tenement museum tour

Tenement Museum

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Lower East Side Tenement Museum Tours

How to get tenement museum tickets.

While offering some of our tours, we will sometimes pass by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.

With that in mind, we created this post is about how to visit the Tenement Museum in New York City, including getting tickets, directions, what you will see at the museum, and an analysis of reviews.

• Plan Your Visit
• Museum Tours
• Lower East Side Food Tour

Tips From Locals and Travelers

• Other Museums in Manhattan

What is the Tenement Museum?

The Tenement Museum is housed in actual tenement buildings built in 1863.

The building served as a residence for approximately 7,000 immigrants from the time it was built all the way into the 1930s.

The only way to visit the museum (housed in historic tenement buildings) is by taking a tour or guided experience.

The museum offers many tours each day, but tours do sell out. If you are flexible about what day and time you can go, your chances of getting tickets increase.

It can't hurt to be spontaneous so you can always call at the last minute and see if tickets are available.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

TIP: A great way to complement your visit to the museum is to take our pay-what-you-wish Lower East Side Food Tour . See more below .

Getting There

The Tenement Museum is at 103 Orchard Street at the corner of Delancey Street in the Lower East Side. ( map )

• B or D trains to Grand Street
• F train to Delancey Street 
• J/M/Z to Essex Street

You can use this Google Map to get exact directions from your point of departure to the Museum.

If you are new to New York, you may find the following posts regarding the NYC subway helpful.

• How to Navigate the NYC Subway
• Which Subway Travel Card Is Best?  

M15 North and South Bound. There is a bus stop at the corner of Grand and Allen Streets. 

By Car:  Click  here for directions and parking information .

TIP: Many sightseeing bus tours have stops in the Lower East Side within walking distance of the Tenement Museum. 

If you are thinking of taking a bus tour, see our post about  which New York bus tour is best?  

Museum Shop and Visitor Center Hours

The Visitor Center and Museum Shop are 7 days a week, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm, except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Days. 

Choosing the Best Tour for You

As stated above, you can only visit the Musem by taking one of their tours.  They offer many different tours each with its own theme. 

Tours vary in duration so this is something to keep in mind. Also, some building tours require you to walk a few flights of stairs.

These old buildings can get hot in the summer, just like they did 100 years ago!

Below we list the types of tours they offer. 

MUSEUM TOURS

The museum offers many variations on the tours below, far too many to explain here. You can see more details on their website . 

Note that tours are not recommended for children below the age of 6.

Apartment Tours

On these tours, you visit the apartments and homes of former residents of the building.

They have been designed to look as they did more than a century ago. 

Your guide will discuss life in that era and help you imagine the experience of the families that lived in 97 Orchard.

Neighborhood Walking Tours  

These tours are led by guides who show you around the neighborhood while explaining different aspects of the neighborhood.

Tours include topics like how locals spent time outside of their homes a hundred years ago.

Another topic is how the neighborhood has changed over the decades. 

Apartment Tours - Meet the Residents

These tours have the added bonus of having a 'resident' (a costumed performer) of the building show you around their apartment. 

These tours are especially good for families with children.

Note: These tours are on a limited number of Saturdays and Sundays and are booked up fast. 

Other Events at the Museum

The Museum has special events, including panels discussing the themes of immigration, food history, music, health, and politics.

Also, every Thursday evening, the Tenement Museum hosts events and programs that are not offered any other time.

Some of these events are free and some require a ticket.  See the schedule here .

This unique museum can sometimes sell out of tickets. We highly recommend that you buy your tickets in advance. The museum posts its tour schedule online 6 weeks in advance. 

Apartment Tour Tickets: 

• Students $30
• Seniors $30
• Children under 5 are not permitted at this time 

Walking Tour Tickets: 

Apartment Tours- Meet the Residents :

• Children under 5 are 5not permitted at this time 

You can  purchase tickets on their website , in person inside the gift shop, or by phone at 877-975-3786.  

REVIEWS OF THE TENEMENT MUSEUM

The Tenement Museum has a very good 4.5-star TripAdvisor rating. Overall, guests have been very pleased with their experiences.  

Many reviews point out how fascinating and interesting the inside of the 97 Orchard tenement apartment building is. 

