Lyme Regis Museum

The museum sits right in the heart of Lyme Regis, a proper fossil hunter's paradise on the Dorset coast. Inside, you'll find everything from ichthyosaurs to belemnites - the sort of stuff that gets geology enthusiasts genuinely excited. The displays tell the story of Mary Anning, the woman who basically invented palaeontology in the 1800s while collecting fossils from these cliffs, and that alone makes it worth an hour of your time.

It's not enormous, so don't expect to lose an entire afternoon here, but the collection is genuine and well-presented. The ground floor covers local natural history - rocks, fossils, that sort of thing - while upstairs focuses on Lyme's social and maritime past. There's enough detail to satisfy anyone with a real interest in geology or local history, though younger kids might find it a bit dry unless they're already fossil-mad.

Combine this with a walk along the seafront and a proper look at the cliffs themselves if the tide's out. Bridport is just three miles away, so you've got a decent base for exploring. The holiday parks nearby - Seadown and Newlands are the closest - put you within easy reach of the coast, and Lyme's compact enough to wander around without breaking a sweat. The museum is free to enter, which helps when you're weighing up a rainy-day option alongside beach time.