The Royal Ontario Museum

The ROM is the largest museum in Canada and one of the few anywhere that puts world cultures and natural history under one roof, with around eighteen million objects and specimens. Its strengths are unusual for a North American museum: a Chinese collection built up over decades that includes a full Ming tomb complex and temple wall paintings, a substantial Egyptian and Nubian holding, and a dinosaur gallery drawing on Alberta's badlands. In 2007 Daniel Libeskind added the Crystal, a set of interlocking prismatic volumes that cuts through the original 1914 building and out over the pavement; it is either the best or worst thing to happen to the museum depending on who you ask.

What you actually see

• The Chinese galleries - a Ming tomb, temple paintings and sculpture.
• The dinosaur gallery - Alberta badlands specimens in the Crystal.
• Egypt and Nubia - one of the stronger collections in North America.
• The Crystal - Libeskind's prismatic addition cutting into the old building.

When to go

Year-round, and an obvious choice on a cold or wet day. Weekday mornings are quietest; weekends and school holidays are busy in the dinosaur and bat cave galleries. Some evenings run adult-only after-hours events. Major touring exhibitions carry a separate ticket.

Honest expectations

The Crystal's sloping walls and awkward corners make some galleries genuinely hard to lay out, and several collections are shown more tightly than they deserve. It is large enough that trying to see everything in one visit is a mistake. Ticket prices are high, and special exhibitions cost extra on top.

Nearby

Yorkville and the university are next door; the Art Gallery of Ontario is south.