The British Museum has been named as the best rated museum in the UK in the Travellers’ Choice awards for Museums, announced today by the travel and booking site, TripAdvisor.

The London museum which is dedicated to human history, art and culture and boasts some 8 million works including collections from Ancient Egypt, the Greek Bronze Age and the Roman Empire, is also named fourth best rated museum in Europe and eighth in the world in this year’s awards, which honour top travel spots worldwide based on the millions of valuable reviews and opinions from TripAdvisor travellers. Award winners were determined using an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for museums worldwide, gathered over a 12-month period.

Joanna Mackle, Deputy Director, the British Museum said, “The British Museum is delighted to be number one in the TripAdvisor Traveller’s choice awards in the UK and to appear in the Europe and World lists. The Museum’s world collection has always been a draw for visitors but it is wonderful that visitors enjoy and rate their visits so highly.  TripAdvisor is such an important tool for us to monitor visitor satisfaction and customer service so this user affirmation is particularly welcome”.

London boasts most winning museums in UK

London is also home to the UK’s second best rated museum, which is also the seventh best rated in Europe and 12^th in the world, the Victoria and Albert Museum. Free to all visitors, the museum houses a permanent collection of over 2.3 million objects from architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography and more. For visitors wanting an in-depth guided tour of the museum, the Guided Highlights Tour of the V&A, bookable on TripAdvisor, offers a small group tour, led by a Blue Badge certified guide, around all of the most important areas of the museum with a detailed explanation of pieces on display.

In fact, the capital boasts five winners in the top 10, making it the UK’s top winning city. The National Gallery, Natural History Museum, and Churchill War Rooms take third, fourth and fifth place in the UK respectively.

UK best in Europe for museums

It’s not just London performing well in this year’s awards as seven of Europe’s top 25 museums are located in the UK, making the UK home to more winning museums than any other European country. The aforementioned British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum take fourth and seventh place respectively. The National Gallery, Natural History Museum and Churchill War Rooms come in 13^th, 14^th and 15^th respectively, while York’s National Railway Museum bags 20^th place and the National Museum of Scotland is named 24^th.

A newcomer to the UK top ten this year is York Castle Museum which takes tenth place in the UK. Standing on the site of the former York Castle, the York Castle Museum is housed in a former debtors’ prison and an adjoining former women’s prison and houses a collection which showcases social history in the county of Yorkshire. The addition of York Castle Museum into the UK top ten makes York the second best represented city after London, with two winning museums – the other being the National Railway Museum.

Other UK winners this year include Titanic Belfast and Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum which take eighth and ninth place in the UK respectively.

“Once again the UK comes out on top with more winning museums than any other European country and the free admission that most of them offer make a visit to one of the UK’s top ten museums a great value day out. However, with great popularity comes great visitor numbers so savvy travellers planning on visiting the winners would do well to book a tour ahead of time on TripAdvisor, since many tour options allow visitors to skip the queues at the entrance,” commented TripAdvisor spokesperson, Hayley Coleman.

New York’s Met takes top spot again 

Taking the coveted title of world’s number one museum for the second year running is The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Since 1870, this iconic institution on Manhattan’s Upper East Side has strived to ‘connect people to creativity, knowledge and ideas’ through art. Visitors can view the most extensive display of 17th century Dutch art in the Western Hemisphere, with masterpieces by Frans Hals, Rembrandt and Vermeer. For travellers who fancy visiting The Met in super VIP style, the EmptyMet Tour at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, bookable on TripAdvisor from £96, is a 1.5 hour exclusive guided tour of the museum before it opens to the public.

Top 10 Travellers’ Choice Museums in the UK

1. British Museum, London - Admission cost: Free[i]
   Top-rated activity/tour to book: British Museum Highlights Tour including the Rosetta Stone from £23 per person

2. Victoria and Albert Museum, London - Admission cost: Free
   Top-rated activity/tour to book: Guided Highlights Tour of the Victoria and Albert Museum from £34 per person

3. National Gallery, London - Admission cost: Free
   Top-rated activity/tour to book: National Gallery Highlights Tour in London from £25 per person

4. Natural History Museum, London - Admission cost: Free

5. Churchill War Rooms, London - Admission cost: Adult £18.00, Child (5-15 years) £9.00
   Top-rated activity/tour to book: Historical London Walking Tour including Westminster and Entry to Churchill War Rooms from £42 per person

6. National Railway Museum, York - Admission cost: Free
   Top-rated activity/tour to book: The York Pass from £38 per person

7. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh - Admission cost: Free
   Top-rated activity/tour to book: Celts Exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland from £9 per person

8. Titanic Belfast, Belfast - Admission cost: Adult £15.50, Child (5-15 years) £7.25
   Top-rated activity/tour to book: Titanic Belfast Entrance Ticket: Titanic Visitor Experience Including SS Nomadic from £17.50 per person

9. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow - Admission cost: Free
   Top-rated activity/tour to book: Glasgow City Highlights Tour from £18 per person

10. York Castle Museum, York – Admission cost: Adult £10.00, Child Free (with a paying adult)
    Top-rated activity/tour to book: The York Pass from £38 per person

Top 10 Travellers’ Choice Museums in the world

1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York

2. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

3. State Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace, St Petersburg, Russia

4. Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

5. National Museum of Anthropology (Museo Nacional de Antropologia), Mexico City, Mexico

6. The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, New York, United States

7. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

8. British Museum, London, United Kingdom

9. The Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece

10. Vasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

Top 10 Travellers’ Choice Museums in Europe

1. State Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace, St Petersburg, Russia

2. Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

3. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

4. British Museum, London, United Kingdom

5. The Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece

6. Vasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

7. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom

8. Musee du Louvre, Paris, France

9. The Rijksmuseum (National Museum), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

10. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

For the complete list of winners from the 2016 Travellers’ Choice Museums, as well as reviews and candid traveller photos, go to: www.tripadvisor.ie/TravellersChoice-Museums.

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor^® is the world’s largest travel site*, enabling travellers to unleash the full potential of every trip. TripAdvisor offers advice from millions of travellers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools that check hundreds of websites to find hotel prices. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, reaching 350 million average monthly unique visitors**, and reached 385 million reviews and opinions covering 6.6 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions. The sites operate in 48 markets worldwide. TripAdvisor: Know better, Book better and Go better.

TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP), through its subsidiaries, manages and operates websites under 24 other travel media brands:

www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.citymaps.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com,www.flipkey.com, www.thefork.com (including www.lafourchette.com, www.eltenedor.com, www.iens.nl and www.dimmi.com.au),www.gateguru.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.housetrip.com, www.independenttraveler.com,www.jetsetter.com, www.niumba.com, www.onetime.com, www.oyster.com, www.seatguru.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.tingo.com,www.travelpod.com, www.tripbod.com, www.vacationhomerentals.com, www.viator.com, and www.virtualtourist.com.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, worldwide, May 2016

**Source: TripAdvisor log files, Q2 2016