Three underrated New York museums that most visitors miss
The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Lower Eastside Tenement Museum and the Museum of American Finance are arguably the most underrated museums in New York City.
This guide to underrated New York museums is part of a special New York City collection created to celebrate the new direct flights from Sydney to New York. To find many more great things to do in New York City, head this way.
Underrated New York museums: The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
Overshadowed by the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim, the Cooper Hewitt celebrates all things design inside a glorious old mansion. There are some hugely enjoyable exhibits – such as installation on how Pixar films are made or the room full of mirrors dozens of silver shoes on the floor.
But it’s also brilliantly interactive, with electronic ‘pens’ that allow you to scan artefacts, then bring them up on giant screens and design hats or chairs based on them. Visit the museum website for more information.
Which New York City experiences to book
There are hundreds of great experiences in New York City. But we’d strongly advise against bus tours (unless you like sitting in traffic for hours). Try these instead.
- Boat tours: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island | Sunset and city lights cruise | Complete round-Manhattan island cruise.
- Get up high: Top of the Rock | Edge Observation Deck | Summit One Vanderbilt | Manhattan helicopter tour | One World Observatory | Empire State Building.
- Museum entry tickets: 9/11 Memorial Museum | The Guggenheim | Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum | American Museum of Natural History.
- Food tours: Chelsea Market and High Line | Lower East Side | Chinatown and Little Italy.
- Central Park: Central Park carriage ride | Pedicab tour | Central Park Zoo.
- Multiple attraction savings: New York CityPass.
Underrated New York Museums: The Lower Eastside Tenement Museum
One of the Lower Eastside’s old tenement buildings has been saved, preserved and turned into a time capsule. The tours inside it are much less about the building itself than the people who lived there and the way of life for the hard working poor in old New York.
The tours become more about storytelling, piecing together the lives of immigrant inhabitants from historical records and family accounts – and there are some surprising twists and turns along the way. Go to the museum website for tickets.
Hidden gem New York museums: The Museum of American Finance
Usually ignored because it sounds so dull, the Museum of American Finance tells the story of money in the States, from the first banks set up by Thomas Hamilton to keep the fledgling independent nation afloat to the modern day Federal Reserve system.
There are displays of old coins and notes, of course, but it the museum is really telling the story of how the US became the world’s sole superpower. And that doesn’t sound nearly as boring, does it? For more information, visit the museum website.
More New York travel
Catacombs tour | Central Park scavenger hunt | Ellis Island hard hat tour | Lower Manhattan museums | NYC slavery tours | Unusual shopping in Brooklyn