Great days out

Harriet and Anne Coates attended the VIP opening of the Paradox Museum in Knightsbridge, London and recommend the experience.

Today charity Kids in Museums reveals the shortlist for its Family Friendly Museum Award. Each year the charity celebrates museums, galleries, castles, historic homes and heritage sites that are most welcoming, fun and accessible to all ages. It’s up to families to decide the winner!

Ai WeiWei has collected "things’" both ancient and  contemporary from China, scouring flea markets, rescuing derelict buildings and more for the priceless, valueless, functional, broken, decorative, mass produced, artisan made but all reconfigured for a new audience. Angela Woods highly recommends a visit to the exhibition at the Design Museum.

This October half term, Imperial War Museums (IWM) invites visitors to enjoy a range of free family activities full of stories to inspire. Visitors can uncover the secrets of camouflage with Camouflage, Dazzle and Disguise, season of activity at IWM London and IWM North packed with trails, crafts and performances. Families are also invited to speak to eyewitnesses to conflict and travel back in time to 1944 at IWM Duxford and HMS Belfast.

Enhance a day out or a holiday in the UK by taking part in a Treasure Trail. Great fun for family and friends and you try to find the clues and solve the mystery as Harriet and Anne Coates discovered in Weymouth Harbour and Dorchester.

Never before has it been so important to  support local initiatives in the build up to Christmas. There are fabulous markets and events throughout the uk and we have listed a few with links to find somewhere near to where you live.

A fun way to explore this lovely seaside town and solve the crime of Margate's Missing Masterpiece. The Coates family donned their deerstalkers to solve the mystery.

Win a Family Ticket for the Classic at Silverstone for 1 August, 2021.

A week by the seaside in the Uk offers lots of entertainment as well as swimming in the sea when the weather allows! Anne Coates and family spent a week in Portsmouth and Southsea.

Blue Reef Aquarium Portsmouth – perfect entertainment for when the weather isn't great writes Anne Coates.

The Emirates Spinnaker Tower is the perfect place to begin your holiday in Porstmouth and Southsea, suggests Anne Coates.

Each year in the first week of the school summer holidays Harriet and I go away for a few days usually by the seaside. Last year it was Margate, this year Brighton. So what was Brighton like as the Covid-19 lockdown eased a little? Worth a visit and a perfect place for a staycation.