National Museum of Scotland, Chambers St, Edinburgh

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is a great trip for a rainy day, and it's free! Since kids are free on the train in Scotland over the holidays, this makes for a relatively cheap day out. You can even take your own picnic, as they have a special picnic room within the museum ideal for families.

There are 5 floors full of exhibitions to numerous to detail here, suffice to say there is a great display of animal life that kids will enjoy, and a whole hall dedicated to sciencey gadgety sort of stuff with lots of hands on displays and buttons to press. Add to that the many stairs up to the roof terrace and the cool glass elevator (very Willa Wonka) and hey presto, plenty to keep the kids occupied for a day out. Museums are totally exhausting though, although we couldn't work out WHY we were so pooped after a couple of hours. Luckily there are plenty stopping places for a rest on the way!

While you are in Edinburgh, you have to have a look for the Chris Hoy Gold Post Box, in honour of his Olympic medals.