Dover Museum and Bronze Age Boat Gallery

The Bronze Age Boat in Dover Museum is genuinely special - it's one of those objects that stops you in your tracks. This 3,500-year-old vessel, discovered locally and painstakingly reconstructed, gives you a visceral sense of Neolithic seafaring in a way that text in a book simply cannot. The boat itself is the star, but the museum wraps it in proper context, showing how people actually moved goods and themselves across the Channel when Britain was still connected to mainland Europe.

It's a compact visit - reckon on 90 minutes if you're thorough, less if you're just here for the boat. The wider museum covers Dover's layers of history: Roman, Saxon, medieval. Kids will engage with the Bronze Age boat straightaway; older visitors tend to spend time with the Roman artefacts and the interactive displays about the town's strategic importance over millennia.

Based in Dover town centre, the museum works brilliantly as a rainy-day option if you're staying at one of the nearby parks like Parkdean Resorts St Margaret's Bay or Hawthorn Farm. It's only a few miles from the coast, so combine it with a seafront walk or fish and chips in town. Check ahead for opening hours and admission costs before you visit - museum information can be thin on the ground online. The boat alone justifies the trip, but don't expect a half-day attraction. If you're doing a week-long Kent park holiday, this deserves a morning slot.