Very best of London's free heritage

London is often lambasted for being outrageously expensive to visit. Yet nowadays it has more free first-class attractions than any other capital in the world.

In the Nineties, the Government pledged money to our major museums and galleries to enable them to scrap admission charges. From the end of last year it hasn't cost a penny to visit the three big South Kensington museums, the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth or Greenwich's National Maritime Museum.

A couple visiting all five of these amazing treasure troves this spring, instead of last autumn, would save £77.90 on entrance fees (charges for children had already been abolished). Another big boon of free admission is that you could dip in to all three South Ken museums in the same day (they are yards apart) and focus on their best bits.

But doing away with entrance fees does have a down side: visitor numbers have rocketed. Comparing February 2002 against February 2001, they've trebled at the V&A, and nearly doubled at the Natural History and Science museums.

Prepare for the worst at weekends, when the museums are busiest. The best way of avoiding the crowds is to hit the most popular galleries first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Crowds are generally not a problem at the Imperial War Museum or the National Maritime Museum. But the latter's Royal Observatory is small and in the middle of Greenwich park, so can be packed on sunny weekends.

V&A (020 7942 2000, www.vam.ac.uk)

Former admission fee: £5 What's new: The British Galleries. Opened last November, this museum within a museum providesa chronological survey of British design from Tudor to Victorian times. The objects - don't miss the Great Bed of Ware, a vast four-poster mentioned in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night - are sensational, and their presentation is superb. For example, by touching a screen you can take a close-up tour of the Ware bed to see the graffiti and wax seals left by past residents.

cience Museum (0870 870 4771, www.sciencemuseum.org.uk)

Former admission fee: £7.95 What's new: The Wellcome Wing. Opened in 2000, it shows what's going on in science and technology today. With a vast blue glass wall as a backdrop, the wing looks thrilling, and some of the hands-on exhibits - one reveals what your face might look like when you're older - are fun. However, you need to pay to see the highlight, the IMAX films.

Natural History Museum (020 7942 5000, www.nhm.ac.uk)

Former admission fee: £9 What's new: The computer-animated tyrannosaurus and the child-oriented Investigate centre, where you can study objects with computers and microscopes. Don't bother paying to see the mediocre Predators exhibition.

Imperial War Museum (020 7416 5000, www.iwm.org.uk)

Former admission fee: £6.50 What's new: The permanent Holocaust Exhibition, opened in 2000, is gruesome, powerful and holds no punches - not recommended for children under 14. Temporary exhibitions include The Spanish Civil War (to April 28) and The Trench (to October 27), tied in with the BBC series on life in a First World War trench.

National Maritime Museum (020 8858 4422, www.nmm.ac.uk)

Former admission fee: £10.50 for the museum, the Queen's House and Royal Observatory What's new: Inigo Jones's Queen's House - dubbed England's first classical Renaissance building - reopened in 2001 as an art gallery, showing some of the museum's thousands of paintings.

Other free museums

Admission charges have also been dropped at The Museum of London (www.museumoflondon.org.uk,020 7600 3699) and the Theatre Museum (www.theatremuseum.org,0207 943 4700).

Several other major institutions, such as the British Museum and the National Gallery have, of course, always been free.

Cut-price hotels in the capital

You don't have to live in London to make the most of its free museums. Many hotels offer late-availability deals - especially through the Internet.

Www.laterooms.com is simple to use, with discounted rates - per room, including taxes - given for each night for the week ahead. Alongside is the full rate, so you can calculate the saving. In most cases, once you've found your deal you phone the hotel direct, giving a special reference number.

There are discounts for hundreds of London hotels. One of the best I found was at the all-suite Dolphin Square Hotel, just along from the Houses of Parliament. Last weekend, a two-bedroom suite with lounge and kitchen was £85 per night, down from £240. www.lastminute.com also offers great deals at dozens of London hotels. But the saving is expressed in percentages and therefore not so clear, and you need to book online.

Or you could try one of Travel Inn's five central London properties (bookings on 08702 383300 or www.travelinn.com). All the London rooms cost £74.95.

The most popular, and the only budget chain hotel in London recommended in the latest edition of the Which? Hotel Guide, is Travel Inn County Hall, next to the London Eye. A third of its bedrooms are family rooms, sleeping two adults and two children under 16. Travel Inn Kensington opened last summer, near the Natural History Museum.

Staying at a Travel Inn may even cost you nothing. Last year the chain introduced a '100% Satisfaction Guarantee', a promise to refund the cost of your stay if you are not 100 per cent satisfied - even if the problem is due to something outside the hotel's control; for example, street noise.