Guests have been mostly pleased by the guides and the content of all the tours.

There are some, but not many, negative reviews. The most frequent complaint is that the tours are too expensive.

Guests love the gift shop, which offers a great selection of books and many other New York City-related items.

LOWER EAST SIDE FOOD TOUR

The Lower East Side is one of NYC's most vibrant neighborhoods. That is why we created our pay-what-you-wish   Lower East Side Food Tour .

You can take this tour before or after visiting the Tenement Museum, or instead of the museum tour which is somewhat expensive!

Our guides tell you about the history of immigration in the neighborhood, including what life was like in the tenements. 

You'll also learn about the area’s well-known art scene. And of course, you'll be tasting some of the best and cheapest treats the neighborhood has to offer.

Be sure to take a look at  our full lineup of New York food tours .

Although we did our best to remain unbiased in this article, it's always a good idea to get a variety of perspectives before making any purchasing decisions.

Thankfully, we also have a Facebook Group called New York City Travel Tips where you can ask any questions you may still have about visiting the Tenement Museum. Here are a few examples of comments that locals and travelers have made about this historic attraction:

As you can see, sometimes travelers will ask questions about whether or not the tour is worth the cost, and when that happens, the answer is almost always a resounding yes.

No seriously, we challenge you to find more than a few comments that are anything but positive.

Although it might surprise you, there's actually a lot of great activities to combine with a tour of the Tenement Museum. Maureen notes in her comment that it's even compatible with an Off-Broadway show!

Myra also makes a great point, noting that there's nothing quite like this museum anywhere else in the world.

For even more unique perspectives, make sure to check out our New York City Travel Tips group on Facebook, and consider asking your own questions as well!

RELATED POSTS:

• Guide to The Lower East Side
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Millions of Americans can trace their ancestry back to tenements like this one.

Take a look inside to see how the tenement museum has preserved its history.

This story contains audio. Listen as you scroll.

In the middle of the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of new Americans flooded into New York. They found homes in buildings like this one, on Orchard Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where the population density in some neighborhoods approached nearly a quarter-million people per square mile by the mid 1860s.

Architecturally, 97 Orchard St. was simple and indistinguishable from thousands of other utilitarian structures. Today, it is preserved by the Tenement Museum, an innovative public history organization. Inside, visitors can see relics and reminders of one of the most consequential migrations in human history, a flood tide of humanity that changed the fabric of America.

For decades, tenement dwellers had only basic protection from fire but almost none from disease. As public understanding of contagious disease improved, housing laws in 1879 and 1901 helped spur incremental changes. “The Tenement acts were not about comfort, but about public health,” says Dave Favaloro, the Tenement Museum’s senior director of curatorial affairs.

Step into its cramped spaces to follow this brick structure along the y-axis of time, as landlords and residents grappled with such diseases as tuberculosis, cholera and influenza, — and as the fear of fire and bad air, even immigrants themselves, left indelible marks on its design and structure.

Archie William Friedberg, 97 Orchard resident 1914-18 | recorded in 1992.

Audio courtesy of the Tenement Museum

Among the busiest spaces in this crowded building was this basement saloon, operated by John and Caroline Schneider, a German couple, from 1864 to 1886. Today, it contains a map of Germany, sheet music and musical instruments. Beer gardens and saloons were essential social glue for German immigrants, yet others saw them as sites of drunkenness and lechery and worried about their impact on “traditional” American values.

The Schneiders lived and worked in the same basement space, and Caroline likely would have prepared food for her clients in this kitchen, next to the public room. Both died of tuberculosis, Caroline in 1885 and John in 1892.

In the 1860s, disease was an urgent fear, and rife in New York’s tenements. Tuberculosis was endemic in the city, but in the years after the Schneiders’ deaths, scientific understanding of how the contagion spread would expand. In addition, progressives used changes to the law, architecture and urban design to fight disease.

Among the most feared was cholera, spread by human waste. To access a toilet, patrons of the Schneiders’ bar, like residents of the apartments above, would have had to make their way to the backyard.

Step into what would have been a small, dark and smelly exterior courtyard to see the minimal plumbing this building offered when it was new.

