Natural History at opening, before the queue forms under the whale. Then pick one of the V&A or the Science Museum — doing both is how you end up remembering neither. The V&A's cast courts are the single best room of the three. Walk out north through Kensington Gardens; in summer, Proms standing tickets go on sale at the Albert Hall the same morning.
South Kensington
~7hAlbert's cultural quarter, still free
- Natural History Museum
Cathedral of bones under Hintze Hall's blue whale — free, and heaving by 11h.
- Victoria and Albert Museum
A thousand years of making — cast courts and the jewellery rooms are the ones to keep.
- Science Museum
Apollo capsules and steam engines — the quietest of the three big free museums.
- Royal Albert Hall
The great oval — standing Proms tickets go on the door each morning in summer.
- Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens
Serpentine swimmers, deckchairs and two galleries — cross it rather than skirt it.