Museums

The USA is home to some of the best museums in the world — and many of them are free or accessible for a bargain price (especially the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C.).

The Essentials

• Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), New York — One of the three largest art museums in the world. 2 million objects from 5,000 years of human history. "Pay what you wish" for New York residents, otherwise $30. One day is not enough — plan at least two visits.
• Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. — 21 museums and galleries, all free. The most important: National Air and Space Museum (Wright Flyer, Apollo 11, Space Shuttle Discovery), National Museum of American History (Star-Spangled Banner, Dorothy's Ruby Slippers), National Museum of African American History and Culture (opened in 2016, the most impressive museum in Washington — free timed tickets required), National Gallery of Art.
• MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), New York — The best collection of modern art in the world: Picasso, Monet, Warhol, Pollock, van Gogh. $25, free on Fridays from 4–8 PM.
• Art Institute of Chicago — World-class Impressionism and Post-Impressionism (Seurat's "Sunday on La Grande Jatte", Grant Wood's "American Gothic", Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"). $25–35.
• Getty Center, Los Angeles — Spectacular architecture by Richard Meier on a hill above LA. European art from the Renaissance to the present. Free admission (only $20 parking).

Specialty Museums

• National September 11 Memorial & Museum, New York — At Ground Zero, on the site of the destroyed Twin Towers. Deeply moving. $28.
• Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland — The history of rock music in an I.M. Pei building on Lake Erie. $30.
• Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville — Everything about country music, from Hank Williams to Taylor Swift. $28.
• National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis — In the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The most important museum on the civil rights movement. $18.