The largest Cathedral in the world, built in 1892, is open for visitors  Monday-Friday 9:30 am–3 pm and Saturday–Sunday 9:30 am-5 pm. Timed tickets strongly encouraged.

Explore rotating art exhibitions that span centuries, celebrating the creativity of 17th century weavers to modern painters and everything in between. 48 relief panels on the giant bronze front doors depict scenes from the Old and New Testaments and the Apocalypse.

Outside, see charming small bronze animal sculptures created by K-12 students from NYC and tri-state area around a 40-foot high bronze sculpture by Cathedral Artist-in-Residence Greg Wyatt. Depictions of a giant crab, nine giraffes, a double helix, Albert Einstein, the sun and satan represent the eternal conflict between good and evil.

Pick up at cappuccino, croissants & Eastern European treats at the funky Hungarian Pastry Shop across the street.

Get up close with dozens of life-sized models of spectacular, surprising, and often misunderstood sharks. Go inside the jaw of an megalodon, see fossils, touch models of teeth, hunt like a hammerhead and more in touch-free interactive displays. Take a photo inside a giant jawbone and turn yourself into a shark on augmented reality screens.

Lots of scary teeth and models, but also info on the rarity of shark attacks to reassure.

Timed tickets required. See our complete guide to the Natural History Museum.

This cozy museum hosts rotating  exhibits featuring Americana art that often includes engaging colors, patterns and animals. See works by self-taught artists in a variety of genres including sculptures, quilts, wood carvings and weathervanes.

CURRENT EXHIBITS:

🧵 Look for intimate stories and unexpected materials in over 35 quilts and other works of art in What That Quilt Knows About Me.

Across the street from small Dante Park and happening Lincoln Center.

Explore interactive, educational, well-designed exhibits for babies to pre-teens.

HIGHLIGHTS:
🎨 Immersive Inside Art: Create, Climb, Collaborate
🐒 Spacious Adventures with Dora and Diego
🇺🇸 Right to Vote (with a Presidential desk)
⚡️ Comic-book inspired Superpowered Metropolis.

⭐️ Tons of educator-led experiences and special guest artist including weekly themed art projects, art scavenger hunts, storytime, dance-time & music.

Daily 10 am – 5 pm

This giant (45 fascinating halls) treasure trove of wonders delights lovers of animal & nature of all ages.

HIGHLIGHTS: 

🐝 The spectacular cave-like Gilder Center with floor-to-ceiling collections displays & an insectarium
🦋 Year-round  Butterfly Vivarium
🌎 Immersive, interactive Invisible Worlds
🪐 Rose Center for Earth and Space
🐋 94-foot-long blue whale in the Hall of Ocean Life
💎 Sparkly Halls of Gems and Minerals,
🦖 Dinosaur fossils galore

CURRENT EXHIBITS:

🦈 Interactive Sharks
☄️ Planetarium Show Worlds Beyond Earth
🦒 IMAX Serengeti

⭐️ Gets crowded on weekends and holidays, but there is always a quiet nook to explore.

Learn about the layered, diverse history of NYC at this fascinating museum.

HIGHLIGHTS:

🇺🇸 Hand-on Children’s History Museum on the bottom floor
🔆 Digital design-your-own Tiffany lamp
🎥  Multi-media films New York Story and We Rise

CURRENT EXHIBITS:

🥯 Interactive, immersive “I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli

⭐️ Join weekly history-themed storytimes and other family programming.

Wed–Thu 11 am – 5 pm
Fri 11 am–8 pm (pay-what-you-wish 6-8 pm)
Sat–Sun 11 am – 5 pm

Admire an assortment of designs and costumes from costume designer Willa Kim long and prolific career, including work from productions like Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, The Will Rogers Follies, and her final Broadway show, Victor/Victoria starring Julie Andrews. Don’t miss the salad-themed dresses she designed for a Super Bowl commercial, a giant butterfly ballerina and a wall of drawings with fabric swatches.

From her earliest designs to her very last production, Kim demonstrated her gift for creating whimsical costumes by using extraordinary combinations of color and texture, from feathers to beads to butterfly wings. Born in 1917 to Korean immigrant parents, Kim designed costumes for Broadway productions, such as The Red Eye of Love, and Goodtime Charley, Song & Dance, Dancin’, Tommy Tune Tonite!  as well as leading choreographers, dancers, opera performances, figure skaters and film and TV productions.

Try to count all the birds, butterflies, horses, dogs and even elephants in these 35 spectacular quilts and related works of art.

Spanning from the 19th through 21st centuries, the quilts reveal intimate stories and unexpected biographies, from a pair of enslaved sisters in antebellum Kentucky to a convalescent British soldier during the Crimean War. Look surprising materials including paint, photographs, fibers, plastic bags and yarn.