End of an era

Monday is the centenary of Queen Victoria's death at Osborne House, her magnificent holiday home on the Isle of Wight. Although the estate does not officially open until January 31, the grounds will be open to the public on the 22nd "for quiet contemplation", aided by a lone piper at 1.30pm.

Monday, 10am-2pm. Free. York Avenue, Isle of Wight (01983 200022).

Watery trek

Enter a subterranean aquatic world on the banks of the Thames. Follow the darkened trail through various habitats, from British rivers to Amazonian rainforest, accompanied by suitable watery soundtracks.

Open daily 10am-6pm. £8/£5, family £22. Annual tickets with unlimited entry available in two weeks' time: £30/£18/ family £75. County Hall, Riverside Building, Westminster Bridge Rd, London SE1 (020-7967 8000).

Welsh ride

Canaston Woods in Pembrokeshire is a great place to go mountain biking along traffic-free, purpose-built signed trails. The colour-coded signs and the map of the woods show both easy surfaced family trails and the more demanding and often muddy bridleways.

Bicycle hire: Mike's Bikes, 17 Prendergast, Haverfordwest (01437 760068). Woods: 8 miles east of Haverfordwest on A40. Tourist information: 01437 763110.

Flying visit

The Fleet Air Arm Museum is Europe's largest naval aviation museum, with six acres of aircraft, mainly undercover. Follow the development of British aviation from wooden biplanes to Concorde and use interactive displays to torpedo a submarine and take to the bridge of an aircraft carrier.

Open daily 10am-4.30pm. £7/£5/ family £23. Yeovilton, Somerset (01935 840565).

Line engaged

A new leaflet, Perfectly Hooked, gives details of 20 places around South Somerset and West Dorset where you can fish, from £3 to £18 a day. Most are for coarse fishermen - one site boasts over 21 species - but there is also fly-fishing for brown and rainbow trout.

Leaflet from local tourist information centres or the South Somerset tourism office (01935 462684).

Industrial heritage

An 18th-century complex of cotton mills and stone-built workers' houses is now a World Heritage Site. New Lanark Mill, founded by the political visionary Robert Owen on the banks of the River Clyde, is an industrial museum par excellence, offering tours, a steam engine, a massive water wheel, a hotel and shops.

Open daily 11am-5pm. £3.75/£2.50/ family £9.95/£12.50. Lanark, Scotland (01555 661345).