How to Spend 4 Hours in New York: The Met Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park
Updated October 3, 2026
Four hours in New York takes the A train to Fort Tryon Park's gardens and river lookouts, then into The Met Cloisters for medieval chapels, herb gardens and the Unicorn Tapestries.
At the northern tip of Manhattan, on a wooded ridge above the Hudson, John D. Rockefeller Jr. created one of the most unexpected places in the city. It's a medieval monastery assembled from real French cloisters, set in a park designed by the Olmsted Brothers, the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted's sons. This plan pairs a stroll through that park's terraces and heather beds with an unhurried visit to the museum. The A train from Midtown gets you there in one ride, and the views over the Palisades feel far from the city.
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The 4 hour plan, stop by stop
Stops and travel: 1 hr 43 min to 2 hr 38 min of 4 hours
Rockefeller bought this rocky ridge, once the site of a Revolutionary War fort and later a Gilded Age estate. He hired the Olmsted Brothers firm to turn it into a park, which he gave to the city in 1931. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. spent four years shaping terraces, wooded slopes and eight miles of paths around some of the best river views in Manhattan. Rockefeller even bought land across the Hudson to keep the Palisades wild.
Tip: Walk the Heather Garden promenade north to the Linden Terrace, where a stone overlook faces the Hudson and the George Washington Bridge.
- Time here
- 25 to 40 min
- Website
- nycgovparks.org
NaviTime to head out from Fort Tryon Park for The Met Cloisters. It's an 8 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link
Opened in 1938 as a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters incorporates parts of five medieval French monasteries into a building designed to evoke a hilltop abbey. Among them are the arcades of Saint Michel de Cuxa and Saint Guilhem le Désert. As of October 2026, adult admission is $30 and it is closed on Wednesdays. Rockefeller funded it and bought the core collection from sculptor George Grey Barnard. Galleries hold Romanesque chapels, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts and the famous Unicorn Tapestries, woven around 1500, while the Bonnefont Cloister garden grows plants used in the Middle Ages.
Tip: Save time for the Bonnefont herb garden on the lower level, planted with species grown in the Middle Ages, and enjoy its Hudson view.
- Time here
- 1 hr 10 min to 1 hr 50 min
- Website
- metmuseum.org
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