Decent visitor attractions

[Smack]

Not a rival thread 😏 Just the yang to the ying. 

 

Surprisingly good, ones you've enjoyed, hidden gems or whatever. 

 

The fruit picking at Craigie Farm floats my boat. Never knew I liked gooseberries until I went there. 

 

That bit at the back of the airport... could stand there for hours. 

 

 

[William H. Bonney]

Ladies changing room. Commonwealth pool. 

[Tazio]

The Smithsonian in Washington DC. I naively went there thinking it was just a normal museum but in actual fact it is several separate buildings covering everything you’d want from a space shuttle to the ruby slippers from Wizard Of Oz to the original star spangled banner. There are also sites in other places throughout the country. 
Oh, and it’s free. 

[Kalamazoo Jambo]

Kalamazoo has a surprisingly good  (and massive) aviation museum - the Air Zoo.

 

[weegranty]

Mob Museum,Neon Graveyard both Las Vegas. The Egyptian Museum In Cairo.

[John Findlay]

I enjoy the Riverside museum in Glasgow. It's free admission too.

[bn jambo]

https://poomuseum.org/  thought it was going to be shite.

[Cade]

Maid of the Forth tours out to Inchcolm Island.

Great views of the Forth bridges, very high chance of seeing seals, far lesser chance of seeing whales, dolphins and puffins but they have been spotted, Inchcolm is beautiful.

Their evening trips with bevvy and live bands are good too.

 

 

[superjack]

Missus talked me into going to the van gogh museum in amsterdam. I'm not the type to appreciate art myself, unless it's heart shaped with HMFC written in it. However, really enjoyed the museum. Mind you, a couple of hours in a coffee shop smoking kush beforehand might have helped.

[graygo]

Not a visitor attraction as such but I've done a few city breaks and have done the free walking tours in them where you pay what you think it was worth.

Great way of seeing and learning a bit about the place.

Done Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Berlin, Vilnius, Rome and Dublin.

[Alan_R]

Toy museum in callander. Kids liked it. Its wee but absolutely jam packed with loads of retro and vintage toys with an interesting wee gift shop.

 

Hidden gem.

[Craig_]

As mentioned in the other thread, the Five Sisters Zoo is very good, although does get a bit overrun with OF top-wearing types on a nice day.

 

Never been myself, but I'm sure the British Lawnmower Museum in Stockport is worth the journey (http://www.lawnmowerworld.co.uk/#)

 

[Joey J J Jr Shabadoo]

The Getty Centre, Los Angeles, loads of great art and free (although you'll probably need a car to get there).  Hearts castle was good, too.

Alcatraz was my favourite, though.

[Governor Tarkin]

40 minutes ago, Cade said:

Maid of the Forth tours out to Inchcolm Island.

Great views of the Forth bridges, very high chance of seeing seals, far lesser chance of seeing whales, dolphins and puffins but they have been spotted, Inchcolm is beautiful.

Their evening trips with bevvy and live bands are good too.

 

 

 

40 minutes ago, superjack said:

Missus talked me into going to the van gogh museum in amsterdam. I'm not the type to appreciate art myself, unless it's heart shaped with HMFC written in it. However, really enjoyed the museum. Mind you, a couple of hours in a coffee shop smoking kush beforehand might have helped.

 

Both are excellent.

[Alan_R]

Scottish deer centre at cupar. Tickets always on groupon so excellent value family day out.

[jake]

1 hour ago, Cade said:

Maid of the Forth tours out to Inchcolm Island.

Great views of the Forth bridges, very high chance of seeing seals, far lesser chance of seeing whales, dolphins and puffins but they have been spotted, Inchcolm is beautiful.

Their evening trips with bevvy and live bands are good too.

 

 

This

[Carl Fredrickson]

Their is a pencil museum in the Lake District which is well worth a visit. The world of pencils was an unknown thing to me other than the 2b pencils I used in primary school. Was in it for hours.

[highlandjambo3]

1.  Jacobite cruise Loch ness 

2.  Reindeer visitor centre north of Aviemore ....they are in the wild (well a very large enclosure) and you feed them by hand, great for
     kids.

3.  Applecross inn (West coast) the drive up is great.

[Fitzroy Pointon]

Took the wee one to Heads of Ayr Farm Park on Saturday. Great wee day out. Lots of animals for the kids to see and feed, wee train you can go on, quad bikes, digger land, sand pits, trampolines, big slides etc.

[luckyBatistuta]

Wild Florida Animal Encounter Wildlife Park, Orlando 

 

Great place, away from masses. Airboat Rides are fantastic and loads of animals to see and interact with.

[been here before]

Best freebie is probably the Railway Museum in York. Brilliant even if you're not that into trains.

 

The transport museum in Glasgows quite good and I think thats free.

 

Beamish Museum is a wee bit pricey but well worth the money, its magic. Easily spend a whole day there and still not see it all. The tickets are valid for a year I think.

[Cruyff]

Beaulieu Car Museum. 

