Cartwright Hall and Boating Lake

The boating lake comes first when you arrive - a proper stretch of water that catches the light nicely on a decent day, with ducks pottering about and the kind of open space that makes you remember why you left the city. Cartwright Hall sits at the edge of it all, a Victorian mansion done up as a museum that punches well above its weight for what amounts to a side trip from Leeds.

Inside, you'll find decent art collections and rotating exhibitions that lean towards Yorkshire artists and craftspeople. It's not the National Gallery, but that's rather the point - the scale feels manageable, the rooms don't exhaust you after twenty minutes, and there's genuine stuff to look at without the crowds. Kids can run about the grounds after they've done the halls, which prevents the whole outing turning into a forced march through galleries.

If you're camping at one of the nearby parks - Crook Farm sits closest at under three miles - this makes a solid half-day plan. Grab a bench by the lake, watch the water, pop into the hall for an hour or so. The whole thing works better when you're not trying to cram everything in. Go on a weekday morning if you can; weekends pull families from Leeds and the place gets properly busy.

Free entry, which is rare enough these days to mention. Allow two to three hours if you're doing both the museum and a proper wander around the grounds. The walk from the car park up to the hall is gentle, nothing arduous.