When 97 Orchard St. was built, the only bathrooms were here, behind the building, and the only source of fresh water for the 22 apartments was this hydrant, attached to the municipal water system. The facilities here, which used a separate water source rather than a ground well, were considered more sanitary than those in many other buildings in the area.

When this building was still used as a tenement house, the backyard would have been much darker and more enclosed because it faced the rear of another tenement, torn down in 1930-31. And yet it also was a space where neighbors would encounter each other directly, whether they wanted to or not.

The tenement at 97 Orchard St. appealed to the museum’s founders in part because the building behind it had been torn down. That allowed street access to the back of the museum and room for this modern external staircase, which provides egress.

The museum works to balance today’s safety demands while preserving the interiors as much as possible. Some apartments have also been left exactly as they were found, after years of decay. Others have been re-created to represent a particular time period. The Tenement Museum doesn’t preserve this building to represent a single historical moment but, rather, a cross-section of different times.

Step into an apartment preserved as it would have looked in 1910, with some basic improvements to living conditions.

Around 1890, the landlords at 97 Orchard St. installed windows between the parlor and the kitchen to increase airflow and light, at the time thought to help reduce TB outbreaks. They were also likely trying to make their spaces more attractive in the competitive world of short-term tenement rentals. At the same time, there was a larger movement to improve conditions in New York’s tenements. In 1901, a new tenement law required indoor plumbing and gas lighting.

Apartments on the south side of the building were made smaller to include two water closets off the hall.

An air shaft was built to eliminate odors from the toilets. Walls were moved, and some tenants had less space. As of 1905, when these water closets were installed, the residents of this apartment no longer had to descend to the basement level to use the bathroom.

This door, at the rear of what is known as the Levine family apartment, allowed residents to move between the front and the back of the building in case of fire. The door was supposed to be kept unlocked, which meant privacy had to be negotiated between neighbors. Lines between private and public space were fluid, and children who grew up in buildings like this one remember using the city as a playground when conditions were cramped at home.

To build public support for reform, progressive activists often represented New York’s tenements as dark, overcrowded and dangerous. They were, but they also were homes, and often workplaces. The Levine family used this room as both a living and garment-making space. An 1892 inspector’s report indicated that there were three employees working full-time in this front room to make dresses, putting in 10-hour shifts.

In 1924, the fear of immigrants reached a peak, and the United States passed the Johnson-Reed Act, barring most immigrants from Asia and cutting by 80 percent arrivals from countries in Europe. In 1934, New York required landlords to replace wooden stairs with brick or masonry. Fewer immigrants, stricter housing codes and upward social mobility depressed demand for apartments in such buildings. A year later, the owner of 97 Orchard St. evicted his remaining tenants and closed the upper-floor apartments, leaving only a few businesses on the lower two levels. For more than half a century, these apartments fell into ruin, until the Tenement Museum moved in and started to re-create the lives of the building’s former occupants.

Millions of Americans can trace their ancestry back to buildings like this one, and collective memory frequently softens the narrative. Conditions were often dire, and disease rampant, and tenement laws were driven as much by xenophobia as by genuine concern for the poor. The fear of outsiders, often associated with actual and metaphorical disease, continues to shape Americans’ views of their own identity and security. Today, these buildings are part of a thriving neighborhood, with many apartments joined to create larger, more habitable spaces. And the Tenement Museum continues its mission to preserve and memorialize the lives, not of the great and famous, but of ordinary Americans who did their best to make this place home.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that among the effects of the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 was a cut by 80 percent of immigrant arrivals from the Western Hemisphere. The act effectively cut immigrant arrivals from many countries in Europe. The story has been corrected.

About this story

Kolin Pope is a three-time Emmy nominated animator and director whose work in documentary and journalism has been featured in The Washington Post, NBC News and Vice. He lives in Portland, Ore.

Editing by Jenna Pirog, Amy Hitt, Elite Truong. Audio editing and original score by Ted Muldoon. Copy editing by Adrienne Dunn. Photogrammetry and laser scanning by SOE Studio.

