Frequently Asked Questions
Questions About Our Tours At the Metropolitan Museum of Art
No. The MET does not allow discounts or coupons of any kind for self-guided group tours. Likewise, City Passes, discounted tickets provided by employers and reciprocal museum privileges from other institutions can not be applied to our tours.
The museum requires that each private tour group must be paid for as a group. Therefore, your guide will collect all funds before you begin your tour and he will pay for and register your group at the tour desk.
Yes. As mentioned, your donations are used to pay the museum’s mandatory rates for self guided tour groups. Following your tour you then have full admission to all the galleries, cafeterias and shops of the museum. Feel free to explore all that The MET has to offer after your tour.
Tours are based on tour guide availability. Sun-Tue we book tour starting in 15 minute increments between 10:30 am and 1:30 pm. On Fridays and Saturdays tour start times are between 10:30 am and 4:30 pm (subject to availability).
The Woman and Her Offspring, Integrity & The Bible in American History tours lasts about 3 1/2 hours, including a 1/2 hour cafeteria break. You should plan on your total museum experience, including check-in, etc., to take about 4 hours.
Bible Stories and Art for Children tours last about 2 1/2 hours, including a 1/2 hour cafeteria break.
Due to the length of the tours and the amount of information presented in them, we only allow groups to book one tour in a single day.
No, we can not honor requests for specific guides. However, if you are personal friends with one of our guides you can arrange a tour through them.
American Sign Language (ASL), Arabic, Chinese- Cantonese, Chinese- Mandarin, English, French, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Quichua, Russian and Spanish
Questions About Your MET Group
For our Metropolitan Museum of art tours, your party can be anywhere between 1 to 15 persons. Simply find out how many you have committed to coming with your group and then go to our tour request page and submit the request for your tour.
Questions About Planning Your MET Tour
All tours, regardless of the size of your group, are booked on a first come, first served basis. We suggest reserving your tour a minimum of six weeks in advance for the most availability. However, our calendar extends to a full three months past the current date.
If there are no tours currently available on the date(s) you desire, simply check back as guides are continually making themselves available based on need.
We encourage dignified casual dress with comfortable shoes.
Yes. All tours include a break of approximately 30 minutes in one of the Museum’s cafeterias.
The museum has a strict policy against bringing in food and drink. All bags are searched at the door, prior to gaining admission to the museum. The only food and drink allowed is bottled water, or food for infants.
While not a requirement, you will find it helpful to have the JW Library app installed on your portable device, and the New World Translation downloaded in the language corresponding to your tour.
Yes. We encourage you to bring a notebook and pen/pencil to take note of things for your personal encouragement and research.
Yes. Photographs can be taken, however please keep in mind the following:
- As per museum rules, your camera’s flash must remain off at all times.
- As per our arrangement with the museum and in view of certain copyright restrictions, we also require that such pictures be for personal use only. We encourage you to share your experience with family and friends, so private use of your photos is fine. However, no tour participant may duplicate or reproduce the tour contents and/or exhibits for others to use. This includes, but is not limited to, distributing copies of your photos on digital media of any kind, or sharing them electronically.
As per the museums rules, no audio or video recording is allowed in the museum at any point.
Questions About Planning the MET Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located in Manhattan on 5th Ave, between. 84th and 80th St. in New York City.
The address is: 1000 5th Ave., New York, NY 10028
The museum is open seven (7) days a week. Hours are Sunday – Tuesday, and Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Friday – Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Wednesdays and on January 1st, Thanksgiving Day, December 25th and the first Monday in May.
Parking Lot: The museum itself has a parking lot that is open 24 hrs. You can enter the lot at the corner of 80th St and 5th Ave.
Street Parking: There is also parking available on a limited basis on the streets surrounding the museum. However, please do not park at metered locations as you cannot leave the tour every hour to renew your parking meter.
Yes. The best way to do so is to take the green 4/5/6 (Lexington Ave) subway line and get off at 86th St. Simply walk 3 blocks West to 5th Ave and 4 blocks South to the museum entrance on 82nd St. and 5th Ave.
Reminder: On weekends all aspects of the NYC public transportation system run on reduced schedules. Please plan appropriately if you plan on using public transportation to reach the museum.