I visited museum named best in Europe that's in walkable UK city — not London

Manchester Museum has been announced as 2025's European Museum of the Year, and living nearby, I knew I just had to check it out. I have been there once before, but thought I'd return to see if there was anything new, and perhaps unsurprisingly, there was. While many of the exhibits remain the same, the museum has recently launched the Decolonise! trail, which asks visitors to consider how and why many of these objects have ended up in this museum.

It also asks visitors to think about the legacy of colonialism and how it impacts the world to this day. This was a very interesting trail to follow, especially when looking at the Egyptian and Sudanese exhibits, which even include mummified remains.

Arriving at the museum on a Thursday, I figured it might not be too busy; however, I had made one huge mistake - it was half term, something I hadn't realised, not being a parent myself.

But despite being much busier than I had anticipated, it was still a quite pleasant day out.

Heading up into the exhibits, you can choose to enter the archaeology room before heading to the Egyptian and Sudanese artefacts, or you can head straight into the South Asia Gallery or the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery.

All of these rooms prove super interesting, with the archaeology room containing artefacts from all over the world, including some of Roman-era Manchester.

Manchester Museum is home to one of the UK's largest collections of artefacts from Ancient Egypt, including items used in everyday life during this era and objects used in burial and to prepare the body for the afterlife.

Items included in this collection are canopic jars, used to store the body's organs during mummification, sarcophagi, where the mummified corpse is placed, and even some mummified remains.

This museum is also the first in the UK to house a permanent gallery celebrating the experiences and contributions of the South Asian diaspora to modern Britain. Items donated by the South Asian community, including Saris, scrapbooks, and newspapers dated to the partition of India, are included in this gallery.

Also in this exhibition is a section dedicated to Doctor Furqan Ali Siddiqui, a Pakistani Doctor who tragically lost his life after he caught Covid-19 in March 2020. At the time of his death, he had been working at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

After walking through these exhibits, featuring items from Ancient times to the present, it's time to turn to animals. The Living Worlds and Nature’s Library showcase some of the museum's collections of taxidermy and animal skeletons.

The Vivarium then makes for a rather interesting change, housing snakes, frogs, and other reptiles that can be seen moving around in their habitats - this appeared to be a particularly enjoyable section for younger children.

After this excitement, head downstairs to the dinosaur and fossil collection, where you can learn about the Earth's prehistory and the creatures that called this planet home before us.

Here you'll also come face-to-face with Stan the Tyrannosaurus rex and April the Tenontosaurus, which also proved quite popular with families.

While the museum was certainly busier than I had anticipated, I still had a wonderful time visiting and seeing the huge variety of objects on display.

Whatever you're interested in, there will likely be something for you to see at this free-to-visit museum.

Having visited plenty of museums over the years, I can see why this one was picked as the European Museum of the Year, with its collections spanning so much of the Earth's history, and with items from all over the world, meaning you'll likely find something new whether it's your first or fiftieth visit.