How to Spend 6 Hours in New York: Bethesda Terrace, Bow Bridge and The Met

The 6 hour plan, stop by stop

Stops and travel: 4 hr 5 min to 5 hr 55 min of 6 hours

1. Stop #1: Literary Walk

   The Mall is the one grand, straight promenade Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux allowed in their naturalistic park, which they called an open-air hall of reception. Two double rows of American elms arch over it, and their branches are often compared to the vaulting of a cathedral nave. The southern stretch got the name Literary Walk from its statues of Shakespeare, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. In 2020 the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument became the first new monument in the park in more than half a century.

   Tip: Walk north slowly toward the Naumburg Bandshell and look up: the Central Park Conservancy counts these trees among the largest remaining stands of American elm in North America.

   Time here

   20 to 30 min

   Website

   centralparknyc.org

   Navi

   Time to head out from Literary Walk for Bethesda Terrace. It's a 3 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link

2. Stop #2: Bethesda Terrace

   At the Mall's northern end, broad stairs drop beneath the park drive into the Arcade. Its ceiling of nearly 16,000 patterned Minton tiles is, the Conservancy says, the only one of its kind, since tiles like these were usually laid on floors. Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould carved the stone balustrades with birds, fruit and scenes of the seasons. The tiles came down in 1983 and went back up after restoration in 2007. Out on the plaza, Emma Stebbins's Angel of the Waters crowns Bethesda Fountain; Stebbins was the first woman to win a major public art commission in New York.

   Tip: Take the central staircase down from the Mall so the tiled Arcade frames your first view of the Lake, then step out onto the lakeside plaza.

   Time here

   20 to 35 min

   Website

   centralparknyc.org

   Navi

   Time to head out from Bethesda Terrace for Bow Bridge. It's a 3 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link

3. Stop #3: Bow Bridge

   A short stroll west along the Lake, Bow Bridge makes a low, graceful curve over the water like the bow of an archer or a violinist. It was built of cast iron between 1859 and 1862, one of 27 arches and bridges that, by the Conservancy's count, went up in the park's first years. All were designed by Calvert Vaux, some with Jacob Wrey Mould, so that carriages, riders and walkers never had to cross paths, and no two are alike. It leads into the winding woodland trails of the Ramble, and it has turned up in films from Enchanted to Spider-Man 3.

   Tip: For the postcard shot, photograph the bridge from the shoreline path on the Terrace side rather than from the span itself, ideally with rowboats on the water.

   Time here

   15 to 25 min

   Website

   centralparknyc.org

   Navi

   Time to head out from Bow Bridge for Conservatory Water. It's a 9 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link

4. Stop #4: Conservatory Water

   Conservatory Water is the formal pond off Fifth Avenue at East 74th Street, named for a glass conservatory that was planned nearby and never built. Children and serious hobbyists race model sailboats here, a pastime borrowed from the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. Boats can be rented at the Kerbs Boathouse, which also has a café, and E. B. White set part of Stuart Little here. On the north side, José de Creeft's bronze Alice in Wonderland, dedicated in 1959, perches on a giant mushroom. The Mad Hatter beside her has the face of donor George Delacorte, and children have been climbing the group ever since.

   Tip: The Kerbs Boathouse has the closest restrooms and a café counter, which makes it the right pit stop before the long museum stretch.

   Time here

   15 to 30 min

   Website

   centralparknyc.org

   Navi

   Time to head out from Conservatory Water for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's a 10 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link

5. Stop #5: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

   From the pond, follow Fifth Avenue north to The Met's great stone steps. With one afternoon, aim for two highlights. As of October 2026, adult tickets for visitors from outside New York are $30, admission is for a date rather than a timed slot, and the museum is closed on Wednesdays. The sandstone Temple of Dendur, completed by 10 CE, was given by Egypt to the United States in 1965 and awarded to The Met in 1967. It stands in its own wing beside a sloping glass wall facing the park, and it turns up in When Harry Met Sally. In the American Wing, Emanuel Leutze's 1851 Washington Crossing the Delaware is more than twenty feet wide.

   Tip: New York State residents, and students from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, can pay what they wish at the desk, so bring proof if that applies to you.

   Time here

   2 hr 30 min to 3 hr 30 min

   Website

   metmuseum.org