This story uses photogrammetry, a noncontact, nondestructive technique that records the exact size and shape of existing spaces and objects by combining thousands of images to output a 3-D rendering of a space. The Post used a lidar scanner, drones and handheld cameras to scan and photograph all sides of the building and rooms on location at the Tenement Museum on the lower east side of Manhattan. We used Reality Capture to process the images, clean up and output a 3-D model, and Cinema 4D to customize the lighting and animate the 3-D sequences.

Some cleanup of the models is required for purposes of formatting, authenticity, and visual clarity, especially of features that do not render well with the technique. As a result, some objects, like the gas lighting hanging from the ceiling, appear to have holes in them. The water closet we scanned is located on the Museum’s second floor, and was added to the third floor in post-production.

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Thing to Do

Lower East Side Tenement Museum National Historic Site , National Parks of New York Harbor

Neighborhood Walking Tours

Building on the lower east side - neighborhood walking tour.

Housing is New York’s enduring issue. Nowhere has this been more felt than the Lower East Side, at one point the most crowded place on the planet. Explore how architects, activists, civic agents, and everyday people have influenced the very landscape of the neighborhood and uncover the stories of the Lower East Side. Learn about some the earliest homes in the neighborhood, before they were replaced by the humble tenement, and gaze upon the modernist urban renewal efforts of the 1950s. This is an approximately 1.4 miles and 60 minute tour.

Outside the Home - Neighborhood Walking Tour

On this tour we’ll look at how Lower East Siders shaped and were shaped by their neighborhood over the 19th and early 20th Centuries. From stores to parks, movie theaters to schools, discover how these spaces became important centers for navigating identity, advocacy, and cultural exchange. This is an approximately 1 mile and 60 minute tour.

Reclaiming Black Spaces - Neighborhood Walking Tour

From the 1640s to the modern day, on this 90 minute walking tour we’ll highlight stories of how Black and African Americans shaped Lower Manhattan as they made homes, businesses, and communities there over the centuries. Discover what drew Black New Yorkers to Lower Manhattan, and how their experiences were shaped by that migration, how those communities created a sense of home, and how they resisted the racism they faced. This is an approximately 1.5 miles and 90 minute tour. 

Tenement Apartment Tours

100 years apart.

Explore how immigrant women coped with economic hardship through the stories of Natalie Gumpertz and Mrs. Wong. Hear how these two women, living a century apart, shared similar struggles, hopes, and survival strategies as they made new lives. Visit the recreated 1880s tenement apartment of the Gumpertz family, whose primary breadwinner disappeared during the Panic of 1873. Then visit an interactive 1980s Chinatown garment shop that connects you directly to the memories of Mrs. Wong, her children, and her co-workers. How did a 19 th  century German-Jewish immigrant and a 20 th  century Chinese immigrant rely on their communities during hard times? This is a 60 minute tour. 

Finding Home

Visit the tenement homes of the Epstein and Saez Velez families in the 1950s and 1960s. The families shared a tenement building at 103 Orchard Street, and shared a changing Lower East Side, yet had very different experiences as Jewish Holocaust survivors and Puerto Rican migrants. What was it like to live in a neighborhood becoming more racially and culturally diverse and how did newly arrived families find a sense of belonging? Visitors will explore these questions through the memories of the families and the historical context of the mid-20 th  Century while touring their recreated homes. This is a 60 minute tour. 

Exploring a Tenement: 1933 

Join us for an exploration of the research, preservation, and restoration work that goes into every Tenement Museum tour. Learn about Italian immigrants Adolfo and Rosaria Baldizzi, and their American-born children Johnny and Josephine as they navigated tenement life during the Great Depression. Visit the Baldizzi’s recreated tenement home, discover how we learned about the family, and get a special look at the unique process of reconstructing their 1933 apartment and the discoveries and surprises made along the way. This is a 60 minute tour. 

Tenement Women: 1902

Enter the world of tenement families and explore the challenges and changes faced by Jewish immigrant mothers in 1902. Visit the Levine family’s tenement apartment, where Jennie Levine managed a household and oversaw family finances while her husband ran a garment factory in their front room. Then, explore a few stops nearby to learn where and how women organized the Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902, led by women like Jennie, which both divided and united Jewish Lower East Siders. This interactive tour invites you to explore how women asserted their rights before they had rights as citizens, and how they inspired future generations and movements. This is a 60 minute tour.

