Educational and enjoyable - a great combination (Recommended)

Pros Free to visit, although it is nice to leave a small donation if you really enjoyed your experience. The museum is absolutely stuffed full of everything you could possibly want to know about the natural world and is a fantastic visit for children and adults alike.

The building itself is an amazing work of architecture and the gardens are lovely to sit in and relax during the summer. If you live in London and are looking for a cheap day out why not take some paper and a pencil and go and draw some of the exhibits (or the building itself?).

Excellent collection of dinosaurs and fossils and the blue whale has to be seen to be believed (even then it's quite hard to believe the scale of the thing). Children will also enjoy the earthquake exhibit in which you can experience what an earthquake might feel like. Temporary exhibitions are normally excellent. Allow a full day for visiting this museum; even then you may struggle to get round it all.

Cons Can be very busy at weekends, especially the more popular exhibits like the dinosaurs. Sometimes full of school trips. Avoid this by trying to keep visits to weekdays and hoping there's not loads of school trips there that day!

Cafes and restaurants are quite expensive, although this is to be expected given the location and the nature of the business. Coffee and a muffin isn't too expensive but the sandwiches are! You can take packed lunches to eat in the picnic areas or in the gardens.

Occasionally the gardens are closed for events like London Fashion Week.

Overcrowded and Overhyped (Not Recommended)

Pros The variety of exhibitions and information on display is very impressive, and it is pitiched at a number of levels so young and old can access it and enjoy. The fact that it is all for free is laudible, and will allow access for a number of children and families who may not otherwise get to experience this sort of environment.

Cons Despite the positives, I found it difficult to enjoy my day overall because of the overcrowding, lack of help from staff and stewarding and the fact that I was almost unable to see many of the exhibitions because of this. It was hot, smelly and people were getting irritated, particularly around the dinosaur parts. This was a shame. The eating facilities leave alot to be desired and are overpriced - however, finding somewhere to seat with a packed lunch is equally as difficult! It is a real shame, because this museum experience should be top notch!

Best thing for free (Recommended)

Pros It is free, ok some special exhibits you have to pay for but 9% of it is free.
Easy to get to by tube, car, and bus.
Is extremely entertaining for all ages from kids to seniors! We went and the whole family loved it.
Good range of food outlets and not too expensive.
Good toilet and baby changing facilities.

Cons The only bad point about it is during school holidays and weekends it gets very very busy!.

If you are a geology geek make your way directly to the red zone (Recommended)

Pros I'm not ashamed to express my love of all things geography / geology. OK I am a little but hey I need to come to terms with it. My name is Claire and I am geek! There said it!

If you also have a hidden geology geek lurking beneath an otherwise normal exterior you will love the red zone of the natural history museum.

As you walk in there is a really cute metal globe (see pic) and there are some interesting bits in the entrance. But my tip is not to follow the queue of people going up the escalator and dissapearing into a giant globe but to find your way to floor one (which the escaltor bypasses). There is an amazing colecttion there and amazing jewels in the earths treasury section.

Oh and don't miss the gift shop on the way out - I could bankrupt mysefl in there! I mean who doesn't need half a ton of purple quartz?

Cons the museum has a massive target audience and as such it has to 'dumb down' a lot - it would be nice if they had areas with a bit more information so you could learn a little bit more

Great fun and educational (Recommended)

Pros The Natural History museum is great for both kids and adults. I went with my partner and we spent the whole day walking around and learning things that we would never have known - the dinosaur section is a must although be careful about queuing up for the big T-Rex if you have small children as we saw many parents running out with children crying!!

All of the facilities are clean and tidy.

What more could you want for a free day out?!

Cons I have no negative comments as we thoroughly enjoyed our day at the museum.

A great place for families (Recommended)

Pros I would definitely recommend a visit to the Natural History Museum - especially if you can get there during the week or early at a weekend! It's a great place to learn and have fun - there are plenty of weird and wonderful things for children to enjoy and a cafe for adults to hang out when they're exhausted from the long walk at the end!

Cons Can end up queuing for a long time at the weekends
Can get hot and sweaty inside when busy

Dinosaurs galore (Recommended)

Pros How can you not like the Natural History Museum. It's full of spectacular, huge and small Dinosaurs, pre-historic mammals and it's FREE. All the most interesting characters are on stage and expect to find many more extinct species that you never imagined existed. It's very informative about the dates, living habits and environments of each beast, many visually modelled in their surroundings. Photos can be taken but with restrictions on flash. Located within walking distance to South Kensington tube station, is very easy to get to.

Cons None given.

The kids loved it (Recommended)

Pros Easy to get to (accessible by bus or train), FREE admission (which in this day and age is a rare). Great displays, kept my 3 children happy. Don't forget the comfy shoes as there is lots of walking involved.

Cons Can get extremely HOT and busy.

Best attraction in London (Recommended)

Pros The museum is first of all very large - I'd say 2 days are needed to look at everything properly. It is split in two halves - natural history and earth science. The dinosaurs are by far the best exhibit and you do not forget them in a hurry - I would happily pay £20 to see just those. As it happens the entire museum is free to everybody and they only ask for a small donation. Very educational and enjoyable by everyone. Other attractions include the "earth escalator" and the simulated earthquake.

Cons Absolutely none- the best museum I have ever been in

Its Free!! (Recommended)

Pros Great free place to take the kids, this summer holidays, can spend a whole day there, plenty of stuff to see and do, but wear comfortable shoes, as its a big place

Cons The cafe is really exspensive

Free admission to this great place (Recommended)

Pros This is another must do place when you are in London. To start with the admission is free and buried away inside the very impressive buildings that house the museum there are numerous exhibits covering all aspects of the natural world.
My kids wanted to make a beeline for the dinosaur exhibits after watching too much Jurassic Park and there visual moving displays were very realistic and really did have them squirming away behind me. The Tyrannosaurus Rex model was also very awe inspiring.
Another highlight was the mammals section where they had a life size blue whale surrounded by a hippopotamus and various elephants. Then in smaller rooms they had examples of just about all the world’s mammals and primates including a lion, polar bear and various deer and apes.
So much to see and do with no chance of anyone getting bored.

Cons None given.