The 5 best museums in the world

Every year TripAdvisor makes the Traveler’s Choice ranking, which elects the best destinations and attractions according to the reviews that the site receives from travelers around the world. I, who am a museum rat, went right away to check which ones are on the top list. New York, Paris and Madrid are among the cities that have the best museums in the world (of course!) but the list also has some good surprises for art lovers 🙂

1. Metropolitan, New York

Visiting the Met in New York is like going around the world in one museum! From one room to the next, you start at a Van Gogh painting, past a collection of medieval European armor, and come face to face with an Egyptian sphinx from the 15th century BC. After enjoying all the art in the world (literally!), the it’s good to sit on the stairs to enjoy the movement of the city before taking a walk in Central Park.

2. Orsay Museum, Paris

In the 1980s, the French transformed an old train station into a museum that now has one of the best collections of modern art in the world. Between paintings by Renoir and sculptures by Rodin, it’s worth taking a break at Café Campana, where you can see the inside of one of the station’s huge clocks, with its original 19th-century structure.

Buy a ticket in advance to skip the line to the d’Orsay

3. Art Institute of Chicago

Do you know someone who skips class to go to a museum? If Ferris Buller did it, the Art Institute of Chicago is worth it! It has a sensational collection of impressionist paintings (Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet and co.) but it also has decorative art, Asian art and a wide variety of temporary exhibitions.

The script of the film Living the Crazy Life in Chicago

4. Prado Museum, Madrid

The Prado Museum has a beautiful garden on the outside and some of the greatest jewels in art history on the inside. The Spanish painter Diego Velázquez not only lent his own works to the Prado, but also helped build the museum’s collection, bringing fine collections of Italian masters to Spain. It’s a good idea to buy tickets in advance to avoid the queue. If you also want to go to the Reina Sofia, the “Art Walk” pass is cheaper 🙂

5. Louvre Museum, Paris

What about one of the largest and most famous museums in the world? You go in to see the Mona Lisa and leave in awe of everything else. The museum is located in a 12th-century palace where the kings of France lived, but the entrance is through that glass pyramid from the 90s and ended up becoming the star of the photos. Every now and then a fan of the Da Vinci Code appears trying to count the glass plates of the pyramid to see if there are really 666 🙂 As it is one of the most visited attractions in Paris, it is worth buying the ticket in advance to avoid wasting time in line.