Potton Brewery

The brewery sits just outside Sandy, in that flat expanse of Cambridgeshire where you'd least expect to find decent beer being made. Potton has been turning out ales here since the 1990s, and if you're staying at one of the holiday parks nearby - Cambridgeshire Lakes is only a couple of miles away - it's worth digging out their location and ringing ahead.

What you get is a proper working brewery, the kind where you can actually see the equipment and the people who know what they're doing. Tours happen if you book, and they're fairly comprehensive - you'll walk through the whole process and understand why their cask ales have such a following locally. The tasting bit at the end is where it gets interesting; their flagship brews are solid without being pretentious.

For beer enthusiasts, this scratches an itch. Families with older kids who fancy seeing how things actually work will get something from it too, though it's not a theme park experience. Plan on two hours maximum if you're doing a tour and a sample. It's not free - expect a small charge - but the beer knowledge justifies it.

The brewery shop sells bottles to take back to your caravan, which beats the supermarket beer run. Combined with a morning walk around the lakes, this makes a decent afternoon out. Worth the detour only if you genuinely care about craft beer, mind you. If lager's your limit, don't bother.