Getting Admission Ticket to the British Museum on the Same Day of Our Visit Without Prior Reservation

There are a lot of things to see and places to visit in London. With only five days in this city, we had a long list of to do and to see things therefore the British Museum was not on our itinernary. But we changed our minds at the last minute and decided that we would like to visit the Museum before our UK departure.

When we went to the British Museum website, we were happy to learn that there would be no charge for admission to the Museum! Wow, how good was this? Everywere we visited in Canada/ US, there would always be charges and we hardly get anything free. Though admission to the Museum was free, one must make an online reservation and obtain a ticket. But when we went to make a reservation, we were told there were no more tickets available for the day we wanted.

Never one to give up so easily, we went to the British Museum anyway hoping to line up for some tickets reserved for last minute visitors like us. A long way before we reached the main entrance of the Museum, we saw a long line of people going around the block trying to gain admission to the Museum. The line was so long that I estimated it would be at least a 2 hour wait therefore I went up to the very front of the entrance to make sure that we were in the correct lineup. There was a couple of security guards there. I asked him the question if I was in the right line. To which he replied, ' This is the line for people with ticket reservations. Those without reservation, you need to go to the back door and line up there.'

Upon hearing this instruction, I and a few others hurried to get to our friends/ family waiting inline and askesd them to come with us to wait at the new location for visitors without prior reservations. We went to the back door of the Museum located at the side of the building. There were people waiting but this line was much shorter than the one for people with resevations!!! We were delighted as we waitied for about 20 minutes and were admitted to the Museum!!!

A lesson learned - Do not let people tell you that there are no tickets available for a certain attraction in your travel. There are always some reserved tickets for last minute visitors. We only need to be a little more resourceful and not be afraid to ask people about it!

Years ago when I was in San Fransisco, I was told the same thing about visiting the Alcartz. 'There was no tickets and that you needed to reserve weeks in advance.' I got the tickets for the next day. If you are interested to see how I got my last minute tickets to the Alcartz without prior reservation, please folow this link and read about it.

https://rtam1206.blogspot.com/2013/03/i-got-ticket-to-alcatraz-at-last-minute.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RT, British Musuem, London, UK