More about: British Museum Tickets and Tours
Visiting the British Museum is one of the best things to do in London at any time of year. It is one of the most visited museums in the world and has an incredible collection of historical, ethnographic, archaeological and artistic artefacts. What's more, it's a low-cost option as admission is completely free.
Read on for all the details on how to get your tickets and avoid the queues, as well as the main opening hours so you can make the most of your visit. Are you coming with us?
The British Museum London Private Guided Tour
Visit the British Museum
Take a trip around the world through history by visiting the impressive British Museum in the heart of London, England.
With this private or semi-private tour of the British Museum, you will have exclusive access to a detailed account of the historical background of all the most important pieces in the extensive collection of one of the most important museums in the Western hemisphere.
With two and a half hours of personalised talks and explanations, you will enjoy a historical learning experience and cultural entertainment like nowhere else.
Recommended if... you like to discover all the details of a museum and enjoy personalised and exclusive treatment with guides who speak your language.
How much do tickets to the British Museum cost?
Admission to the British Museum is completely free for all ages. This makes it an ideal plan to entertain everyone in your group, from the youngest to the oldest, without spending a penny.
You can save your money and invest it in a private guide who will explain the history of the main exhibits in great detail.
Is it advisable to take a guided tour of the British Museum?
Without a doubt, the answer is yes. It is one of the best things to see and do in London at any time of year. With a private tour lasting around two and a half hours with an expert guide, you will learn all about the artefacts housed in the third most visited museum in the world after the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Louvre in Paris.
Your private guide will delve into the history of the museum's most important objects, including the Mummy of Katebet, the Lewis Chessmen and the Rosetta Stone, and will be on hand to answer any questions you may have. The best way to make the most of your visit. Are you in?
How to get tickets for the British Museum at the ticket office?
As admission to the British Museum is free, there is no need to purchase tickets. However, it is advisable to reserve your free admission ticket on the British Museum website in advance. This will save you from waiting in the long and unnecessary queues that characterise one of London's top 10 museums.
If you pay for a private guided tour, they will usually take care of booking your admission ticket.
Are tickets to the British Museum included in any city sightseeing passes?
Are tickets to the British Museum included in any city sightseeing passes?
The best tourist cards in London do not usually include the British Museum among the activities included in their daily or weekly packages. This is simply because admission is free, and it would not be fair to advertise it as an activity where you supposedly save money on an admission fee that would never be charged outside the tourist pass.
In any case, I can assure you that tourist passes to visit several iconic London sites for a single price are one of the best investments you can make to balance your budget. A fixed rate is usually between £50 and £180 and gives you access to a long list of paid attractions, without queues and with discounts of up to 35% or 40% off what you would pay if you bought individual tickets.
These passes have different prices depending on the number of days you buy them for and can be valid for up to a full week. Therefore, it is best not to buy them on the day of your visit to the British Museum, as you would be wasting some of your money on the time it takes to visit this huge museum.
Are there free guided tours of the British Museum? How do they differ from private tours?
With free tickets to the British Museum, you can enjoy guided tours by museum staff at specific times, subject to prior booking. However, as mentioned above, you also have the option of booking a guided tour in Spanish for most of the permanent exhibitions with a private agency, which is an even more convenient option, as these are specialists who are there to answer your questions exclusively, in your language and on your own terms.
Please note that free tours usually require a minimum number of participants, while paid tours with private guides are subject to the conditions set by the company you choose to hire.
Details of interest
- Price: the prices for a guided tour of the British Museum are usually around £115 per group, but this varies depending on the language chosen and whether you opt for a private or semi-private tour.
- Duration: the best private tours of the British Museum in Spanish usually last around 2.5 hours.
- Conditions: semi-private tours are those that involve other customers, although groups do not usually exceed 8 people. The language chosen also influences the price, as a tour in English is always cheaper than one in Spanish.
How to get to the British Museum by public transport?
London is a city known for the quality of its public transport and how easy it is for its residents to get from one place to another relatively quickly. Therefore, you have several options for getting to the British Museum.
The museum is located at Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG, and the nearest London Underground stations are Holborn, Russell Square and Tottenham Court Road. All of them are just a couple of streets away from this famous and striking building. However, if you are not familiar with the London Underground, it is advisable to consult a practical guide on how the London Underground works.
There are also other ways to get to the British Museum, as bus routes 8, 9, 19, 25, 10, 14 and 15 other different routes on the city's public bus system stop near the museum.
If you decide to go by bike, you can park right in front of the entrance on Great Russell Street. If you rent a bike from the city's public bike-sharing system, you will have to leave it at one of the corners and then take another one when you finish your tour and want to return to your hotel.
