

The Tiqets platform offers discounted museum and gallery tickets along with ticket bundles that work out cheaper than buying separately.

Another advantage of Tiqets is that for just a little more you can cancel your tickets for free and get a full refund, something you can't do with tickets bought directly at the attractions.

Being able to cancel tickets free of charge really matters these days, when uncertainty has become part of our lives.