Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto: Canada's Largest Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum is the kind of museum that you can't exhaust in one visit. Even on two occasions, we didn't manage to visit all the exhibits at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) and we believe you won't either.
The ROM is the main museum in Toronto for those who like to see collections of fossils, ancient objects of decorative art and rooms dedicated to the most relevant civilisations in history, as well as large temporary exhibitions.
So, the first step to get to know it is pick up a map at the ticket office. The map is also available on the official website and it is essential for you to focus on the rooms that interest you most without getting lost.
It is really essential to prioritise some exhibitions and, unfortunately, leave others behind. Otherwise, the tour will be exhausting.
In this post, we will present the highlights of our two visits to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and help you decide what to see there.
What to see at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto?
Michael Lee-Chin Crystal
The first highlight of the Royal Ontario Museum is the façade facing Bloor Street West, an extension of the old building that has nothing to do with it, but rather with the museum's collection.
There are five metal structures that protrude into the pavement and resemble the crystals housed in the ROM's mineralogy room. This was the inspiration of architect Daniel Libeskind.
The metal and glass "crystals" that expand over Bloor Street West are named for Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, a philanthropist who donated $30 million to the museum.
Inside the ROM, several rooms of the permanent collection are in the "crystals", including some that are connected by bridges. So you can see the modernity of the structure from the outside and inside.
However, the biggest highlight of the ROM is its permanent collection, which features a variety of themes, from ancient civilisations, to design, dinosaurs and precious stones.
Highlights of Level 1 of the Royal Ontario Museum
Level 1: at one end is the Rotunda and at the other are the China and Korea rooms.
Level 1 is the ground floor, accessed by two entrances, one on Bloor Street West and one on Queen's Park Street.
Accessing the museum from Queen's Park Street, the first place you'll see is the Rotunda, a hall with a rounded ceiling (like a church) adorned with golden mosaics reminiscent of the Byzantine style.
Among the mosaics are images depicting ancient civilisations from every continent, which are also part of the Level 3 collection.
The Rotunda
On one side of the Rotunda is an area dedicated to temporary exhibitions and on the other the collection of Canada's First Nations (First Peoples) in the so-called Daphne Cockwell Gallery.
There are many objects and explanations about the peoples represented in the gallery. For those who have never read anything about the history of Canada's Indigenous Peoples, the amount of information is daunting, but the variety of the collection is commendable.
However, on our second visit to the ROM, the First Peoples exhibition was closed because it is undergoing a refurbishment.
On the opposite side of the Rotunda are the spaces dedicated to China and Korea, as well as some objects from Japan.
Collection on China
In the Chinese collection, there are many Buddhas and Buddhism is the central theme of the exhibition, specifically the art made to adorn the times, with pieces dating back thousands of years.
Visitors love a corridor filled with examples of Chinese architecture, with facades from the ages and even a tomb.
Of course, there is no shortage of ceramics, from the most intricate to the oldest and simplest. We were surprised by the small sculptures of horses, which we thought were rudimentary at first. Only later did we realise they were millennia old.
Diamonds and Dinosaurs at the Royal Ontario Museum
The large mammals are as impressive as the dinosaurs
Level 2 is where the Natural History rooms are concentrated, and is the most popular for families with children. After all, there is a specific room about dinosaurs, most of them found in Canada, specifically in the province of Alberta.
The captions make it clear which parts of the dinosaurs are fossils and which are reproductions, as well as details about their biology and habits.
The exhibition is divided into dinosaurs that lived on land, in water and in the air and many of them are gigantic, as were the mammals that inhabited the American Continent.
The tour continues through the mammal room, which dominated the Earth after the dinosaurs, highlighting the mastodon, the saber-toothed tiger and the sloth.
Continuing in Biology, there are other equally educational exhibitions, but not as impactful as the Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils, such as on: the origin of life, biodiversity and the challenges of the present/future.
See also the perfectly stuffed birds and the bat cave.
On our first visit to the ROM we were awed by the beauty of the collection of rocks, gems and crystals, which is housed in the Earth's Treasures room, but even has meteorites (from the Moon and Mars).
The colours, shapes and sizes of the rocks are more varied than we imagined, after all there are more than 3 thousand pieces. You'll even see big diamonds there, as well as gems from Brazil.
Earth's Treasures also addresses the theme of mining, which makes perfect sense.
Ancient Civilisations at the Royal Ontario Museum
Collection on the Byzantine Empire
Level 3 has rooms on ancient civilisations from various parts of the world, so it's a favourite floor for history buffs.
We took the lift and went between Byzantine and Roman. There is no right order to follow. It's worth starting with the civilisation that interests you most, which in our case was the Byzantine Empire.
However, Egypt is the most sought after by tourists because the archaeological pieces are beautiful and housed in well-decorated rooms. Don't be surprised by the details of the mummies, such as hair and teeth.
Room about Egypt
There are also rooms about other civilisations of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Greece, Rome, Cyprus, as well as Nubia, which is related to Egypt.
In Level 3 you will also see objects, clothes, sculptures and learn about the culture of some of the Original Peoples of Africa, America and Asia.
In these rooms, you get the feeling that you are seeing too much information about too many peoples and that it is impossible to stay focused on everything.
Some examples of what is on display about the Americas
We were surprised on Level 3 by the size and variety of the rooms related to the architectural and artistic styles that have dominated Europe and influenced the rest of the world in recent centuries. The room is called "Europe: Evolution of Style".
There are dozens of carefully arranged rooms, such as bedrooms, reading rooms, reception rooms, and even bathrooms, with Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical and Victorian decorative art, using rare and antique furniture and decoration.
The curious thing is that the continuation of this area shows 20th century design, such as Art Deco, Bauhaus, among others. It was the first time I saw in a museum so many references for those who like furniture design.
Rooms perfectly decorated with rare and antique objects
On Level 3, we must mention the Centre Block, a room dedicated to special exhibitions. On our last visit to the ROM, the paintings of Kent Monkman, a Canadian artist of indigenous Cree descent, were open for viewing at no extra charge.
His paintings are striking for their use of vibrant colours, large canvases and the representation of Indigenous Peoples with techniques that seem to reproduce a photo, but in a setting that often seems like a dream.
Paintings by Kent Monkman
The Royal Ontario Museum also has Level 4, with two rooms that house temporary exhibitions, although the most important special exhibitions are on Level 1 and require extra payment to access.
Whew! That's a lot of stuff! Therefore, we recommend focusing on the galleries that have the themes that most please you and a lot of disposition in the legs!
Where to stay
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How to visit the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto?
Room on the Middle East
The ROM is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5.30pm.
Adult admission to the permanent collection costs $23 for adults, $14 for children aged 4-14. Teenagers and young adults between 15 and 19 pay $18. There are usually special exhibitions, but you have to pay extra to see them.
However, there are often guided tours that do not require extra payment. Just be at the "Chen Court Level 1" on site with the sign indicating the tour at the time provided on the official website.
To get to the museum, the best option may vary depending on your hotel in Torontobut use public transport with the help of Google Maps.
Know that the Museum underground station is named after the ROM.
We hope you found the information about the Royal Ontario Museum tour in Toronto useful! Also visit the Art Gallery of Ontario!
Enjoy your trip!
