The standard against which all omnibus museums have been measured ever since it opened in 1753, the British Museum is undoubtedly worth a trip to London in itself. Personally, I don't consider any sojourn to the British capital worthy of the title without poking my head in here – however briefly – and you could happily spend years inside without scratching the surface of its collections. Unfortunately, time is brief, and with 15,000 visitors a day seeking to do the same, it's important to plan your visit (or visits) strategically:

Plan! The British Museum is immense, and even a cursory stroll through the galleries takes a day. Consequently, decide beforehand what you absolutely must see – perhaps choosing its highlights or deciding to focus on a particular collection. Remember that it's not so much one museum as many all organized according to the same principles of completeness and curation by specialist scholars. Be sure to pick up a free map and note that while the "classical tour" is expensive, the volunteer-run Eye-opener Tours covering individual sections of the museum are free.

Visit the most popular sections on a weekday afternoon or weekend morning: School groups tend to visit during the morning on weekdays, while weekend afternoons tend to be busier than the mornings and most people head for the highlights – the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern collections are the most popular. In general, the large tours avoid the side galleries, so if you're stuck in a crowd, these rooms (which tend to also have the more informative labeling) are the best respites within these collections. The new Sainsbury Africa Galleries and Asian Collections are only slightly less impressive (and heavily visited.)

At peak times, head for less famous collections: Although they can't match Mediterranean treasures, such as the Elgin Marbles and Rosetta Stone (nothing can really!), the museum's little-visited Islamic collection is one of the best of their kind in the west, and its soaring displays of Native American life quite interestingly fuse modern and pre-Columbian artifacts. The museum's most underrated permanent exhibition is the new Enlightenment Gallery housed in the King's Library, which provides a sense of the intellectual undercurrents behind the museum's creation (its collections also spawned what are now the British Library and Natural History Museum) and how it originally looked.

Don't forget to appreciate where you are. Without its collections, the British Museum's buildings, in the historic intellectual quarter of Bloomsbury, would be intriguing in their own right as paragons of 19th-century architecture. The present quadrangular outer building, designed by Sir Robert Smirke, was completed in 1852 and has been significantly expanded since. The round Reading Room in its central courtyard, by his brother Sidney, was completed in 1857. After the British Library was established in 1998, the courtyard was covered over by Lord Norman Foster to form Europe's largest public square. It's perhaps the most attractive juxtaposition of historical and contemporary architecture in a city full of such combinations.

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

This is the best museum I have ever been in. The history and sheer number of objects here is incredible. The pieces here were collected/pillaged from all corners of the world when England was in control of many of the world's trade routes. These include most of the pieces that were in the Acropolis in Athens, mummies and statues from ancient Egypt, and art from all over The Middle East.

I do not have enough space to describe the history and significant nature of some of the pieces, but I will mention that the Lindow Bog Man, Rosetta Stone, and part of the Sphinx's beard are all on display here. If you like history and love artistic pieces from all over the world, this is a place to spend a couple of days. Since the museum is free, it is well worth the time.

The British Museum is the treasure chest of the world, with Sumer statues, the Mausoleum of Halikarnassus, mummies of Egypt, and treasures from Ephesus. It is all there. Almost anywhere historical where I have been, I have heard that some pieces were not present because they were being exhibited in the British Museum.

It is located a huge, luminous building in Bloomsbury. It may take a few days to see it all. But the museum management makes life easy for the visitor by closing some of the halls when they do not feel like exhibiting that day, with the excuse that they do not have enough personnel. That’s surprising, because none of the souvenir shops or countless restaurants are closed during museum hours due to lack of personnel.

The museum does not follow a chronological order, or any order at all. For example, you can see Greek statues on main floor, first floor, and lower floor. It is like this all over the museum. I found this very inconvenient and incorrect.

You can see the collection on the Internet before you leave, and once you are there, you know where to visit. For making your own guided tours, see www. Britishmuseum.ac.uk

There are so many wonderful museums in London, so you really need to narrow it down when travelling with kids in order to make it enjoyable for everyone. We chose the British Museum, or as one of our friend's son's pointed out, "The Museum of Stolen Artifacts."

The best way to see this museum with kids is to decide ahead of time what you want to see, go straight to see it, enjoy it, and leave. The museum has a great website, so you can check out what you're interested in and be prepared. (We had five kids with us, ages 14, 13, 12, 11, and 10--not all ours!) We all enjoyed the Egyptian wing with the mummies and the Rosetta Stone. We also enjoyed seeing the Elgin Marbles, as we knew were later travelling to Athens. It was all fascinating, andyet we were in and out within an hour or so. We knew we had many more museum visits ahead in our travels, so we wanted to make it meaningful and enjoyable for the kids.

Be sure to also check out the beautiful library in the center courtyard. We also enjoyed taking the Tube to Covent Garden and then walking to the British Museum from there. There were lots of places to eat, and it was great people-watching. We did get a bit lost, so it's good to have a city map with you.

I visit the British Museum on just about every trip to London. It’s so close to the bed and breakfast I stay at, so it’s great when I don’t have a lot of time, but need something to do. Plus, it’s too big to see in one visit, so I’ve been able to break up the exhibits and see small portions each time I go. I’ve retained more of what I’ve seen since I haven’t had to cram a whole lot into a single visit.

Their Egyptian exhibits are among the best in the world, and the Greek and Asian rooms are fabulous as well. Actually, there isn’t really anything to complain about, unless you just don’t like museums! Some highlights from my recent visits are Cleopatra’s mummy, the Portland Vase, the Chessman pieces, and of course, you can’t leave out the Rosetta Stone. It’s worthwhile to visit their website before you go at The British Museum, where you can read about the permanent exhibits, find out what’s coming, and print out floor maps to help plan your time.