Cutty Sark

Cutty Sark is a tea clipper launched at Dumbarton in 1869, built for speed in the China tea trade and then, after steam and the Suez Canal ended that era, put to work carrying wool from Australia, where she was among the fastest ships on the route. She now sits in dry dock beside the Thames at King William Walk in Greenwich, and the display is clever: the hull has been lifted and encircled by a glass skirt, so visitors can stand underneath the copper-clad bottom and look up at the lines that made her quick, before climbing aboard. On board you can walk the deck, stand at the wheel for a photograph, look at the Thames views and explore the original interior, which holds memorabilia from her voyages. A major fire in 2007, while she was being conserved, damaged the ship, and a long restoration reopened her to the public in 2012. The result is a museum that is vivid for children and for anyone who likes ships, engineering or maritime history, and it is among the more satisfying paid sights in Greenwich.

The ship is open daily during the day, and the entry ticket includes an audio guide in English and eight other languages. The operator, Royal Museums Greenwich, says the ship is wheelchair accessible, with limited wheelchair spaces at any one time, and that manual and most powered wheelchairs can board while mobility scooters cannot.

Show your phone voucher at the admission desk, and note that the ticket is non-refundable and cannot be rescheduled, so be sure of your date before you buy. A separate afternoon tea option runs on some days, but it is a different product.

Getting there is easy. The Docklands Light Railway stops at Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich, riverboats call at Greenwich Pier a few steps away, and trains serve Greenwich and Maze Hill. That makes the ship an obvious first stop in a day built around the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage area. From the ship it is a short walk through Greenwich Market and up through the park to the Royal Observatory, with the National Maritime Museum and the Queen's House along the way, and both are free to enter.

Plan around an hour for the ship itself, which is longer if you are travelling with children who enjoy the interactive displays on the lower decks. Visiting early in the day makes the glass-skirt area quieter and the photographs clearer. A weekday is calmer than a weekend, when the market and the riverside fill up.

The honest comment is that the ship is compact, so it is best treated as one stop within a Greenwich day rather than a destination on its own. Combined with the Observatory and a river trip back to the centre, it forms one of the best days outside the core of London.