The Various World Class Museums In London England 2024

Museums In London

In March 2024, we took a week week-long trip to London, England for the first time. In preparation for the trip, I watched 120 hours of YouTube travel videos.  There were videos about restaurants, tourist attractions, Tube procedures, and museums.  With so many museums in London, we had to decide which ones to visit.

We had to balance each person’s must-see museum exhibits with the amount of walking our child could do.  We tried to take the Tube and cabs as much as possible.  Once at the museum, we would be rested and ready to walk through.  Museums can be overwhelming due to the physical size of the campuses and the number of exhibits.   Having a plan for every museum was critical for our successful trip to the capital city of England.

Being Quick And Having A Plan

Three of us, including a child, went to London.  We prepared ahead of time to know what we wanted to see.  Because the museums are large and busy, we wanted to have a plan for which museums and what to see at each.

The Victoria & Albert Museum was our quickest visit.  We wanted to visit the ornate cafe due it being the first cafe in any museum.  After having a quick snack, we walked through the museum for about 30 minutes.  It was fairly boring for my child, so we spent little time here.  I enjoyed seeing many of the famous sculptures I had seen in my research.

The British Museum was the most hurried 12 minutes of our entire trip.  I wanted to see architecture that combines the very old buildings and the glass dome ceiling.  My child wanted to see the mummies.  We arrived late in the afternoon and set a timer for 20 minutes. The goal was to see what we both wanted and to get out of there.  Twelve minutes was the perfect amount of time to get in, take photos of the architecture, see the mummies, and get out.  On our next visit to London, we will spend more time at this world-class museum.

The Natural History Museum in Kensington was our number one must-do museum.  I knew from YouTube research to arrive before opening to beat the crowd.  We were among the first 200 people into the museum and made our way to the dinosaurs.  The dinos are the most popular exhibit at the museum.  By the time we left the area, it was packed.  Second, on our must-do list was to see the DoDo Bird exhibit.  The DoDo is an extinct bird, and the museum has one in their collection.  Last on our list was to see the gigantic gem room housing thousands of specimens of gems, rocks, and minerals.  For my child, this was amazing.  Every kid seems to love collecting rocks, so this huge collection was mind-blowing.  

The National Gallery, London’s gigantic art museum, was another must-do.  While we only spent an hour in this museum, it was fun for use to see some famous artists such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.  My child saw “Sunflowers” in person and later was rewarded by her art teacher for doing so.  It was a trip highlight for sure.  We walked around for a bit taking in the paintings before heading to other parts of London.

We had no time to visit Tate Modern, situated in a former power plant on the banks of the River Thames.  The transportation nerd inside of me resisted going to the London Transportation Museum in Covent Garden.  I did manage to visit the gift shop, so that was fun.

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