Liverpool

"The Discoverer of America was the maker of Liverpool"

So says the plaque beneath the statue of Christopher Columbus that stands outside the splendid Palm House in Liverpool's Sefton Park. The full story unfolds in the heart of Liverpool's historic dockland at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. In fact, one gripping story after another tumbles out in every gallery, each one telling its own Atlantic adventure - of the Titanic disaster, the Battle of the Atlantic, the nine million emigrants who sailed from here to begin new lives in North America and Australasia.  And suddenly you're in the International Slavery Museum, a powerful and moving acknowledgment of Liverpool's most shameful transatlantic cargoes.

From the top of the Museum you can sense the journeys that have begun and ended here for hundreds of years. Look out over the Albert Dock, to the Mersey Ferries ploughing across the estuary, and between the grand historic commercial buildings and the bold architecture of 21st century Liverpool, the sea. Just a step away from the waterfront, explore the rest of the city - more of its National Museums and Galleries, legendary Beatles haunts and a dazzling array of designer shops in a stylishly revamped city centre.

Not far away, in stark contrast to the horrors of slavery is Port Sunlight garden village, the utopian dream of 19th century industrialist Lord Leverhulme, a philanthropic man so committed to social improvement that he built a complete village community for the workers of his Sunlight Soap empire, providing them with architect-designed cottages, gardens, parks and an art gallery in which to house the art collection he loved. His business went on to become the largest company in Britain by 1930, so he must have done something right. The village remains as lovely as ever, and the gallery is packed with exquisite Pre-Raphaelite works of art.

Soap is just one of the products whose manufacture is explored at Catalyst, a great family attraction devoted to the Chemical industry - and if you ever wanted to inspire your children to follow in the footsteps of the region's greatest entrepreneurs and show them just how much fun chemistry can be, this is the place to bring them!

Just north of Liverpool is the historic home of glass-making, St Helens. Here were all the right conditions for the Pilkington family to create a business that went on to dominate the world and still does to this day. Visit the World of Glass for a fascinating look at the history and the future of glass-making.

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For more information on what you can discover in Liverpool visit http://www.visitliverpool.com/