St Ann's Valley Library

The library sits in a quiet corner of Nottingham, the sort of place you'd stumble upon while exploring the backstreets rather than find on any must-do list. St Ann's Valley Library is a proper neighbourhood spot - nothing flashy, just rows of books, a reading room, and the kind of peaceful atmosphere that makes you want to settle in for an hour or three.

It's genuinely useful if you're based at Shelford Nurseries Caravan Park five miles away and want a rainy-day escape that doesn't involve another retail park. The collection is standard local library fare: fiction, reference, a children's section that'll keep the kids occupied. Staff know their stuff and the space isn't rammed with tourists, which means you can actually browse without feeling rushed.

Really, this works best as a pit-stop rather than a destination in itself. If you're staying in a caravan and the weather's turned, or you need to charge devices and grab some reading material before a quiet evening, it does the job. Free entry, standard library rules apply. Allow an hour, maybe ninety minutes if you're the type to disappear into the stacks.

Nottingham's got plenty of bigger attractions - the castle, the caves, the old city centre - but sometimes a library tells you more about how locals actually spend their time than any heritage site. Worth knowing about, even if it's not the reason you've booked your holiday.