Whether your children are into Thomas the Tank Engine or 125,000-year-old hippo skeletons, Cambridgeshire has a wide range of activities to keep them – and you – amused.
The Cambridge University Botanic Garden, a great place for channelling children's energy, includes an informative 'genetics garden'. The city's Sedgwick Museum provides visual thrills as it teaches about natural history, and Linton Zoo helps kids learn about how animals species become endangered.
Parkside Pool will give your children a healthy workout with the help of a diving pool and two flumes. Thomas the Tank engine, in Nene Valley, will thrill young fans, and Big Sky, a modern fun factory, will stop those dreaded words: "I'm bored!".

1 Linton Zoological Gardens
Set up in 1972, Linton is a wildlife-breeding centre as well as a zoo. Children can gaze in wonder at such strange beasts as long-nosed tapirs and mongoose lemurs while learning about the problems these creatures face in the wild.
The zoo is a compact 16 acres, bursting with animals and plants. Visit the big cats and view them up close; some enclosures have viewing windows where such impressive beasts as Blackie the panther look particularly undomesticated. If the felines are too large for your little ones, try the lemurs. There are several types to observe, including the critically endangered red ruffled lemur, with its keen eyes and orange fur.

2 The Botanic Garden
This 40-acre landscaped garden, just less than a mile from Cambridge city centre, is a great place for adults to relax on a park bench while children dash among the 8000 plant species. When we visited, some children were having great fun playing hide-and-seek around a wooden sculpture and the long grass that surrounded it.
The attraction has much to see year round, including a colourful winter garden and the experimental dry garden, designed to look fresh all summer. The Botanic Garden was opened in 1846 by Cambridge University and, predictably, has an educational slant. All plants are given their Latin names and the 'genetics garden' shows the effects of genes on plant development. This garden is suitable for older children, and a knowledgeable parent or a dictionary will come in handy.

3 Big Sky Play
Big Sky Play boasts the latest in child-amusing technology. Gone are the days of dolls and trains; today, the main draws are such indoor games as Alien Blast 3000 and the Skyrider. Alien Blast is perfect for boisterous children, letting them shoot soft balls at aliens. The Skyrider is an upside-down ride along a track built into Big Sky's high ceiling – the young astronaut travels securely in a safety cage. Other delights include go-karts, trampolines, swinging ropes and slides. One slide is nearly vertical and should satisfy the most intrepid of youngsters.
Big Sky is open to all children under ten years of age, while the under-fives get their own play area, filled with slides, ball pits and spongy shapes. Adults, are invited to watch, but there are indoor activities for them, including wall climbing, table tennis and table football. All this, plus a restaurant, makes Big Sky a great place to spend a rainy day.

4 Parkside Pool
Don't forget to pack your costumes this holiday. Although Cambridgeshire doesn't have a beach, it does have a modern pool to amuse your water babies. Younger children can play safely in a heated toddlers' pool, while older children can be let loose on the two flumes and the diving pool. For serious swimmers there's a 25m pool.
During school holidays, Parkside runs family 'wet and wild' sessions, featuring inflatables and floats. If you fancy some relaxation away from the children, bribe your partner and head for the health suite. After a potent combination of sauna, jacuzzi and steam room, you'll feel fit to tackle everything that Cambridgeshire (or your children) can throw at you.

5 Sedgwick Museum
Sedgwick is Cambridge's oldest museum and a hidden treasure, tucked away on Downing Street. As you enter, you are greeted by a plaster-cast model of an iguanodon; this being Cambridge, there is a large panel explaining that the 'begging posture' of the dinosaur is probably incorrect and new research favours an all-fours position. The museum is packed full of fossils, 1.5 million of which date back as far back as 3000 million years ago.
By far the strangest specimen is a hippo skeleton that was found in nearby Barrington. The 125,000-year-old beast was reconstructed with bones from several specimens. Children will particularly enjoy the plesiosaur, bought for £230 by Adam Sedgwick in 1841. On our visit, cries of 'Look!' drifted down the museum as children discovered that the reptile had an extravagant array of teeth. Although the exhibit wall panels can sometimes baffle children, the visual richness of the museum is a winner.

6 Nene Valley Railway
Steam trains chug once more through Nene parkland on a 7.5-mile track linking Yarwell junction to Peterborough, after the railway reopened in 1977 to give modern passengers a taste of the golden age of steam. The Wansford headquarters house the museum, model railway and the majority of the locomotives. If you stay at Ferry Meadows Caravan Park, the railway is just a few minutes' walk away.
Children will love Thomas, who might not talk but is painted blue and puffs a lot. He's actually a 1947 locomotive, with no connection to the storybook tank engine, but Thomas author Rev W Awdry attended an open day and agreed to bestow the character's name on the blue locomotive. He makes guest appearances on certain days, so check the timetable. Also, don't miss the international collection of locomotives kept here.