Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)

The Royal Ontario Museum, usually called the ROM, stands at the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road in Toronto, beside the University of Toronto campus. It is Canada's largest museum of natural history and world cultures, and one of the largest in North America. The institution was founded in 1912 and opened to the public in 1914, and its collections today run into the millions of objects, from fossils and minerals to ancient sculpture, decorative arts and textiles.

The building is part of the draw. The original heritage wings, with their Romanesque-style entrance and detailed brickwork, were joined in 2007 by the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, an angular addition of glass and aluminium designed by Daniel Libeskind. The Crystal juts out over the sidewalk at odd angles, and inside it creates sloping walls and unusual gallery shapes. The contrast between old and new is deliberate, and the two halves are best appreciated together, ideally with a walk around the outside.

Inside, the galleries are organised around natural history and human culture. The dinosaur hall, with its mounted skeletons, is a favourite with children, and the Egyptian collection includes mummies and funerary objects. There are galleries devoted to ancient Greece and Rome, to the arts of Japan and China, and to the Indigenous peoples of Canada, as well as displays of minerals, gems and Canadian wildlife. The bat cave diorama is a long-standing attraction, and special exhibitions rotate through the Crystal's upper spaces.

The ROM is large enough that a first visit can feel overwhelming. A practical approach is to pick three or four galleries and treat the rest as a bonus. Families usually concentrate on the dinosaurs, the Egyptian rooms and the mineral displays, while those interested in design head for the Crystal and the decorative arts. The museum also runs lectures, family programs and evening events, and the shop and cafe are useful for a break halfway through.

Location is a strength. Museum subway station is next door, and the museum sits within walking distance of Yorkville's shops and restaurants, the Gardiner Museum and the Bata Shoe Museum. On a day when the weather is poor, it is among the easiest places in the city to fill several hours indoors. Allow at least half a day, and consider arriving shortly after opening on weekends, when school groups and families are most numerous. Visitors of all ages find something here, and the range of its collections means there is usually something unexpected to discover.