The Natural History Museum in London welcomes around five million visitors a year, and a large share of them do not speak English as a first language. If you are planning a visit from Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Rome, São Paulo, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Amsterdam or Warsaw, a reasonable question is whether the museum offers an audio tour in your language.
The short answer is this. NHM's own audio is English only. Third-party options in other languages vary in quality. This page lays out what is actually available, section by section, so you can pick sensibly before you travel.
What NHM officially offers
Every track on NHM's SoundCloud channel, every audio transcript on nhm.ac.uk, and the Our Story with David Attenborough immersive are narrated in English. There is no official Spanish, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish or Arabic audio guide. The museum map is printed in several languages, but audio is not. See nhm audio guide languages for the full evidence.
When Viator, GetYourGuide, MyWoWo, TravelMate, Civitatis, Vox City, WeGoTrip or Headout claim the "Natural History Museum audio guide is available in seven languages", they are selling their own app content, not NHM's. That content is often machine-translated, sometimes well, often not.
A free workaround that works in any language
Every SoundCloud playlist NHM publishes, and every gallery audio description on nhm.ac.uk, has a full written English transcript. Paste that transcript into Google Translate, DeepL or ChatGPT, and you get reliable text in your language for free. Read it in the gallery, or use your phone's text-to-speech to have it read aloud. It is not elegant, but the content is the museum's own words rather than a reseller's paraphrase.
For a ranked comparison of the paid alternatives, see best nhm audio guide.
Spanish (Español)
Spanish has the most third-party coverage. Civitatis, MyWoWo, TravelMate, iaudioguia, Tourific and Vox City all sell Spanish audio. Civitatis is the most established brand in Spain and Latin America and bundles entry reservation with its app audio. MyWoWo offers a free Spanish narration that is competent rather than rich. Vox City's Spanish track is part of a reserved-entry bundle on Tiqets and has mixed reviews (3.0 average) with complaints about pacing. None of these are produced with NHM. For deeper Spanish content, translating the NHM transcripts yourself remains a strong option.
French (Français)
French has decent coverage through Clondres, a long-running French blog about London which carries a written NHM guide, plus MyWoWo FR, TravelMate FR, Civitatis FR and Tiqets FR audio products. Clondres has the most careful written content but no audio depth. The app-based French tours are typically machine-translated English scripts. If you want a guide with native intonation, the honest answer is that no product currently stands out. Pairing an English transcript with DeepL gives surprisingly natural French.
German (Deutsch)
German coverage is thin. MyWoWo DE and TravelMate DE dominate the search results, and both are free but shallow. Vox City's German track appears in the Tiqets reserved-entry bundle. There is no independent German content site writing about NHM audio in any depth. German speakers are often comfortable with English audio, and NHM's own English narration is clear and paced slowly enough to follow. For gallery-level detail in German, translate the Hintze Hall, Dinosaurs or Volcanoes and Earthquakes transcripts.
Italian (Italiano)
Italian results are almost entirely MyWoWo, TravelMate, 1sticket and Vox City Italian editions. No independent Italian content site covers NHM audio at length. MyWoWo's Italian narration is the most polished of its language editions, because the company is Italian-founded and Italian is its native production language. For casual orientation this is fine; for scientific depth it is not sufficient. The Attenborough immersive has English subtitles only.
Portuguese (Português)
Portuguese is split between Brazilian and European audiences. Bluehertz offers Portuguese audio guides for several London attractions, Civitatis has a Portuguese storefront, and several Brazilian travel blogs (Tudo Sobre Londres, Um Pouquinho de Cada Lugar) cover NHM in writing but not audio. There is no strong first-party Portuguese audio option. DeepL handles Brazilian and European Portuguese competently from the NHM transcripts.
Mandarin (中文)
Mandarin is the biggest gap. NHM publishes no Chinese audio, and Chinese travel sites explicitly note "目前暂时没有中文语音导览" (no Chinese audio guide currently available). MyWoWo and TravelMate offer Simplified Chinese editions, but reviews suggest machine translation from English without native editing. Given the rebound in Chinese tourism to London through 2025 and 2026, this is an area of genuine undersupply. Translating NHM's own transcripts with a modern model gives better results than the available app products.
