Great Museums – Going Places

Here is a list of great museums I’ve visited around the world. I’ll continue adding to this list as long as I keep traveling.

Not all of these are great by objective standards. But they are all museums I’m glad I visited. I definitely recommend them (some more enthusiastically than others) if you ever find yourself in the cities where they are located.

The ones I consider truly great are in boldface.

You might also wish to check out my favorite “other” museums, smaller or less well-known museums I’ve been to. *All are listed below with an asterisk.

And I also have a page of favorite art works. All are located in museums on this list.

Note that I am not including palaces, castles, ancient ruins, or monuments. Nor churches, cathedrals, mosques, or temples. Nor open-air recreations. Just museums. But I am including some historical places that have been turned into museums. I know there is a vague distinction, but in my mind I’m clear about what it is.

Also, I’ve divided the list into art museums and other museums. But some museums are hybrids. And many museums of history or anthropology include works of art. So I’ve made what amounts to a random decision about how to characterize them.

Art Museums

Other Museums

North America

Alaska State Museum (Juneau)
Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site (Baddeck, Nova Scotia)
Anchorage Museum
Casa Museo Ex-Hacienda San Gabriel de Barrera (Guanajuato)
High Desert Museum (Bend, Oregon)
Mummies Mu seum (Guanajuato)
Museo de la Independencia Nacional (Dolores Hidalgo)
*Museo de la Mola (Panama City)
Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca
Museo Leonora Carrington (Xilitla)
Museo Toma de Zacatecas
Museum of Anthropology (Vancouver)
Museum of History and Industry (Seattle)
National Quilt Museum (Paducah, Kentucky)
Smithsonian (Washington)

South America

Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro)
Choco Museo (Cusco)
Jewish Museum (Buenos Aires)
Museo Casa de la Memoria (Medellín)
*Museo de Artesanías Mindalae (Quito)
Museo del Oro (Bogotá)
Museo Larco (Lima)

Asia

Angkor National Museum (Siem Reap)
Gandhi Smiriti (Delhi)
Hỏa Lò Prison (Hanoi)
*Museum of Miniature Books (Baku)
Patan Museum (Kathmandu)
Royal Textile Academy of Bhutan (Thimphu)
Sulabh International Museum of Toilets (Delhi)
Tibet Museum (Dharamsala)
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (Phnom Penh)
Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (Hanoi)

Africa

Egyptian Museum (Cairo)
Kigali Genocide Memorial

Oceania

Museum of Sydney

Europe

Acropolis Museum (Athens)
Anne Frank House (Amsterdam)
Archaeological Museum of Rethymno
Capitoline Museums (Rome)
Casa de Sefarad (Córdoba)
Centro Interpretativo do Tapete de Arraiolos (Portugal)
Dar Jamai, National Museum of Music (Meknes)
European Solidarity Center (Gdansk)
Fryderyk Chopin Museum (Warsaw)
*Georgian House (Edinburgh)
Gernika Peace Museum
*Gladstone’s Land (Edinburgh)
Glen Coe Folk Museum
Gustavianum (Uppsala)
Heraklion Archaeological Museum
Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia (Skopje)
House of Leaves (Tirana)
Huis van Alijn (Ghent)
Jewish Museum (Berlin)
Jewish Museum (Rome)
Joseph Stalin Museum (Gori, Georgiai)
*Kobarid Museum (Slovenia)
Machado de Castro National Museum (Coimbra)
Maritime Museum of Crete (Chania)
*Mucha Museum (Prague)
Musée Basque (Bayonne)
Museo Cuevas del Sacromonte (Granada)
Museo de la Ciudad (Carmona)
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Siena)
Museo Sefardi (Toledo)
Museo Vivo de al-Andalus (Córdoba)
*Museum of Apiculture (Radovljica, Slovenia)
Museum of Byzantine Culture (Thessaloniki)
Museum of the History of Toruń
Museum of Jewish History (Girona)
*Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai (Vergina, Greece)
Musical Instruments Museum (Brussels)
Nobel Prize Museum (Stockholm)
Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory (Krakow)
Pergamon (Berlin)
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Warsaw)
Quincentennial Foundation Museum Of Turkish Jews (Istanbul)
St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art (Glasgow)
Sarajevo Museum
*Tenement House (Glasgow)
Topography of Terror (Berlin)
*Tunnel Museum (Sarajevo)
Vasa Museum (Stockholm)
Verdant Works Museum (Dundee)
Victoria & Albert Museum (London)
V&A Dundee
Viking Ship Museum (Roskilde)
White Rabbit (Barcelona)