Meet Victoria

Visit our historic 97 Orchard Street tenement and journey back in time to 1916 for an immersive experience with an actor playing Victoria Confino, a real teenager who immigrated to the United States in 1913. You’ll meet Victoria in her family’s recreated tenement apartment and get to ask Victoria questions and hear stories about her home in Greece, her journey to the United States, and her experiences as an immigrant in the Lower East Side of 1916. Recommended for visitors of all ages! This is a 60 minute tour.

Family Owned

Amidst wars, depressions, and changing laws, family businesses served as the anchors of the community, but they had their costs. This tour spans the 75-year-old residential history of 97 Orchard, taking you to the 1870s century lager beer saloon and home of John and Caroline Schneider and the 1930s auction house of Max Marcus. 

This immersive and interactive tour starts with a visit to Schneider’s Saloon, which served food, beer, and entertainment, but also acted as a living room for German immigrants and families to socialize and a meeting place for local clubs and political organizations. You will also visit the Schneider’s bedroom at the back of the saloon; as they moved into 97 Orchard in 1864, it is the oldest apartment featured at the Tenement Museum. Then, you’ll travel forward in time to the Great Depression, where you’ll learn how Max Marcus made a living in an interactive multimedia exhibit in the space that once held his auction house. This is a 60 minute tour.

After the Famine: 1869

Having fled famine conditions in Ireland in large numbers, the Irish helped make New York an immigrant-majority city and a metropolis. Joseph and Bridget Moore came to the rapidly growing, culturally diverse tenement neighborhoods in the years after the Civil War. In 1869, they left a more Irish neighborhood for 97 Orchard, a brand-new building. But while this tenement had new amenities, the majority of its residents were German. 

How did Joseph and Bridget create an Irish American lifestyle for their family? Discover how music, politics, religion came together to form a complex Irish American identity. This is a 60 minute tour.

At Home in 1911

By 1911, the Lower East Side had become both the most densely populated area in the country and the largest Jewish city in the world. Jewish immigrants came to the United States for its religious freedom and its economic opportunities, which posed new questions. Should one work on the Sabbath? If one worked in a factory, should one go on a strike to improve conditions?  In 1911, a devastating factory fire disrupted the city, prompting both grief and ultimately, a series of new labor and work safety laws. Find out how Fannie and Abraham Rogarshevsky and their six children made their way through a turbulent decade. This is a 60 minute tour.

Tickets are required for all tours. 

Accessibility information.

The Tenement Museum welcomes all visitors. We recognize the diverse needs of our audience and offer accessible programs and services to enable all visitors to explore the stories we interpret at the Tenement Museum.

The Tenement Museum offers a special $65 membership for visitors with disabilities. For a discounted membership, please call the membership line at 877-975-3786.

Free entry to care partners

Regardless of Museum membership status, all visitors with disabilities can obtain free entry for their care partners. Please call 877-975-3786 or e-mail [email protected] to request free entry for a care partner.

Service Animal Policy

Service dogs are welcome on all museum tours. However, pets and emotional support animals are not allowed inside tenement buildings, but can be brought on outdoor neighborhood walking tours.

For questions about Museum accessibility and how we can accommodate your specific needs, call 877-975-3786 or e-mail [email protected].

Wheelchair Accessibility

The following tours are wheelchair accessible:

Reclaiming Black Spaces

Building on the Lower East Side

Outside the Home

The Museum has a limited amount of wheelchairs available to borrow for wheelchair accessible programs. To reserve a wheelchair for your visit, please contact our Call Center at 877-975-3786 (Monday–Saturday: 9 am–5 pm) or e-mail [email protected]

Individuals who are Blind or have Low Vision

Handling objects are available for our  100 Years Apart, Finding Home , and  Day in the Life  tours. Ask for these materials when you arrive at the Visitors Center.

Visitors can book a free tactile orientation to the Museum before their tour with two weeks’ advance notice.

Individuals who are Deaf or have Hearing Loss

Assistive listening devices.

The Museum offers FM assistive listening devices upon request for all tours and evening programming. Ask a representative at the Visitors Center upon arrival.

