Big Pit: National Coal Museum
Gwent, NP4 9XP
Big Pit is a former working coal mine set in the heart of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
With an ex-miner as tour guide, visitors are invited to plunge 90 metres underground to experience the dark and dreary conditions that the men used to face when working in the pit.
Meanwhile above ground, there's a chance to take a multi-media tour of a modern coal mine, as well as explore the array of exhibitions in the pithead baths and colliery buildings.
Big Pit won the Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year in 2005 (now the Art Fund Prize).