 

[Carl Fredrickson]

17 minutes ago, been here before said:

Best freebie is probably the Railway Museum in York. Brilliant even if you're not that into trains.

 

The transport museum in Glasgows quite good and I think thats free.

 

Beamish Museum is a wee bit pricey but well worth the money, its magic. Easily spend a whole day there and still not see it all. The tickets are valid for a year I think.

 

Beamish is awesome and the tickets are valid for 12 months (except special event evenings/days). They are currently building a 1950s town and then the plan is to do a 1980s one. THAT makes me feel old. 

[Cairneyhill Jambo]

Camperdown Wildlife Park in Dundee is really good and cheap.  They have wolves, bears etc that you can get up close to.

 

Argaty Kites in Doune, Stirling is also worth a visit to see the red kites feeding in large numbers.  You need to phone beforehand to find out what time they feed them.

 

 

[John Findlay]

44 minutes ago, Cruyff said:

Beaulieu Car Museum. 

 

Cracking place for a visit and in the New Forest too.

[moz]

1 hour ago, luckyBatistuta said:

Wild Florida Animal Encounter Wildlife Park, Orlando 

 

Great place, away from masses. Airboat Rides are fantastic and loads of animals to see and interact with.

Yip...excellent, kids went in the Sloth enclosure to learn about them / feed them / picture opportunity etc

Then we got front row seats on the airboat ride...seen wild Gators out there and bald eagles in their nest....tremendous day out

[Cruyff]

8 minutes ago, John Findlay said:

Cracking place for a visit and in the New Forest too.

Been many times as a kid. Used to go on holiday to Portsmouth as my Uncle Dave was in the navy and based down there. 

 

I don't know what it's like now but probably improved. 

 

I'd also add the Royal Marines museum and the Shipyard, with HMS Victory and the Mary Rose as good places to visit down that way. 

[John Findlay]

9 minutes ago, Cruyff said:

Been many times as a kid. Used to go on holiday to Portsmouth as my Uncle Dave was in the navy and based down there. 

 

I don't know what it's like now but probably improved. 

 

I'd also add the Royal Marines museum and the Shipyard, with HMS Victory and the Mary Rose as good places to visit down that way. 

Agreed, plus the Submarine museum with Hms Alliance WWII submarine fully intact, plus HMS Holland the Royal navy's first ever submarine too well worth a visit. My daughter and eldest son still both live down there.

[redjambo]

The Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in Vilnius comes to mind, housed in the same building that the Soviet NKVD and NKGB-MGB-KGB used. As does the museum at Kanchanaburi (the Bridge on the River Kwai) in Thailand. Both very sobering.

 

[¼½¾]

The Camera Obscura is great. Well not as much the camera obscura itself, as that can depend on weather conditions, but the optical illusions etc are fantastic. Not cheap, but well worth the money.

[Tazio]

If you’re in New York a great place to visit but seems relatively unknown is the Intrepid. A decommissioned aircraft carrier in the Hudson River. Among other things it has a Concorde, a space shuttle, and a Blackbird spy plane. There’s Also a submarine berthed next to it you can go on (in?) 

[Jamhammer]

In Scotland not much beats Culloden IMO

States Air and Space Museum and Arlington Cemetery Washington DC

Rainbow Bar & Grill & Griffith Park Observatory LA

 

[Auld Reekin']

2 hours ago, redjambo said:

The Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in Vilnius comes to mind, housed in the same building that the Soviet NKVD and NKGB-MGB-KGB used. As does the museum at Kanchanaburi (the Bridge on the River Kwai) in Thailand. Both very sobering.

 

 

   You're not selling them to me at all...   

 

 

 

[redjambo]

24 minutes ago, Auld Reekin' said:

 

   You're not selling them to me at all...   

 

 

 

 

A very fair point. They were just the first two that sprung to mind when I thought about visitor attractions that had 'marked' me in some way and were therefore worth visiting in my opinion. In both cases, it was due to the torturing of folk, to be honest. In the Vilnius museum, you can enter the actual cells where they were filled with water to torture those being interrogated, while Kanchanaburi details the horrendous tortures carried out against the POWs.

 

The good news is that once you've seen either of those, thought "Feck me", and railed in your mind against the inhumanity of some members of our race, you can then leave to either sample the pleasures of the many Vilnius beer joints or partake in a Mekhong Whisky or three.

Edited September 1, 2020 by redjambo

[highlandjambo3]

In Kiel, North Germany on the coast there is an old WW2 U boat U-995 which sits up on stilts which you can walk through.........very sobering seeing what these guys were putting themselves through (and ours of course)......apart from the tiniest cabin for the captain, there were absolutely no facilities for the crew.  People slept on small benches under the torpedos, one very small not so private pump type toilet, very small galley area for the cook.......you would come out of the exit shaking your head in disbelief at what you had just seen.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by highlandjambo3

[luckyBatistuta]

5 hours ago, moz said:

Yip...excellent, kids went in the Sloth enclosure to learn about them / feed them / picture opportunity etc

Then we got front row seats on the airboat ride...seen wild Gators out there and bald eagles in their nest....tremendous day out

We were in the front too, worth every penny bud. We were in Florida in January and go there most years and couldn’t believe that was the first time we’ve been. It will be a regular trip from now on.

