The National Maritime Museum Cornwall celebrates Cornwall's unique maritime heritage with exhibitions, interactive displays and regular events. The purpose-built museum, opened in 2002, is one of Cornwall's major visitor attractions and one of the few examples of notable contemporary architecture in the county.

Inside, there's plenty to keep visitors of all ages occupied. Things to see include Set Sail, an an immersive audio-visual experience that tells the stories of nine boats using state-of-the-art technology to bring together archive film footage, photographs, and interviews with famous sailors and designers.

The Flotilla displays craft from the National Small Boats Collection, the Nav Station is a gallery of interactive exhibits that provide an insight into the world of navigation and meteorology, and at the Waterfront, an indoor lake with an array of fans to create a stiff breeze, you can try your hand at sailing radio-controlled yachts.

The museum's pontoon provides a opportunity to see boats on the water. Visitors include Bluebottle, the Dragon Class yacht owned by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's Suhalli, the first boat to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and the recently restored Truro River oyster dredger Softwing

This is the view from the 29 Metre-high Lookout tower, with a fabulous view across Falmouth harbour, the docks and estuary. The Lookout includes interactive displays you can use to find out more about what you can see, maps of local landmarks and coastal features, and binoculars and telescopes so you can take a closer look around.

There's an equally arresting view of the depths, below the high water mark, in the Tidal Zone.