Japanese (日本語)
Japanese coverage is minimal. The major Japanese travel platforms (4travel, Arukikata) cover NHM as a destination but do not offer audio. MyWoWo has a Japanese edition of limited depth. No product currently stands out for Japanese visitors, and the Attenborough immersive offers English subtitles only. NHM's English narration is measured and clearly enunciated, which some Japanese visitors find more accessible than the machine-translated alternatives.
Korean (한국어)
Korean coverage is the thinnest of the major languages. Vox City's Korean track exists inside the Tiqets reserved-entry product, alongside MyWoWo KR for a handful of galleries. Reviews do not separately rate the Korean audio. There is no Korean-language content site covering NHM audio in depth. DeepL and Papago both handle Korean translations of the NHM English transcripts well.
Dutch (Nederlands)
Dutch visitors are often comfortable with English, and no dedicated Dutch NHM audio product exists. MyWoWo and TravelMate do not publish a Dutch edition for NHM. Search volume is low and Dutch speakers are well served by the English narration. For written depth, translating the transcripts with DeepL produces fluent Dutch.
Polish (Polski)
Polish coverage follows the same pattern. No major audio-guide publisher offers a Polish NHM product, and the Polish-language London travel blogs do not cover audio specifically. London's Polish-speaking community is significant, and NHM is a common family visit; for Polish speakers the practical options are English audio, a bilingual companion, or a translated transcript.
At a glance
| Language | Official NHM audio | Third-party audio available | Best free workaround |
|---|
| Spanish | No | Civitatis, MyWoWo, Vox City, Tourific | Translate NHM transcripts |
| French | No | Clondres (text), MyWoWo, Tiqets, Civitatis | Translate NHM transcripts |
| German | No | MyWoWo, TravelMate, Vox City | Translate NHM transcripts |
| Italian | No | MyWoWo, TravelMate, Vox City | Translate NHM transcripts |
| Portuguese | No | Bluehertz, Civitatis | Translate NHM transcripts |
| Mandarin | No | MyWoWo, TravelMate (thin) | Translate NHM transcripts |
| Japanese | No | MyWoWo (thin) | Translate NHM transcripts |
| Korean | No | Vox City via Tiqets, MyWoWo (thin) | Translate NHM transcripts |
| Dutch | No | None meaningful | English audio or translation |
| Polish | No | None meaningful | English audio or translation |
Where Musa fits in
Musa is a free multilingual museum companion built for exactly this gap. Our Natural History Museum tour is available in more than ten languages with native-quality narration rather than machine-dubbed English. You can use it on your own phone, offline, with no ticket bundle or reseller checkout. If you are reading this in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Dutch or Polish, the tour is available today in your language.
FAQ
Does the Natural History Museum have an official audio guide in Spanish or French?
No. Every piece of official audio the museum publishes, on SoundCloud and on nhm.ac.uk, is English only.
Why do travel sites say the audio guide is in seven languages?
They are selling their own app-based audio tours bundled with entry reservations. These products are not produced by or affiliated with the Natural History Museum.
Are the third-party multilingual audio tours any good?
Quality varies widely. MyWoWo's Italian and Spanish editions are the most polished; many others are machine-translated from English with audible seams. Read recent reviews per language before buying.
Is there any free multilingual option?
Yes. Translate NHM's published English transcripts with DeepL or Google Translate and read them in the gallery. The content is the museum's own, which is more trustworthy than most reseller scripts.
Does NHM offer a Mandarin or Japanese audio guide?
No. Several Chinese travel guides note the absence specifically. Japanese and Korean coverage is equally thin.
Hendrik Schafer is the founder of Musa, an AI-powered museum companion used in museums across Europe. He writes about audio guides, accessibility, and how museums reach international visitors.