Pollock’s Toy Museum

If you are visiting London with your children, Pollock’s Toy Museum is certain to be a top attraction for you and your family. Practically any toy that has been on the market for children worldwide has a place at this site. The collections are a fascinating look at the ways kids played in the past. Come to experience a world of porcelain dolls, teddy bears, tinkertoys, board games and more. Elaborate dollhouses and toy theaters also are on display for the littlest ones in your party to explore.

Pollock’s Toy Museum, London, UK by R Sones

Freud Museum

This site was the home of Sigmund Freud after he and his family fled Austria and the Nazis in the late 1930s. Here is where you can see perhaps the world’s most famous analyst couch with its pillows and tapestries. You also can see the desk where Freud spent much time writing his papers. The family’s extensive collection of antiquities also is on display, and the ground’s gardens are worth checking out, too. The house and its furnishings are frozen in Freud’s time.

Whitechapel Bell Foundry

Lots of British and global manufacturing history can be found here, as the site exists as Britain’s oldest continuing manufacturer. Here, you can find church bells, handbells, clock tower bells (think Big Ben) and other varieties made to order. The company’s rich history extends across the pond, as the U.S. Liberty Bell was cast at the site more than 250 years ago.

Churchill War Rooms

Part of the collection that makes up Britain’s Imperial War Museum, this is the wartime bunker where British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his government officials took shelter during the London Blitz. You can see where wartime decisions were made and purchase a Churchill coffee mug in the same visit. The Map Room holds maps where you can see tiny pinholes that charted Allied progress. Next to that room is Churchill’s Room, still in existence from its time as his office/bedroom space.

The Black Museum

Better known as the crime museum, this infamous site offers a collection from London’s macabre side. In 1869, a new law allowed law enforcement to start keeping artifacts from criminals for educational purposes. Today, the museum holds weapons disguised as ordinary items, vials of poison, forensic photos and other criminal evidentiary items. The museum, while not open to the public, is open for law-enforcement training and crime lectures for legal authorities. If you are a law-enforcement official, you may be able to gain entry for a tour.

You find more London travel guides online and also accommodation in London from www.holiday-velvet.com.

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Playa del Rincón de la Victoria, Costa del Sol, Spain by Cayetano

Whilst many people choose to holiday down on the coast itself, there are a growing number of visitors choosing to rent properties dotted around the hillside towns and rural areas of Montes de Malaga.   Set back from the coast the so called ‘white villages’ offer a glimpse of more traditional Spanish life, of how it used to be before mass tourism hit the Costas.   With breathtaking views from their mountainside perches, often as far as Morocco on a clear winter’s day, village life is peaceful and tranquil with only the ringing of the church bells to disturb your sunbathing.   Here you will still see the occasional donkey or vans traversing the villages selling fresh fish and vegetables and spend a lazy hour over a drink or two and watch the locals as they go about their daily business.

Choose from a cortijo, a small traditional farmhouse or rustic fincas, charming little cottages and rural country houses which have been lovingly restored and designed to provide a perfect holiday home with everything you could possibly need to enjoy your time in the sun.  Fully equipped, often with private pools and barbeques they are a great option for those of you who don’t like the rigidity of hotels or prefer a little more space and privacy.   Satellite televisions, wi-fi, every modern kitchen gadget and tasteful furnishings make these properties a home from home, some so luxurious that you will be reluctant to raise yourself from your sun lounger to venture outside your little haven.

Nerja, Costa del Sol, Spain by Miika Silfverberg

If you prefer to be amongst the action on the coast you will be able to choose from a wide range of apartments and villas, often set in complexes with every amenity you can think of from large swimming pools and gym complexes.  And for those of you who want the flexibility of being in your own property but don’t want the hassle of self catering, properties are available in serviced complexes which have restaurants available for breakfast, lunch and dinner and those all important pool side snacks.  Some of the larger complexes even boast sports centres complete with tennis courts, bowls and golf and evening entertainment too.

So if it is a self catering holiday you are searching for make sure to check out some of the properties available as holiday rentals on the Costa del Sol.

Sue Wright is an avid traveller and writer and has spent many years working with travel companies including Travel and Leisure Group.  She has spent the last eight years living and working in Cyprus.

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