A visit to a “blockbuster” exhibition is a Bank Holiday staple and can be a fun and educational experience for the whole family - or stressful series of rows and rip-offs.

With tickets for some shows touching £20 a head, and a credit crunch to consider, Times Money has asked experts to suggest free alternatives to this summer's must-see shows.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, The O2, London, until August 30, adults £22, family of four £58

Rachel Campbell Johnston, art critic for The Times, branded this £22-a-ticket show tacky and rapaciously commercial in an otherwise positive review. It brings together 130 artefacts from the reigns of the boy Pharaoh and his close relatives, but not his famous death mask, which remains in Cairo.

Many readers commented on this omission at Times Online. Nick, for example, wrote: “I was very disappointed that the mask was not in the show. I would advise anyone to visit the British Museum instead - its Egyptian collection is massive and free to view.”

In fact, the British Museum's collection includes a granite statue of Tutankhamun, with features closely resembling those of the death mask. Related highlights include intact wooden bedroom furniture dating to the Pharaoh's New Kingdom era. And rooms 62 and 63 contain a number of mummies that have been investigated by medical imaging technology - revealing interesting medical histories.

Michael Haag, author of The Rough Guide to Tutankhamun, agrees that the British Museum's collection is outstanding, but also points to

the Sir John Soane's Museum a ten-minute walk east. “It has a marvellous sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Seti I, who reigned in the period after Tutankhamun's death,” he says.

Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, British Museum, London, until October 26, adults £12, family of four £25

Hadrian emerges from this much-discussed exhibition as a “modern ancient” - the gay aesthete and the commander-in-chief who pulled troops out of what is now Iraq. Material on the emperor includes a one-ton bust and is unmatched elsewhere. However, Roman exhibits in the museum's free galleries give a thorough overview of life in his realm, with objects from delicate gold jewellery to gladiators' weapons.

Nicholas Purcell, co-author of Hadrian's Empire, says that the best free Hadriana in Britain is Hadrian's Wall, which, he says, is impressive and romantic. The wall, a World Heritage Site, spans the 80 miles from Carlisle to Newcastle upon Tyne and can be followed on foot.

Mr Purcell adds that the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool has an outstanding statue of Hadrian's lover, Antinous, who is also represented in a fine bust at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Meanwhile, he says, the Museum of London has a wonderful model of the Hadrian-era forum of Roman London.

Byzantium 330-1453, Royal Academy, London, October 25 to January 18, adults £12, family of four £31

This forthcoming exhibition “highlights the splendours of the Byzantine Empire”, Rome's much-neglected successor state, and will showcase about 300 objects, including icons, ivory panels and metalwork.

Judith Herrin, author of Byzantium: the Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, says that much Byzantine material can already be seen free. “Sometimes it is labelled ‘early Christian', not Byzantine,” she adds. “The biggest collections are in the British Museum and the V&A.”

A highlight of the former's collection is an exquisite ivory panel depicting an archangel that was crafted in Constantinople during the 6th century. This is one of several Byzantine objects in room 41. Free tours of the room are offered daily at 2.45pm.

The V&A, meanwhile, has Byzantine textiles from Egypt, as well as ivory panels and jewels. “I love to spend an afternoon there because it has a mix of things that give a feel for daily life,” Professor Herrin says.

For an even more powerful experience of the empire, she advises people to head to Westminster Cathedral. The very impressive building, completed in 1903, was designed by John Francis Bentley in the Byzantine style, complete with gilt mosaics. “I went in the other day,” she adds. “It has this dim, holy atmosphere and really does bring Byzantium to life.”

Renaissance Faces, National Gallery, London, October 15 to January 18, adults £10, family of four £20

This exhibition will “explore the dramatic rise of portraiture in the Renaissance” and will display works from the National Gallery's extensive Renaissance collection alongside significant loans.

The broad subject matter can easily be explored on a shoestring, however. Geraldine A. Johnson, author of Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction, says that the National Gallery's free collections hold outstanding works. “Most striking are Holbein's The Ambassadors and Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait,” she says. Note that both will be moved into the ticketed exhibition in due course.

She says that the National Portrait Gallery, a minute's walk from the National Gallery, is strong on the Tudors and especially good for families. “For example, there is a cartoon - or initial drawing - of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger, which is the prototype for the famous portraits of him that people are familiar with. Elsewhere, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has some striking works. My favourite is a portrait by Alessandro Allori of a young man holding an ancient cameo.”

She adds that Montacute House in Somerset is hosting an exhibition On the Nature of Women, with a number of great Tudor portraits. Entry is free for National Trust members.

The best of the free exhibitions this Bank Holiday weekend

Skeletons: London's Buried Bones, The Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1, until September 28

This exhibition centres on the remains of 26 long-dead Londoners, displayed on black backgrounds. Captions detail the medical histories of the subjects. For example, a girl buried in a cemetery for paupers displays the symptoms of rickets and syphilis.

The Times critic Sarah Vine says: “All credit must be given to the show's curator, Emily Sargent, who has managed, if not the impossible, then the extremely tricky: a show that probes the most intimate recesses of human existence, but refrains from crass voyeurism. However decrepit these remains may be, there is still a strong sense that they were once living, emoting people.”

Lions, Leopards, Unicorns and Dragons: The First “Regional” Stamps, British Postal Museum & Archive, Phoenix Place, London WC1, until May 6

The first British regional stamps were issued in August 1958. Heraldic and floral emblems were used to distinguish stamps for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and also for the islands of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. This exhibition follows their creation and development from original artwork.

Jake and Dinos Chapman: My Giant Colouring Book, Campbell Works, Belfast Road, London N16, until September 14

The blurb for this exhibition states that these etchings - the artists' response to a children's colouring book - are “dense, hallucinatory improvisations that subvert the apparent innocence of the original illustrations. They are rich in art-historical allusions, from medieval images of Hell and damnation to Picasso, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Paul McCarthy's assaults on icons of folk culture.”

Louis Wain and the Summer Cat Show, Chris Beetles, Ryder Street, London SW1, until September 6

A selection of more than 100 paintings and drawings of anthropomorphic cats by Louis Wain, an eccentric Edwardian illustrator. Visitors can see felines playing golf and cards and even “cavorting on the rooftops”. Also on display is contemporary “cat art” by Susan Herbert, who “wittily recreates the world's great films, paintings and plays, replacing the human form with the feline”.

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