British Museum Guided Tour

London, England

From $71.38

Select Date and Travelers

up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

2 hours
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

Explore our promoted experiences

London, England

The Changing of the Guard - Exclusive Guided Walking Tour

from $80.32

Price varies by group size

London, England

Classic London Tour

from $953.08

Per group

London, England

Bespoke Private Journey from London to Windsor to Stonehenge

from $889.54

Per group

Viator earns higher commissions on experiences featured here

Overview

With a collection of at least 8,000,000 objects, and 80,000 on public display, you could spend weeks exploring the British Museum—and still not see it all. Skip the long lines and follow your guide on a whistle-stop tour of the museum’s key highlights: relics of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and more. After your tour, explore independently for as long as you like.

Enjoy fast-track entry to the British Museum, established in 1753
Discover highlights of the museum’s vast collection with a guide
See artifacts from Egyptian mummies to the Parthenon sculptures
Admire the Great Court’s glass roof, an architectural feat in its own right

What's Included

Local expert guide

Food and drinks
Hotel pickup and drop-off

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

The British Museum
Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG, UK
Meet your guide at the main entrance (Russell street), after the security check, on the stairs Please arrive at least 15 mins before for check in as guide will leave on time. Latecomers will be considered as no show

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

The British Museum

2 hours • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Wheelchair accessible
You booked a skip the line guided tour at the British Museum, the entrance is free
Stroller accessible

Near public transportation
Transportation is wheelchair accessible
Most travelers can participate
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 25 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

4.0

370 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

We perform checks on reviews

Showing 1-10 of 370 reviews

Horrible experience

Donald_j, May 2024

Never could find the tour. The directions for getting in the museum led us to believe our Viator ticket got us in. But we had to go to the back of a very long line to get tickets and missed the tour even though we started a half hour early! We are hoping our future Viator tours don’t have problems. We spent a lot of money with them!

Highly recommend the British museum tour

Isabel_K, May 2024

My husband and I took a tour to the British Museum. We had an excellent guide named Denise. She made history come alive. She was very enthusiastic and knew her way around the museum. We were very lucky to have her as our guide. Highly recommend this tour!

History Guide - Joe

abdullahali21, May 2024

Joe was absolutely brilliant. If you are into history and would like to learn more about the exhibits, I strongly do recommend this.

Extraordinary British Museum Tour

Georgia_N, May 2024

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable & made our visit so enjoyable focusing on the most important exhibits. He was careful to avoid congested areas returning when they weren't so crowded. We learned so much about British history.

Not impressed with the wisdom of covering small section of the museum; could have covered much more sections.

George_M, May 2024

The guide was very sincere young man and is knowledgeable on the topics but tour covers only two old civilizations; a small fraction of the British museum holds. Waste of time and money!!

Great experience

Kathryn_D, Apr 2024

Denise our tour guide was fun and energetic. Very knowledgeable and took us to the main attractions in the museum and then left us with helpful information to explore on our own after the tour was over.

Great time during layover.

Sham_P, Apr 2024

Denise was great. I learned so much and had a great time. We did the tour as we had a 12 hour layover in London. Highly recommend.

Great tour

Maria_E, Apr 2024

Paul was a great tour guide, very knowledgeable and pleasant..wonderful time! Would recommend strongly

British Museum

Hal_P, Apr 2024

The guide had a strong Italian accent and was difficult to understand. We are from the United States and are not use to foreign accents. Very knowledgeable but unfortunately we missed a lot of the details she provided.

Engaging Experience

Madan_S, Apr 2024

Energetic guide, and good engaging explanation of greek, egyptian sculptures and assyrian reliefs. The pace of the tour was a little fast but it was alright as most of the group were able to keep up.

Do not take this “tour”

Amy_M, Mar 2024

There was no tour. We followed tour instructions for the meet up, and no tour guide met us. Very disappointed.

Great to get the highlights of this mega museum.

Tom_G, Mar 2024

This is really the best way to tour this gargantuan museum. The tour guide was not only extremely knowledgeable, he was extraordinarily enthusiastic, and clearly passionate about what he was talking about. It was really great to go into a large rum and for him to zero, in on a particular item while watching others wander aimlessly, overwhelmed by so much of what was there to see.

british museum

Christine_S, Mar 2024

The museum is very extensive, and without researching ahead of time, it would’ve been incredibly difficult to go through. Our guide, Serena, was great at targeting the highlights of the exhibitions, as well as providing a lot of background history. My only warning would be to make sure that you go much earlier than the set time to stand in the queue. I did not read the instructions carefully, and this is not a ‘skip the line’ tour.

Fantastic Guided Experience

Lisa_B, Feb 2024

Our guide was so knowledgeable, and she took the time to explain everything to us when we wanted to go a different directions.

Highly Recommended!

Steve_M, Jan 2024

Joe was a fantastic guide! Very knowledgeable and very friendly, he answered all of our questions with context and detail. This was a great tour, highly recommended!

Joe is a superb guide and storyteller

Spencer_C, Jan 2024

I highly recommend booking Joe as a guide to make the most of your museum visit. He was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. I learned so much in such a short time about ancient civilizations that I hadn't known before. A true historian and storyteller, Joe brought the events to life and made the museum experience so much more valuable.

Efficient tour through essential highlights

Christian_O, Jan 2024

Well prepared guide kept the tour informational, interesting. going, together, and on time. He communicated well about both logistics before and content during. Thank you!!

Great tour

Tracy_S, Jan 2024

Joe was interesting and informative. Having the headsets was fantastic. I'm so glad we did this tour and think we got more out of our visit because of the tour.

A-

Brandon_P, Jan 2024

Great experience. The directions on how to meet up with our tour guide could be more detailed- specifically stating that we needed to get in the queue for the museum.

Couldn’t find tour guide

William_G, Jan 2024

Couldn’t find tour guide. Very vague instructions for meeting point. Asked for help. Couldn’t be found.

...