12 cities · 30 museums · 11 free
The best museums in the United States are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. World Museum Guide covers 30 museums in the United States across 12 cities, with admission prices, opening hours and highlights for each. 11 have free standard admission.
Visitor information last reviewed 30 June 2026. Check the official museum site for current details.
| # | Museum | City | Admission | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York City | $30 | 3–5 hours |
| 2 | American Museum of Natural History | New York City | $37 for adults from outside NY State | 3–4 hours |
| 3 | Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History | Washington D.C. | Free | 2–3 hours |
| 4 | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum | New York City | $30 | 1.5–2 hours |
| 5 | Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) | New York City | $30 | 2–4 hours |
| 6 | National Gallery of Art | Washington D.C. | Free | 2–4 hours |
| 7 | The J. Paul Getty Museum | Los Angeles | Free | 2–4 hours |
| 8 | Art Institute of Chicago | Chicago | $32 | 2–4 hours |
| 9 | United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | Washington D.C. | Free | 2–3 hours |
| 10 | Smithsonian American Art Museum | Washington D.C. | Free | 2 hours |
New York City, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & history enthusiasts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially 'the Met', is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments.
$30 · ⏱ 3–5 hours · Closed Wednesdays
New York City, United States
Art Museum · Best for families & history enthusiasts
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) on Central Park West is one of the world's preeminent scientific and cultural institutions, founded in 1869 and now encompassing 25 interconnected buildings across four city blocks. Its collections exceed 34 million specimens and cultural artifacts — among the largest holdings of any natural history museum on Earth.
$37 for adults from outside NY State · ⏱ 3–4 hours
Washington D.C., United States
Natural History · Best for families & first-timers
Opened in 1910 on the National Mall, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is one of the most visited museums in the world, attracting over 4 million visitors a year. Its collection of 145 million specimens spans geology, mineralogy, biology, anthropology, and paleontology.
Free entry · ⏱ 2–3 hours
New York City, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
Founded in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, the Guggenheim moved into Frank Lloyd Wright's revolutionary spiral building on its Fifth Avenue site in 1959.
$30 · ⏱ 1.5–2 hours
New York City, United States
Modern & Contemporary Art · Best for art lovers & contemporary art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world.
$30 · ⏱ 2–4 hours
Washington D.C., United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of Congress.
Free entry · ⏱ 2–4 hours
Los Angeles, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The primary location is the Getty Center in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, which features pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts.
Free entry · ⏱ 2–4 hours · Closed Mondays
Chicago, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 million people annually.
$32 · ⏱ 2–4 hours · Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Washington D.C., United States
Art Museum · Best for history enthusiasts & first-timers
Opened in 1993, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is America's national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history. It sits steps from the National Mall and draws over 1.5 million visitors a year — among the most visited memorial museums in the world.
Free entry · ⏱ 2–3 hours
Washington D.C., United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's largest and most inclusive collections of art, from the colonial period to the present, made in the United States.
Free entry · ⏱ 2 hours
Los Angeles, United States
Modern & Contemporary Art · Best for art lovers & first-timers
A contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, housing the Eli and Edythe Broad collection — Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room, Basquiat, Koons, and post-war American art.
Free entry · ⏱ 90 minutes
Dallas, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
One of America's largest art museums — 25,000 works spanning 5,000 years in the Dallas Arts District, with free general admission and strong collections of American, African, and contemporary art.
Free entry · ⏱ 2–3 hours · Closed Mondays
Bentonville, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & families
Crystal Bridges was founded by Alice Walton (of the Walmart family) and opened in 2011 in Bentonville, Arkansas. The building was designed by Moshe Safdie and built directly over two spring-fed ponds in the Ozark forest — its name refers to the crystal-clear springs and the glass bridges that connect its gallery pavilions. The design creates an immersive relationship between art, architecture, and the surrounding woodland trails.
Free entry · ⏱ 2–3 hours · Closed Tuesdays
New York City, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & families
The Brooklyn Museum is the second-largest art museum in New York City and one of the oldest and largest in the United States, housed in a Beaux-Arts building designed by McKim, Mead & White that opened in 1897. Its 560,000 square feet make it physically larger than the Manhattan Met, yet it remains Brooklyn's neighborhood museum — rooted in one of America's most diverse boroughs.
$20 suggested · ⏱ 2–3 hours · Closed Mondays and Tuesdays
San Francisco, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
San Francisco's flagship fine arts museum in Golden Gate Park, with American art from the 17th century to the present, Oceanic and African collections, and a copper-clad tower with panoramic city views.
From $15 · ⏱ 2 hours · Closed Mondays
Denver, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & families
Founded in 1893, the Denver Art Museum is one of the largest art museums between Chicago and the West Coast. Its collection of more than 70,000 works spans American art, Native American and Indigenous art, western American art, European art, architecture and design, and Asian art.
