Met Express: Highlights of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Explore the Metropolitan Museum on a 2.5-hour tour with a guide who puts a tongue-in-cheek spin on this celebrated destination in New York City. You'll hear vital facts and humorous commentary about both famous masterpieces and more unusual works in the museum’s collection, including pieces that are often overlooked, and get an entertaining look at one of the Big Apple's premier museums.

The vastness of the Met collection is what makes it special, so we’ve carefully planned an itinerary to show you a broad spectrum of art, sculpture, jewels, artifacts and even architecture. Traveling in small groups of 15 people or fewer, with an expert guide, you’ll traverse the globe without leaving Central Park.

Our tour starts in Ancient Egypt, beholding perfectly preserved ancient Egyptian tomb models. See tiny dioramas that show what life was like in the times of Tutankhamen and learn about the fascinating burial rituals of the era. You’ll understand a little more of this at our next stop, Egyptian mummies and “William,” the Met’s “mascot.” Next, onto a prize jewel of the Met Museum, the Temple of Dendur, an Ancient Egyptian Temple right smack in the middle of Central Park. New York City can thank Jackie O for helping procure this magnificent work, as rumor has it, for cultural and personal reasons. Your guide will give the gossip along with the art.

More rumors abound at two of the next pieces we see – the armor of Britain’s infamous King Henry VIII, and the Antioch Chalice, purported by some as, ‘The Holy Grail.” We’ll see more ancient works of Greek statuary and Roman frescoes before moving to the exotic, with a stop in Papua New Guinea. The Met houses a number of beautifully carved Bisj poles, collected by a Rockefeller – at the cost of his life. We’ll then head to the second floor to soak in some of Claude Monet’s famous Water Lillies, be energized by the expressive works of Vincent Van Gogh, and be inspired by a bronze of Rodin’s Thinker.