{"id":3177,"date":"2015-07-08T10:16:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T10:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expedia.blog.ca.sandwave.dev\/stories\/best-museums-london\/"},"modified":"2023-06-21T18:51:41","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T18:51:41","slug":"best-museums-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.ca\/stories\/best-museums-london\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Museums in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Oh my God, Marie, London is SO expensive\u00a0\u2013 how can you afford to travel there so often?” is something I’ve heard more times than I can count. But the truth is: London is nowhere near as expensive as people presume. With plenty of affordable hotel rooms<\/a>, economical\u00a0eateries and walkable neighbourhoods, vacationing in London doesn’t have to cost and arm and a leg.<\/p>\n

Oh, and did I mention that the vast majority of London’s iconic and world-renowned museums are free to enter? Indeed, visiting museums is one of the most enlightening yet budget-friendly things to do in London<\/a> \u2013 I did some of the legwork for you, and here are my top picks.<\/p>\n

The Mandatory Classic: The British Museum<\/h1>\n
\"best<\/a>
The British Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Very much in the same way one has to go to the Louvre in Paris… one has to go to the British Museum in London<\/a>.\u00a0It’s one of the world’s oldest museums\u00a0and its collection is\u00a0vast \u2013\u00a0so much so, in fact, that only a fraction the eight million objects\u00a0can be on public display at any time. Must-sees include the Rosetta Stone, the Lewis Chessmen\u00a0and the\u00a0Egyptian antiquities (over 100,000\u00a0pieces, the world’s largest collection\u00a0outside the\u00a0Egyptian Museum in Cairo).<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Most Underrated: The National Portrait Gallery<\/h1>\n

While many people head straight to the National Gallery next door on Trafalgar Square<\/a>, the National Portrait Gallery offers a more human approach to arts and history. The gallery straddles over 500 years of British history and while\u00a0not all of the portraits are exceptional\u00a0on a strictly artistic point of view, they each tell very specific narratives\u00a0\u2013 Queen Elizabeth I, Jane Austen (the gallery houses her only known\u00a0portrait), Shakespeare, Richard Branson, the Duchess of Cambridge and that of many others.<\/p>\n

The Best Views: Tate Modern<\/h1>\n

What was once the Bankside Power Station\u00a0now houses one of the biggest powerhouses (pun intended) in the modern art world<\/a>; with five million visitors every year, there’s no denying this gallery’s\u00a0popularity. The building was kept almost as is – its\u00a0gaping yet somber\u00a0turbine hall is still used to showcase large-scale installations, while its windowless upper floors host\u00a0one of the finest\u00a0art collections in the world, covering the\u00a0Surrealism, Minimalism, Post-war abstraction movements with household names like Rothko,\u00a0Matisse, and Picasso.<\/p>\n

Make sure to visit the 6th floor restaurant for some of the best free views in the city.<\/p>\n

The Best Architecture: Natural History Museum<\/h1>\n
\"best<\/a>
Natural History Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Without a doubt one of the funnest things to do in London<\/a>!\u00a0The museum\u00a0features over 80 million items divided in three zones: red (changing history of the Earth), green (ecology, insects and minerals) and blue (dinosaurs, human biology and mammals),\u00a0with some even featuring\u00a0specimens collected by Charles Darwin. And while the collection is reason enough to visit, the building itself\u00a0is simply stunning – it features an\u00a0ornate terracotta facade\u00a0(with\u00a0relief sculptures of flora and fauna) typical of high Victorian architecture and a splendid, light-filled main hall that has been photographed countless times.<\/p>\n

The Most Touching: Imperial War Museum<\/h1>\n

Located in South London<\/a>, this museum is housed in a former psych ward and holds significant items (manuscripts, machinery, weapons, technological equipment, missiles, even airplanes and tanks) pertaining to\u00a0British military history,\u00a0from recent\u00a0conflicts\u00a0to the two great wars. From genocide to ethnic violence, from the Holocaust to the conflicts in the Middle East,\u00a0the Imperial War Museum doesn’t shy away from uneasiness and horror for the sake of comfort; it aims to educate and study the wartime experience in the most gripping\u00a0way. Definitely a must-do, if only to honour the memory of Canadian soldiers that fought those wars.<\/p>\n

Visitors should know that visiting the museum with children under the age of 16 \u00a0is not recommended\u00a0due to the nature of the exhibits.<\/p>\n

The Best One That’s Not in Central London: National Maritime Museum<\/h1>\n
\"best<\/a>
National Maritime Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Located in east London on the World Heritage Site of Maritime Greenwich, <\/a>along with Elizabeth I’s birthplace and the Royal Naval College, this museum is definitely off the beaten track. The permanent exhibition explores\u00a0\u00a0the importance of London’s maritime heritage and its impact on world trade, which, at one time, was the foremost global power and covered\u00a0almost\u00a0almost a quarter of the Earth’s total land area. The museum also addresses current issues like overfishing and global warming. The ideal destination for visitors planning to spend more than just a few days in town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Oh my God, Marie, London is SO expensive\u00a0\u2013 how can you afford to travel there so often?” is something I’ve heard more times than I can count. But the truth is: London is nowhere near as expensive as people presume. With plenty of affordable hotel rooms, economical\u00a0eateries and walkable neighbourhoods, vacationing in London doesn’t have… Continue reading The Best Museums in London<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,23,138,10,19,9],"tags":[761,762,242,159,763,302],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-3177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cities","category-destinations","category-europe","category-london","category-new-destinations","category-tips","tag-best-museums-in-london","tag-free-things-to-do-in-london","tag-london","tag-museums","tag-things-to-do-in-london","tag-united-kingdom","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Best Museums in London | Expedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A list of the best museums in London - from the quirky to the most visited.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.ca\/stories\/best-museums-london\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Best Museums in London | Expedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A list of the best museums in London - 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