Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum is the world's leading museum of art, design and performance, and it is free. Founded in the wake of the Great Exhibition of 1851, with Prince Albert's encouragement, to inspire British designers and manufacturers, it settled in South Kensington and grew into a palace of decorative arts behind Aston Webb's grand facade on Cromwell Road. The collection spans roughly five thousand years and every continent: sculpture, furniture, ceramics, glass, silver, jewellery, textiles, fashion, photography, theatre and architecture. That breadth is both the joy and the challenge, because the V&A is impossible to see in one visit, and the best approach is to choose a handful of galleries and wander between them. The essentials are clear. The Cast Courts hold Victorian plaster casts of European monuments at full scale, including Trajan's Column, cut in two to fit, and Michelangelo's David, in two soaring halls. The Raphael Cartoons, full-size designs for Sistine Chapel tapestries lent from the Royal Collection, are among the greatest Renaissance works in Britain. The Jewellery gallery glitters from ancient gold to modern pieces. The British Galleries trace design from the Tudors to the Victorians, the Medieval and Renaissance galleries are superb, and the photography centre is one of the best anywhere. The Morris, Gamble and Poynter rooms, the original refreshment rooms and among the first museum cafes in the world, are still the place for tea. General admission needs no booking, major exhibitions are charged and often sell out, and the museum stays open into the evening on Fridays. Some galleries are closed for long-term redevelopment, including fashion, so check before you go if a particular room matters to you.

How to plan a visit: enter from Cromwell Road under the great dome, where the Chihuly glass chandelier hangs above the information desk, pick up a map and choose a route. A first-timer's loop of about three hours might take in the Medieval and Renaissance galleries, the Cast Courts, the Raphael Cartoons, the Jewellery gallery and a section of the British Galleries, with a break in the courtyard garden or the historic cafe rooms. Families should look out for the trails and activity backpacks the museum offers, and the courtyard is a good place to let children run. Free tours and talks run regularly and are an excellent way into a museum this large.

Know what is changing. The V&A is constantly renewing itself, and several galleries are closed for long-term redevelopment, with the fashion gallery not expected back for some time and the South Asia galleries also under refurbishment. Temporary exhibitions are the museum's other great strength, from fashion designers to video games, and they are ticketed, so book ahead for the big ones. In east London, the museum's newer V&A East Storehouse in the Olympic Park lets visitors see deep into the reserve collections, which makes an unusual second V&A experience for return visitors.

Fitting it into a trip: the V&A sits on Exhibition Road beside the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, all three free, linked to South Kensington station by a pedestrian tunnel. Many visitors try to do two in one day, which is ambitious; one major museum per half day is a more realistic pace. The Friday late opening is the best-kept secret: quieter galleries in the evening, and sometimes special events with music and bars. Pair it with Kensington Palace and Hyde Park to the north, or with the boutiques and restaurants of Brompton Road and Chelsea. For anyone who loves beautiful things, the V&A is the most rewarding free museum in London, and arguably in the world.