US$19 · ⏱ 2–3 hours · Closed Mondays
Chicago, United States
Natural History & Science · Best for families & history enthusiasts
One of the world's largest natural history museums, home to SUE the T. rex — the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found — plus ancient Egypt, gems, and anthropology collections spanning 4.6 billion years.
From $28 · ⏱ 2–3 hours
Boston, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & history enthusiasts
Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) spent thirty years assembling one of the finest private art collections in America, then built a Venetian Gothic palace in Boston to house it exactly as she wanted it to be seen. The museum opened in 1903 and has changed almost nothing since Gardner's death — her will stipulated that no object could be moved or sold, on pain of selling the entire collection to Harvard and dispersing it.
US$25 · ⏱ 90 minutes · Closed Tuesdays
Los Angeles, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is the largest art museum in the western United States, holding more than 150,000 works spanning art history from antiquity to the present. Its campus sprawls along Wilshire Boulevard's Miracle Mile — a cluster of buildings from different eras connected by outdoor sculpture gardens and Chris Burden's Urban Light installation at the main entrance.
$25 · ⏱ 2–3 hours · Closed Wednesdays
Houston, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & families
Founded in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) is the largest art museum in the southern United States, with a collection of more than 70,000 works spanning 6,000 years of art history. Its campus encompasses two main buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a sculpture garden by Isamu Noguchi, and the Rienzi house museum.
US$19 · ⏱ 3–4 hours · Closed Mondays
Boston, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & families
The MFA opened in Copley Square in 1876 and moved to its current Beaux-Arts building on Huntington Avenue in 1909. Major additions by I. M. Pei and Foster + Partners have expanded the campus dramatically.
$27 · ⏱ 3–4 hours · Closed Tuesdays
Washington D.C., United States
History & Archaeology · Best for history enthusiasts & families
The Smithsonian's newest museum on the National Mall — a landmark institution documenting African American life, history, and culture from slavery through the civil rights movement to the present.
Free entry · ⏱ 3–4 hours
Philadelphia, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
The Philadelphia Museum of Art was founded in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition. Its current building atop Fairmount opened in 1928 and is one of the largest art museums in the United States.
$30 · ⏱ 2–3 hours · Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays
San Francisco, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & photographers
Founded in 1935, SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast dedicated to modern art. Its 2016 expansion — designed by Snøhetta — nearly tripled its size to 170,000 square feet of gallery space, making it one of the largest modern art museums in the United States.
US$30 · ⏱ 2–3 hours · Closed Wednesdays
Seattle, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) is the Pacific Northwest's leading visual arts institution, occupying a Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown building on First Avenue in downtown Seattle since 1991. The original 1933 Art Deco building by Carl Gould was expanded and wrapped in Venturi's granite facade, creating a museum that bridges historic and postmodern architecture.
From $22 · ⏱ 2 hours · Closed Mondays and Tuesdays
Washington D.C., United States
Art Museum · Best for families & history enthusiasts
The National Air and Space Museum consistently ranks as the most visited museum in the United States, with over 7 million visitors annually before the pandemic. Established in 1946 and opened on the National Mall in 1976, it holds the world's largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft.
Free entry · ⏱ 2–3 hours
Washington D.C., United States
Art Museum · Best for history enthusiasts & families
Opened in 1964, the National Museum of American History holds some of the most iconic objects in the United States — from the flag that inspired the national anthem to pop culture artefacts, military history, and Julia Child's kitchen. It is a museum of things rather than fine art, and that makes it one of the most immediate and engaging museums in the country.
Free entry · ⏱ 2–3 hours
New York City, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & history enthusiasts
Henry Clay Frick built his Beaux-Arts mansion in 1914 to house his collection. It opened as a public museum in 1935 with the residence largely intact.
$30 · ⏱ 1.5–2 hours · Closed Tuesdays
New York City, United States
Art Museum · Best for history enthusiasts & art lovers
Built between 1902 and 1906 by McKim, Mead & White as J. P. Morgan's private library, the Morgan opened to the public in 1924. Renzo Piano's 2006 expansion added new galleries and a glass atrium.
$25 · ⏱ 1.5–2 hours · Closed Mondays
New York City, United States
Art Museum · Best for art lovers & first-timers
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney founded the museum in 1930 with her own collection of works by then-overlooked American artists. The museum moved into Renzo Piano's stepped building beside the High Line in 2015.
$30 · ⏱ 2–3 hours · Closed Tuesdays
The best museums in the United States are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), ranked by visitor numbers and collection strength.
World Museum Guide covers 30 museums in the United States across 12 cities — 11 with free standard admission.
11 of 30 museums in our United States guide have free standard admission: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, National Gallery of Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum and The Broad and more. Special exhibitions can still be ticketed.
