World Museum

The World Museum, part of National Museums Liverpool, is selling itself short. It’s not a World Museum, it’s an absolutely everything museum – there’s even a full dome planetarium. When you’ve discovered everything there is to know about our world, you can move on to outer space.

The history section of the museum is vast with everything from prehistoric tools to Anglo-Saxon jewellery.

The dinosaur exhibits are one of the biggest draws with a cast of a fossilised allosaurus skeleton – the apex predator of the Jurassic period – being the most impressive. Although the coprolites, or fossilised dinosaur poo, are also a hit with kids.

Another popular exhibition is the Ancient Egypt collection which includes a mummified cat.

You can see all sorts of natural history displays too from stuffed, mounted animals like pangolins to bats preserved in fluid. Many of the items on display are from the collection of the Earl of Derby, who had quite the menagerie at Knowsley.

If you prefer your wildlife swimming in water not aspic, the aquarium is home to rays, hermit crabs, terrapins and sharks.

Once you’ve found out everything there is to know about Medieval carvings, Chinese ceramics and British beetles (not Beatles, even though this is Liverpool), you definitely deserve a treat at the café.