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Number 11 of 20 in New York

American Museum of Natural History: dinosaurs, a blue whale and the night sky

The American Museum of Natural History fills four city blocks on the west side of Central Park. It is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world, and you will not see it all.

What it is
Museum
Time to allow
2.5 to 4 hours
Cost
Ticket
Best time
A weekday, at opening

New York this week

    Why the American Museum of Natural History is worth it

    The museum was founded in 1869 and opened two years later in a building inside Central Park. It moved to its own site across the street in 1877 and has been adding wings ever since: there are now more than twenty buildings joined into one, with forty-five permanent halls. The collections run to some thirty-two million specimens, of which only a small part is ever on show, and about five million visits are made every year.

    It became famous for two things. The first is fossils: its expeditions of the early twentieth century brought back dinosaurs by the wagonload, and the halls on the fourth floor are still among the best anywhere. The second is the diorama, the lit window onto a painted landscape with mounted animals in front, which the museum's artists raised to an art.

    The newest parts look forward. The Rose Center for Earth and Space, a glass cube with a sphere floating inside it, opened in 2000 and holds the planetarium. The Gilder Center, a hall of curving pale concrete shaped like a canyon, opened in 2023 on the Columbus Avenue side.

    What to see

    1. The dinosaur halls

      On the fourth floor: a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Triceratops, and the Titanosaur, a cast of a plant-eater so long that its neck reaches out of the door of its hall.

    2. The blue whale

      A model 29 metres long, hung from the ceiling of the Hall of Ocean Life as if it were diving. Lie down on the floor under it, as people do.

    3. The Hall of African Mammals

      A herd of elephants in the middle of a dark hall, with twenty-eight dioramas round the walls. They were made in the 1930s and have never been bettered.

    4. The Rose Center and the planetarium

      The great sphere holds a theatre that shows the sky and the universe on its dome. A ramp spirals down from it through thirteen billion years of the universe: a single stride covers tens of millions of them.

    5. The Gilder Center

      The newest wing: an insect hall with a colony of leafcutter ants at work, and a room where butterflies fly loose.

    How to do it well

    • Start on the fourth floor with the dinosaurs and work down. Everyone else starts at the bottom.
    • The planetarium show, the butterflies and the special exhibitions are extras, chosen when you buy the ticket. One is enough for a first visit.
    • The entrance on Columbus Avenue, through the Gilder Center, is often quieter than the main steps on Central Park West. The subway station has its own entrance into the lower level.
    • Allow three hours and pick five halls. The floor plan is confusing: take a map.
    • Strawberry Fields and the Lake in Central Park are ten minutes' walk away, for afterwards.

    Where it is

    Address

    200 Central Park West, at 79th Street

    Nearest station

    81st Street-Museum of Natural History (B, C), with an entrance inside the station

    Museums and sights nearby

    Distances are in a straight line.

    Tickets and tours: American Museum of Natural History

    American Museum of Natural History: common questions

    How long do you need at the American Museum of Natural History?
    Three hours for the dinosaurs, the blue whale, the African mammals and one or two more halls. With the planetarium show and a special exhibition, most of a day.
    Is this the museum from Night at the Museum?
    Yes. The film of 2006 is set in the American Museum of Natural History and shows its front on Central Park West. The interiors were built in a studio, but the Tyrannosaurus, the Easter Island head and the hall of African mammals are all here.
    What is the American Museum of Natural History famous for?
    For its dinosaur skeletons, the model of a blue whale 29 metres long, its dioramas of animals in their landscapes, and the Hayden Planetarium in the Rose Center for Earth and Space.
    How much time do you need for the American Museum of Natural History?
    Allow 2.5 to 4 hours. That is this site's estimate for an unhurried visit.

    What visitors say about the American Museum of Natural History

    Rating from Google

    4.6

    26,976 ratings on Google

    Google's figures as read on 7 October 2026.

    Read every review on Google

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