Can You Tour the United Nations? Yes, Weekdays 9 to 5, and It's a 20-Minute Walk From Us

The standard tour is an hour long and takes you through the General Assembly Hall and the Security Council Chamber, meetings permitting, with a guide who does it in one of the six official UN languages. Book it online before you go. You can sometimes buy at the door, but that depends on availability and the visitor entrance is not the place to gamble on a Tuesday in October.

A few details worth knowing before you book:

• Where you go in: the visitor entrance at 46th Street and First Avenue, on the west side of the avenue.
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. No weekend tours.
• Kids: under 5 aren't permitted on tour, and under 18 needs an adult along.
• Closed to visitors September 12 through October 4, which covers the General Assembly's high-level week. If your trip lands in that window, plan something else.
• Other tours: there's a 90-minute From Chambers to Garden tour that adds the North Lawn and the East River garden, and a separate Garden Tour offered May through August with the rose collection, the cherry trees, and a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Getting there from East 62nd Street

Walk. It's 16 blocks straight down First Avenue from us, about 20 minutes on flat sidewalk, and the last stretch through Turtle Bay past Tudor City is one of the better quiet walks in this part of town. If you'd rather ride, the M15 runs down Second Avenue and drops you a couple of blocks from the entrance. Give yourself an extra 20 minutes on top of your tour time for the security screening at the gate, the same way you would at an airport but friendlier.

Go in the morning if you can. The 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. tours are the quietest, and you'll be back on First Avenue in time for lunch.