The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art stands on Fifth Avenue along the eastern edge of Central Park, and its Beaux-Arts facade opens onto one of the largest art collections anywhere. The holdings span roughly five thousand years and every inhabited continent, so a single visit can only ever cover a fraction of it. That is part of the appeal: regular visitors treat the Met as a place to return to, choosing a few galleries each time.

For a first visit, a sensible route takes in the Temple of Dendur, an Egyptian temple reassembled in a glass-walled gallery overlooking the park, then the Arms and Armor galleries with their mounted knights, the European paintings upstairs, and the American Wing with its period rooms and sculpture court. Some areas are closed for renovation, including the Cantor Roof Garden, the Modern and Contemporary galleries and the Ancient West Asia and Ancient Cyprus galleries, so check the museum's list of closed galleries before you set your heart on a particular room.

The ticketing is unusual. New York State residents, and students from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, can pay what they wish, while other adults pay a standard fee; children aged 12 and under go free. Every ticket also gives same-day entry to The Met Cloisters, the museum's medieval branch in Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan, which makes a good afternoon if you have the energy. Advance booking is not required, although groups of ten or more must register beforehand.

The museum is closed on Wednesdays, and on Thanksgiving, 25 December, 1 January and the first Monday in May. Friday and Saturday evenings, when it stays open until 9pm, tend to be calmer than weekend afternoons. Allow at least three hours, wear comfortable shoes and pick your priorities in advance using the online map. The step-free entrance is at 81st Street and Fifth Avenue, where manual wheelchairs can be borrowed on a first-come basis, and there is a second step-free route through the car park at 80th Street.

To get there, take the 4, 5 or 6 subway to 86th Street and walk three blocks west, about ten minutes. The Met sits at the southern end of Museum Mile, so the Neue Galerie and the Guggenheim are a short walk north, and Central Park is right behind the building for a break between galleries.