1 No list of the country’s finest transport museums would be complete without the one on Swindon’s doorstep. Opened in 2000, Steam - www.steam-museum.org.uk – is a living and ever-changing chronicle of the Great Western Railway. It offers not just the magnificent locomotives, rolling stock and historical ephemera associated with the company, but also insights into its history from people who were directly involved. Visit the website to keep in touch with the latest deals and special exhibitions.

2 Cotswold Motoring Museum and Toy Collection in Bourton-on-the-Water - www.cotswoldmotoringmuseum.co.uk – is home to a collection which includes cars, caravans, motorcycles and transport-related toys ranging from model aircraft to old-fashioned pedal cars. The oldest of the full-sized cars dates back to the dawn of the motoring age, and is part of an array which covers everything from familiar runabouts of yesteryear to exotic vehicles older visitors might remember yearning for.

3 The British Bubblecar Museum - www.bubblecarmuseum.co.uk – near Boston in Lincolnshire proudly bills itself as the country’s most unusual motoring museum. As the name suggests, it has a comprehensive collection of the microcars which were a niche automotive trend among cost-conscious drivers in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to some 50 of these vehicles, including a cult classic Bond Bug, there is plenty of memorabilia on display.

4 Aerospace Bristol - http://aerospacebristol.org – is currently celebrating the 50th anniversary year of Concorde’s maiden test flight. Visitors can step aboard perhaps the most evocative aircraft in its collection – the last of the supersonic aircraft to fly. The Patchway museum is also home to a large collection of other aviation treasures, both military and civilian.

5 The Fleet Air Arm Museum - www.fleetairarm.com – at Yeovilton is also celebrating the Concorde anniversary, and its collection includes Concorde 002, the early prototype which famously flew from Fairford. The bulk of the collection, however, consists of machines from the Royal Navy’s long aviation history. They include, among many fascinating aircraft, the de Havilland Sea Vampire which was the first jet aircraft anywhere on the planet to perform a deck landing at sea.

6 If Swindon is home to some of the finest examples of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s land craft, Bristol has his finest ship. Visitors to Brunel’s SS Great Britain - www.ssgreatbritain.org – can step aboard a pioneering iron vessel with a just claim to having changed the world of sea transport forever. In addition to stepping into the ship’s cavernous interior and exploring many of its passageways and hidden places visitors can explore the historic dockyard and museum, and take part in a variety of activities.

7 The highlight of the Royal navy Submarine Museum - www.nmrn.org.uk/submarine-museum - is almost undoubtedly HMS Alliance, the only surviving British World Wat Two submarine, which made a guest appearance in Transformers V: The Last Knight. Visitors can go aboard and imagine what life must have been like for the crews who had to live for weeks on end in the cramped space while at constant risk of enemy attack. Among the many other exhibits is one of the earliest examples of a submarine.

8 If any motoring museum can claim to be Britain’s best, it is probably the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu - www.beaulieu.co.uk. At any one time, more than 250 vehicles are on display.There are cars from Formula One and other branches of motor sport, setters and breakers of land speed records – and examples of ordinary cars.

9 The Helicopter Museum - http://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk – in Weston-super-Mare boasts more than 100 of the machines in its undercover hangar, which makes it the most extensive museum of its kind in the world.

10 The Tank Museum - www.tankmuseum.org - at Bovington in Dorset is another specialist museum with a world-class collection. Its more than 300 vehicles tell the story of mobile armoured warfare from the earliest World War One-era experimental vehicles to examples of machines used today and in the recent past.