What are the first words that come to mind when you think museum tour? Fun? Hilarious? Ridiculous? Off the wall?

No? Well clearly you’ve never been on a Museum Hack tour!

Museum Hack is a company that hosts secret museum tours filled with juicy stories and crazy facts, highlighting the more scandalous aspects of the museum. The tours are fast paced, and include fun games, unique photo opportunities, and wine. Yes, wine!

On Friday, Ann and I headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a VIP Night tour.

We met our guides, Jessye and Ethan, near the Egyptian Pharaoh. We were quickly arrayed with stickers, informed (by Jessye and Ethan) that they were the best guides at Museum Hack, and then the tour began!

One of our first stops was in my favorite room at The Met, which hosts the Temple of Dendur (an Egyptian temple to you non-historians!)

Jessye, in a hushed whisper, told us the story of how the Met fought Jackie Kennedy over what U.S. city would receive the temple, and (surprisingly) the Met won!

Another fun fact: during the Met Gala, the A listers get to hang out near the Temple.

B listers are ushered to the cafeteria:

Although it’s really not so bad, the room is gorgeous as the sun sets. We were able to enjoy the view… over wine of course!

Looks like someone had a little too much wine!

Afterwards, our tour continued upstairs.

Where Ethan presented us with a challenge. Everyone had to take a picture of one thing that they would bring with them to a party. At the end of the tour, we each had 10 seconds to display our photo and make an argument in favor of our choice. The winner would receive a fun surprise!

I chose Jesus, because then you would never run out of alcohol! See what I did there?!

I received 2nd place- so close!

One of my favorite parts of the tour involved Jessye telling us the stories behind some of the Met’s most ridiculous paintings.

Like this one. Can you believe it actually hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the most renowned art museums in the world?!

Or this one, where everyone’s face is exactly the same. Creepy.

Another surprising fact, which I won’t spoil for you here, involves what exactly the Met uses to clean this armor! Yuck!

This case, with its fancy golden objects, is actually filled with tools for… drinking. Yes, us Americans have nothing on German drinking games!

My absolute favorite part of the tour, however, was being able to see the Met late at night. Where during the day these rooms are filled with tourists, at night it was just us and the art. It was an incredible experience being at the Met so late, and for this reason I highly recommend doing one of Museum Hack’s Night tours.

Remember how I mentioned fun pictures?

We were encouraged to pose (scandalously, if desired) for a fun souvenir.

The tour was filled with fun surprises like that, with a new activity, story or game at every turn. Jessye and Ethan are fabulous tour guides (they were right!), and really make the experience memorable and fun.

You can get your tickets to a Museum Hack tour of the Met here. Don’t forget to choose one at night!

Museum Hack also covers the American Museum of Natural History, and if anything can make that museum interesting, it’s Museum Hack!

Now I’m looking forward to impressing my friends on future visits to the Met! Oh that painting right there? Not many people know this, but…

~A