Review: A guided tour of The British Museum with Context Travel

Last week I returned home with 900 words of notes on Ancient Egypt, the Assyrian Empire, Ancient Greece and much more after an enjoyable morning out. I had been invited to review a tour with Context Travel, and a friend and I had gone to The British Museum to experience the Context Travel three-hour British Museum crash course.

I seldom take a day out to explore London attractions during the week (unless visiting the roaring T-Rex at the Natural History Museum counts), but after my Context Travel tour I felt energised and excited, wondering why I don’t do these types of things more often.

We’re so lucky to have world class attractions on the doorstep and many are even free to visit. The problem is, however, that it can feel overwhelming and that’s why I felt so lucky to be on the Context Travel semi-private tour, which was for a small group of up to six adults and provided us with an insightful introduction to many of the museum’s highlights.

The sheer size of the British Museum means this attraction was extremely useful to experience with a guide. In fact, it’s a museum I’ve only been to once before, and I had found it difficult to get much out of it that time, as I wasn’t well enough prepared.

This time no preparations were needed. Our extremely knowledgeable guide Alan met us outside, escorted us through the fast line and introduced us to the history of the museum before taking us inside.

After entering we turned right into the old library and learnt about the British treasure hunters, who had brought interesting artefacts and art back to Britain. In this gallery, we also explored a replica of the Rosetta Stone, which I think would be ideal to show children too before seeing the real one, as this one is possible to touch and see up close.

Afterwards we went to see the real Rosetta Stone, which was surrounded by tourists despite it being a Monday morning outside school holidays. Alan could still easily take us around the exhibit, and during the next part of the tour we were introduced to different civilisations, first Ancient Egypt and then the Assyrian Empire. We had a short tea break where Alan gave us an introduction to the next section and afterwards we went to the Parthenon galleries.

Throughout the tour, Alan answered questions from the six of us, pulled out additional pictures on his iPad and generally made the stories behind the display come alive, so the time seemed to pass too quickly.

It struck me that going on a tour was a great way to get the most out of a museum, and Context Travel specialises in tours for travellers who want to learn and offers a number of semi-private and private tours in both London and other cities around the world.

On the tube home, I felt inspired and eager to sort out my notes and prepare the family for a museum visit. As soon as we have a weekend free with the kids, we will be making our way back to The British Museum!

Tags: Attractions, British Museum, Context Travel, Guided tour, London, Museums, Review