[Do The Dance]

Craigmillar Castle.

 

Allows you to explore and climb to the top, with fantastic views over the city. Handful of other visitors wherever I've been as well.

[superjack]

Another 1 I loved when I lived in Lincolnshire was tattershall castle. Part of it was ruined but you were still allowed to walk around it, free as well.

[Bindy Badgy]

Churches at Lalibela, Ethiopia. I'm not usually into cultural stuff but, this was really good. They cut down into the rock, which must have taken a hell of a lot of man hours.

 

[Smack]

11 hours ago, superjack said:

Missus talked me into going to the van gogh museum in amsterdam. I'm not the type to appreciate art myself, unless it's heart shaped with HMFC written in it. However, really enjoyed the museum. Mind you, a couple of hours in a coffee shop smoking kush beforehand might have helped.

Had an almost identical experience 😁 

 

6 hours ago, redjambo said:

The Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in Vilnius comes to mind, housed in the same building that the Soviet NKVD and NKGB-MGB-KGB used. As does the museum at Kanchanaburi (the Bridge on the River Kwai) in Thailand. Both very sobering.

 

The KGB museum in Tallinn is similar. There's not much to actually see, but if you've got the time to sit and read the accounts of the prisoners whilst in one of the cells it's quite eerie. Not usually into all that atmospheric stuff but this place got me good. 

 

The British museum is an obvious one, if you can deal with the white guilt. Those Easter Island statues are incredible. Occurred to me you'd have to be mental to eye one of them up and think 'I'm having that' and bring it back half way round the world on a rickety old boat. 

[ArcticJambo]

45 minutes ago, Stokesy said:

Churches at Lalibela, Ethiopia. I'm not usually into cultural stuff but, this was really good. They cut down into the rock, which must have taken a hell of a lot of man hours.

 

I recently watched a programme on the history of the region, and they visited this site amongst others.  Didn't really know much about the area of southern Egypt/Sudan/Ethiopia but the early civilisations that grew up around there look fascinating.  Need to take a closer look wrt to possible visits in the future.

[Montgomery Brewster]

Belfast - the titanic experience

[Pans Jambo]

I like the national museum in Chambers St. As long as you go midweek outwith the main tourist season its not too busy, brilliantly informative and FOC. 

[Lone Striker]

2 hours ago, Stokesy said:

Churches at Lalibela, Ethiopia. I'm not usually into cultural stuff but, this was really good. They cut down into the rock, which must have taken a hell of a lot of man hours.

 

Wow .... I've never seen that before.  Astonishing.

[Lone Striker]

Some of the exhibitions they put on at the Botanic Gardens are surprisingly interesting.      Usually free too.   

 

Maid of the Forth trip to Inchcolm is a good day out (if the sea isn't too choppy).

Loch Leven Castle and Inchmaholm  Priory at the Lake are good .... nice boat trips to them too.

 

Kennedy Space Center in Florida  is amazing - partly for the sheer size of the place. The area is so big,  they lay on buses to take you from one part to another. Loads to see and learn - you come away feeling over-awed at the concept of space travel &  exploration.

 

Railway Museum and Jorvik Centre in York are good too.

[Stuart Lyon]

Maid of the Forth is an excellent recommendation - her's a couple of photos I took when I did the trip in June 2016

 

[Jambo-Jimbo]

Ostia Antica.

 

If you're ever in Rome and have a spare day Ostia Antica is well worth a trip, it's about 45mins from Rome via the metro and a train.

 

It's a whole Roman Port Town which got covered in silt and was preserved, the buildings, the roads, mosacis, even some room paint has survived.

In many ways similar to Pompeii but not as big or grand.

 

[Craig_]

The salt mines near Krakow are worth a visit, if only to marvel at the sheer scale of them.

 

Requires quite a lot of walking, so probably not ideal for those with young children. Or indeed those with claustrophobia.

[Maple Leaf]

My Canadian family loved Craigmillar Castle, the Scott Monument, Arthur's Seat, Calton Hill, Tynecastle (of course), and Edinburgh in general.  Edinburgh is an incredible city.

 

An awesome visit for me was the Vimy Ridge WWI war memorial in Northern France.

[Tazio]

32 minutes ago, jonnothejambo said:

Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Botanic Gardens, MCG, Brisbane River Boardwalk Inc Story Bridge, Dealey Plaza  and 6th Floor Museum in Dallas. 

I remember working in the Opera House putting a show in and being interrupted during a particularly industrial piece of language by realising there was a group of tourists on a tour standing in the auditorium. Very weird to work in such an iconic building walking towards it every morning through the tourists knowing you were there for a real reason.