10 Best Museums in London

The British Museum was the first-ever national museum to open to the public and today it still offers a world-class collection of more than 50,000 objects and artefacts. The collection here covers everything from the Rosetta Stone to sculptures from the Parthenon, mummies and tomb artefacts from ancient Egypt and artworks by the Old Masters, among others. The main galleries here are completely free, making this a must-visit place. 

Besides their vast collection of permanent artefacts, the museum also showcases travelling exhibits, focused topical presentations, speakers and workshops. This historic institution has operated since 1759 and is among the United Kingdom's greatest centres of learning. It's just 13 minutes north of the city centre.

The Tower of London, home to some of the most infamous executions in British history, offers a chance to see the British Crown Jewels and explore darker history. This historic building was built in 1066 by William the Conqueror and has functioned as a Royal Mint, a zoo, a residence, a prison and the execution site where Henry VIII ordered two of his wives put to death. Today, it's a museum that traces its entire history and houses the Cullinan I diamond atop the Sovereign's Sceptre.

You can take a guided tour of the tower for free and hear tales of the dark deeds that went on behind the walls. The Tower is in the heart of the city centre.

The Science Museum offers 7 floors of hands-on exhibits, inventions from across history, machines and the chance to get up close to some of the greatest innovations ever. Here you'll see everything from a real bionic arm dating to the 16th century as well as a cross-section of an actual Boeing 747. Many of these exhibits are interactive and let you explore the development of technology from the ancient world to today and into the future. You can even see the exhibit from where the Queen sent her very first tweet.

This family-friendly museum offers permanent and rotating exhibits for all. It's about 15 minutes west of the city centre.

The Natural History Museum is a magnificent site in South Kensington, offering upwards of 80 million specimens covering everything from fossils to rocks, minerals, plant and animals. Here you can see lifelike, full-sized animatronic dinosaurs, a giant foetus model, an actual dodo bird and a giant sequoia tree. You can get hands-on entering an earthquake simulator and see crystals that naturally glow in the dark. This museum and institute is a world-class research institution as well with workshops and speakers on a regular basis.

From full dinosaur skeletons to visiting the centre of the Earth, this is an exciting spot for the whole family. It's about 15 minutes south-west of the city centre.

Tate Modern is an art gallery housed in a former power station offering hundreds of modern artworks featuring many masters of contemporary art and media. Here you can see works by such notable creators as Dali, Picasso, Rothko and even Andy Warhol, set in a preserved industrial space that ideally suits the nature of the works within. You'll see paintings, photographs, sculpture, drawings and multimedia presentations here both in permanent and rotating, travelling exhibitions.

If you enjoy art, it's worth a visit here. The building itself becomes a work of art every night as it is brilliantly lit up. It's about 20 minutes east of the city centre along the scenic shores of the Thames.

The V&A, more properly called the Victoria and Albert, is a vibrant decorative art, fashion, textiles and design museum offering a permanent collection of over 2.3 million artefacts. This gigantic museum can easily encompass an entire day of exploration. Many exhibits are completely free to view, so it's a good option for a budget-friendly family holiday as well. In addition to the museum itself, you can visit a gift shop or grab a meal in a courtyard featuring Italianate design. This is one of the world's largest museums of its kind, and it's a purely glamorous place to visit.

The collection is divided among topics: architecture, furniture, theatre and fashion. It's 15 minutes west of the city centre.

The Imperial War Museum in Lambeth offers a chance to see artefacts from World War I and World War II all housed in an infamous former psychiatric hospital. The building itself was once the Bethlehem Royal Hospital, which is more infamously known as "Bedlam". Outside, it's flanked by British naval guns, and inside it offers more than 400 objects, each with its own story and together telling a larger story of warfare in Great Britain.

Here you can see weapons, armour and uniforms, but also letters, shoes, personal possessions of soldiers and even a piece of a window from the U.S. World Trade Center attacks in 2001. It's 15 minutes south-east of the city centre.

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich offers the chance to marvel at the wonders of time and space right along the Meridian line with plenty of hands-on exhibits. This family-friendly spot offers the chance to look through massive telescopes at the cosmos, to see planetarium shows and learn all about astronomy and astrophysics and even learn unique bits of history about how a self-taught clockmaker mapped the stars to track longitude at sea. Speaking of longitude, you can even straddle the Meridian Line. You can also view the largest historic telescope in the UK, still in use after over 100 years.

You can take advantage of free audio guides as you go. It's only 45 minutes east of the city centre.

Tate Britain in Pimlico is a museum focused on British artwork from across history, offering a collection focused on heavyweight names housed in an elegant building. Here you can see works from such famed creators as Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, William Hogarth and many others. It's even more famous, however, for its adult-themed Lates series which are held the last Friday of every month after hours. These shows showcase themes like creative learning, LGBTQ art and other topics, all accented with a cocktail bar and live DJs.

The general collection houses masterpieces from 1500 to the modern day. It's 10 minutes south of the city centre.

The London Transport Museum inside Covent Garden showcases dozens of vintage vehicles, artefacts, artwork and ephemera from 1860 through to the modern era. Here you'll see vintage Routemasters, steam engines, horse-drawn buses, early tube trains, transport uniforms, historic signage and even maps. You can also see a huge array of posters, photos and prints dedicated to transportation history. The exhibits here are nothing short of world-class and you get the chance to get right up close to real historic vehicles.

Many of the exhibits here are interactive and you can get on board many of the vehicles to explore on your own. It's a wonderful place for families and engineering buffs, and it's just 10 minutes north of the city centre.