Language Aids

If you are looking for language translation for tours, please email [email protected] for options.

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Last updated: August 18, 2023

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New York Tenement Museum - which tour?

Taking the kids to NYC for the first time this fall, and want to do the Tenement Museum with them. They are 9 and 12; both very good with listening, and the 9-yo is actually very much into history, more than the 12-yo actually. But the 12-yo did a big Ellis Island project at school last year so she has a good background of the immigrant arrival story.

Anyway, wanted to know if anyone has opinions as to the best tour for kids. I actually don't want to do the Victoria Confino one, as it's for kids of all ages with a costumed speaker (I don't want to be in there with a bunch of crazy toddlers; my kids are better suited to the adult tours). Any thoughts between Hard Times, Sweatshop Workers or Irish Outsiders ? (My 9-yo isn't old enough for "Shop Life" and I'd rather have the turn-of-the-century history than the more modern Under One Roof.)

About 10 years ago, my daughter who was then maybe 14 and I visited the Tenement museum and actually took two tours. We enjoyed the Victoria Confino tour, and when we did it there were no crazy toddlers. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which other one we did, and reading the descriptions didn’t ring any bells. You might ask the museum If there often are toddlers on that tour with the costumed interpreter; if not, I would recommend that one for your kids and you.

Whatever you decide, have a great time. We really enjoyed that museum.

What a great idea to take your children to the Tenement Museum. After many trips to New York, three years ago, my husband and I finally went. We took the Hard Times tour which covers the stories of two immigrant families. While there were no children on our tour, I think a 9 and 12 year old would enjoy the tour. While the tour guide was very knowledgeable, this is a very visual tour. Just seeing the size and condition of these flats will spark and interesting conversation with your kids.

The Tenement Museum also has a variety of family activities, check out the link: https://www.tenement.org/visit/recommendations-for-families/ . While I don’t usually rave about gift shops, this one has amazing and unique items, including a great cookbook collection and historical biographies (for your 9 year old history buff).

Depending upon when you are visiting the Museum, there are two iconic New York eateries not to far from the Tenement Museum: Katz Deli (best known for Pastrami & the scene from When Harry Met Sally): https://www.katzsdelicatessen.com/ . It can be a mad house at lunch, but think about it more as a loud lunch-time ballet.

Russ and Daughters (4th Generation restaurant with outstanding bagels and lox: http://www.russanddaughterscafe.com/ . They have both outside and inside seating, delicious smoked and pickled fish and egg creams for the kids.

Enjoy your trip to New York. Sandy

Thanks, guys, appreciate the input! Anyone else have Tenement Museum experience or advice?

Friends who live in NYC took us on the Sweatshop Tour, so that’s the only one I can respond to. I think it would be enjoyable and appropriate for the ages of your children. These tours are very visual, so the participants are in the actual living situations seeing the conditions they worked under. The only thing you might consider is if one of yours is highly/overly empathetic ( I have a grandchild that fits this) and would be bothered when they talk about the garment fire where a number of women died. I don’t know what the other tours cover. If you chose this tour, you might consider having them read the All-of-A-Kind Family stories before you go.

@Patty, thank you for the suggestion of the book. I had not heard of that book before but have now procured a copy from my local library and will begin reading it with the kids soon!

Loved the tour of the Tenement Museum, though I can't remember which one it was. I think it may have been "Hard Times". I know it was to do with a family (or two) that lived there and worked nearby. Absolutely riveting. Know that there are narrow stairs to climb up and down to get to the different levels, and it's very warm in the building. The gift shop is really great, so leave plenty of time to shop afterward!

Also, the museum at/under the Statue of Liberty is just amazing too; we really liked it.

Hi Kelly, I went on a tour of the Tenement Museum in June 2015 and enjoyed it very much. We also took a food tour of the Lower East Side and saw a lot of the area and sampled food from The Pickle Guys to some famous deli my friend knew about. We met people from different countries on the tour from Germany and England, I remember. Sorry I don't have more information focused on children but I know it will be very interesting especially for your daughter who did a project on Ellis Island.