Main exhibitions not to be missed at the British Museum
The inventory of historical items preserved at the British Museum is impressively varied and extensive. These are distributed across the five levels available to visitors, which in turn are spread over an area of 13.5 hectares.
On the lower floors, you will find rooms with exhibitions dedicated to African culture, ancient Greece and the history of the Roman Empire, as well as its dismantling and subsequent restructuring.
On the ground floor, there are exhibitions dedicated to the foundations of Western society. These are complemented by several sections focusing on the Middle East and the birth of the Islamic world, along with others on the American continent.
Exhibitions focusing on Korean culture and the world of Chinese ceramics are among the other permanent installations you can expect to find at the British Museum. However, the real star of the British Museum is the permanent exhibition of artefacts from ancient Egypt. In fact, it is the largest collection of historical artefacts from this period of Egyptian civilisation on display to the public outside the city of Cairo.
All these rooms combined can keep you entertained for a good part of your day, making it an excellent plan to escape the heat if you are looking for things to do in London during the summer.
How long do you need to see everything in the British Museum?
The time it takes to visit the British Museum depends on many factors. The first is whether you are visiting on your own or following a guided tour. With detailed explanations of the works combined with your own discoveries and the guided tour, it can take up to 3 or 4 hours.
When you visit independently, the picture changes significantly, as you will most likely decide to take your time with the objects that interest you and skip others that do not catch your eye. In these scenarios, the tour can be reduced to 2 hours, or even 1 hour and a half if you do not take any breaks or stop to look at things in detail.
However, knowing that it is a free activity, you can take advantage of it to entertain yourself to the fullest if your stay is extended for a couple of weeks. On the other hand, if it is one of your plans to see and do in London during a 7-day trip, then it is preferable to reserve an afternoon to ensure a peaceful tour.
British Museum opening hours
The British Museum is open to the public most days of the year. In fact, 24 and 25 December and 1 January are the only fixed dates when it is closed.
If you decide to visit in the morning, you must arrive by 10:00 am at the latest, as it opens at this time every day of the week. It closes at 5:30 pm every day, unless there is a special event announced through the museum's official channels. Therefore, from 6:00 pm onwards, you can spend the rest of your day discovering some of London's best-kept secrets in iconic places such as Soho and London Chinatown, both less than a kilometre away.
And if you want to have as much time as possible for your visit, on Fridays it closes at 8:30 pm, but keep in mind that they will only admit visitors until 7:00 pm.
Tips for visiting the British Museum in high season
Like any other major tourist attraction in London, the British Museum tends to get very busy during peak seasons. This means December for Christmas and New Year's Eve, as well as the entire summer. If you want to avoid the crowds of tourists, it is best to visit first thing in the morning, which means you should be at the museum doors at 10 a.m. sharp so that you can finish your tour at around 2 p.m., just as the rooms start to fill up with visitors.
Please note that there is a daily limit on the number of visitors for security reasons. It is therefore also advisable to book your visit on the museum's official website for the time you wish to go on the specific date you have set aside in your schedule.
Where to eat near the British Museum?
Bloomsbury, the neighbourhood where the museum is located, has all kinds of restaurants, ranging from pubs, which are very traditional in English nightlife and cuisine, to a wide range of culinary entertainment with Asian-style restaurants and a Mediterranean focus.
A couple of streets away is Soho, one of the epicentres of London's most eclectic and artistic nightlife and cultural scene since the second half of the last century. London's Chinatown is also located there, which, despite not having as much architectural allegory as other Western cities, does have a very solid presence of restaurants and bars typical of Asian culture. If you go a little further towards the River Thames, you will be in the Westminster area, where there are plenty of restaurants to suit all tastes.
Any of London's best tourist buses can take you on a tour of these areas once you have finished eating. This is a great idea, considering how tired you may be after walking for hours through the corridors of the British Museum.
What else is there to do near the British Museum?
The cultural diversity of the area is complemented by other iconic sites just a stone's throw from the British Museum. For example, Russell Square is right in front of the museum and is an excellent place to marvel at the Georgian architecture that still remains in many parts of the city.
King's Cross Station and St Pancras Station are other places you can visit in the area near the British Museum. You will probably recognise both places, as the former is where Harry Potter begins his journey to Hogwarts and St Pancras Station was used for the exterior shots. Check out the best Harry Potter tours in London and enjoy a magical experience.
Taking part in one of London's night tours is another great way to round off your day after visiting the British Museum. Especially as Soho and Westminster are very lively after sunset.