However, on our return we definitely enjoyed taking a look through two brilliantly designed activity books for culture vultures or leisure lizards.
Mary Richards' awesome new series of books are designed to be scribbled in. Starting with "Take me to Museums", youngsters can chronicle and document their own trips to fabulous places full of amazing artifacts, with tons of facts and information about some of the world's most amazing museums.
Inside the book you'll find dozens of activity pages, so grab a pen and pencil, and perhaps your best colouring pens or crayons and get busy the next time you visit an amazing museum or gallery.
Let's take a look at a sample page from inside this book...
There's also "Take me on Holiday" - with a similar approach to making going on holiday even more fun with an awesome holiday journal too!
As with "Take me to Museums", "Take Me on Holiday" has lots and lots of spaces and doodle pages for you to think about your holiday at every stage.
From your packing list (books are an essential thing to take with you, of course!) to details about where you'll be staying, what you'll be eating, the people you might meet and of course loads of space to detail all your holiday activities.
We really love the approach taken with these, not making them too busy or 'in your face' but keeping the text and illustrations fairly muted so that kids can let their own journaling take over, and really make the books their own.
Let's take a look at a sample page from this one...
Both books are a handy sized and really durable, but can also be taken apart so you can add the pages to your own scrapbook, photo album or journal (and best of all they won't weigh heavy in your luggage!)
"Take me to Museums" and "Take me on Holiday" by Mary Richards are both out now, published by Agnes and Aubrey (kindly supplied for review).