Allard Pierson Museum

Established in Amsterdam in 1934, the Allard Pierson claims to hold one of the world's richest university collections of archaeological exhibits from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Near East. So far, so good. And, if archaeological exhibits are your thing, or your children would like their names written in hieroglyphics, then it's probably a destination that will go down well. However, if you didn't spend several years at university studying stuff like this, you'll probably be bored completely witless. Many of the exhibits (statues, sculptures, ceramics etc) are unimaginatively presented, as if they were aimed solely at scholars. English captions are minimal - though for the record, the Dutch ones are scarcely more helpful - and few staff are on hand to help explain what's what. A frustrating experience.