Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)

At 2 million square feet, the Met is the biggest and most-visited museum in America. Its main Fifth Avenue site centers on a Ruskinian, gothic building from 1880 designed by architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, but it has since greatly expanded. As an encyclopedic collection, the Met holds millions of objects covering 5,000 years of world history, including African, Asian, Egyptian, American, European and Islamic art. Some of the most famous examples include the Ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur (from around 10 B.C.), Emanuel Leutze’s painting “Washington Crossing The Delaware” (1851) and Vincent van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat” (1887). Visitors are advised not to miss the museum’s roof—in addition to a bar and spectacular views over Manhattan, it also plays host to the annual Roof Garden Commission, which began in 2013 and invites contemporary artists to take over the space. Wangechi Mutu and Lee Bul are among the artists to undertake its annual facade commission. A $500 million new modern and contemporary wing is planned for the coming years.

The Met is also home to the Costume Institute, a collection of more than 33,000 items of clothing and accessories from the 15th century to the present. Every May, the museum hosts the Costume Institute Benefit, better known as the Met Gala. The Met Cloisters in Washington Heights, meanwhile, is a destination for medieval art.