The Tenement Museum is fascinating for kids of all ages. While I can't recommend one tour over another, I can recommend you go when there isn't a heat wave on that autumn day. Your kids will hate any tour they take as it will be stifling in there. Ironically enough, they would get a lot more out of it to experience what it was like in hot weather but in reality, they will be better off in cooler temps.

@Continental, hopefully it won't be too bad the day we're there! We're going in late September. We are used to hot weather (it's 95+ degrees here in Georgia all this week, plus the usual "swim thru the air humidity"). Regardless, the kids can suck it up for an hour, haha! Last time I was in NYC back in 2015 I wanted to do the museum and went all the way down there and it was sold out, so I definitely am buying tix ahead of time this time!

I took the excellent Sweatshop Workers tour a couple of years ago and I don't remember anything inappropriate for children. If you have immigrants in your family history, you might consider selecting a tour that would reflect the time period they came, to make it more meaningful. I second the recommendation to visit one of the nearby historic delis--the food the immigrants brought with them has been a wonderful contribution to our country. And do go to Ellis Island; I could easily have spent a whole day there.

Thanks, @Michelle. I think we will do the sweatshop tour. And we definitely have Ellis Island tix as well as “climb the crown” Statue of Liberty tix, which I am quite excited about myself! :)

Jumping in late but I want to add that, whichever tour you take, the guide has the ability to customize it a bit for whoever is on that tour. If you have tweens/teens with you, they can give a little more info on the lives of kids their ages. Every tour guide tells the stories a little bit differently--they have far more information than they can deliver on one tour. This means, too, that the Tenement Museum is great even if you've been there before.

Popping back in here to state that we booked the Sweatshop Workers tour. I'll try to remember to report back in a few weeks after we've gone!

If you can add the the American Indian museum at the old Customs house on Bowling Green. The museum is great, nice, interesting museum shop, bathrooms, and they have separate tours for the building. The building is amazing! And, all is free! Have taken people there a few times, never crowded.

We went a couple of summers ago. We took the Hard Times tour with our kids. I think any of the tours there would be excellent. There was a slide show/film in the museum store we saw before our tour. The museum store is very good. We also went to Eillis Island & to the Statue of Liberty. I think that there is so much more that can be done at Ellis Island to better tell the story of immigaration to our country. I thought the Tenement Museum was much better than Ellis Island if you only have time for one of these.

My daughter and her husband just took the Hard Times tour and loved it, but in retrospect, she wished she had taken the tour that featured Irish immigrants. We have been researching our ancestry and find that we have a very Irish background. I think it would be very meaningful to go on a tour that you can relate to through immigrant ancestry.

@Jeannie, we are also doing Ellis Island with the kids, so I hope that each helps enrich the other experience!

Our grandchildren got a lot out of the Ellis Island exhibits but didn't care for the Tenement Museum anywhere near as much. It may have been because there was no a/c when we went and it was quite hot. A reality for those living there before a/c. I understand there is a/c in the museum now.

Definitely no AC there—it was 95 degrees when we were there! Our kids liked Tenement better than Ellis.

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• Russian destinations

Khabarovsk is the industrial, transport, administrative and cultural centre of the Khabarovsk region. The city was founded in 1858 as a military outpost. It is located 8532km east of Moscow and 30km from the Chinese border. After passing through the isolated Siberian towns on the Trans-Siberian railway, tourists often find Khabarovsk an unexpected surprise with its numerous green parks, riverside paths and historic downtown area. If you do get to spend a day in Khabarovsk then a definite must is to visit the Far East Regional Museum, which is extremely well laid out and gives detailed historical examples. Also worth a visit if you have time, is the beautifully restored Fine Arts Museum overlooking the Amur River, which includes Russian masterpieces, early Slavic icons and a collection of Western European art.

If you happen to visit in summer then you may not want to spend any time inside and there are plenty of places to relax outside. One option is Dynamo Park, which is extremely popular with the locals. A 30 hectare park featuring several water ponds to dip your feet in when it gets too hot! Another outside spot to relax is the city ‘beach’. Although it’s over 300km from the nearest coastline, the river bank does give a feeling of relaxing on a beach somewhere in the Mediterranean.

The best way to get to Khabarovsk is on the Trans-Siberian railroad but there is also a well-served airport connecting to most of the major cities in Russia.

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