Within walking distance
Standedge Tunnel
Marsden HD7 6NQ At three and a half miles, this is the longest, deepest, and highest canal tunnel in the country. The Visitor Centre has a video presentation by Mikron Theatre, which brings to life the people who built the tunnel and worked on the canal. Short trips into the Tunnel.
Cycling in the hills
All along the Calder Valley Release your inner cyclist, and explore the fantastic scenery you can reach from anywhere along the canal. This picture is Calderdale Off Road Climb 22. There are 50 such routes, all being put onto the Cycle Calderdale website.
The Hepworth Wakefield
By Flood Lock WF1 5AW With over 1,600 square metres of light-filled gallery spaces, The Hepworth Wakefield is the largest purpose-built exhibition space outside London. The gallery brings together work from Wakefield's art collection, exhibitions by contemporary artists and rarely seen works by Barbara Hepworth.
Hebden Bridge Arts Festival
Town Hall HX7 7BY Music, literature, theatre, comedy, exhibitions and gardens. In June each year.
Royal Armouries
New Dock, Leeds LS10 1LT Galleries show the history of fighting, weapons and armour. The tournament gallery takes you back to the age of chivalry, and if you pick the right day you can see real jousting. There is also a gallery of Peace....
East Riddlesden Hall
Riddlesden BD20 5EL 17th-century West Riding manor house with formal and wild gardens, duckpond and grounds. The house is small enough to imagine real people living there, and has fascinating associations with Yorkshire's Civil War past. Location for Wuthering Heights (1992).
Flying Saucers
Butler's Wharf HX7 8AD Decorate your own pottery (choose from 100 items), then have it glazed - pick up a few days later. Great for discovering the creative in yourself or your children. Enjoy a drink and a snack while you paint. Next to the Canal Centre in the heart of Hebden Bridge.
South Pennine Walk and Ride Festival
www.walkandridefestival.co.uk 10 to 25 September 2016. Walks, bike rides, radical history tours, walking football - discover the South Pennines all over again. Within reach of our canals, or by public transport. Organised by stalwart Pennine Heritage.
Skipton Castle
High Street BD23 1AW Over 900 years old, this is one of the best preserved castles in England, complete with dungeon, keep and sheer drop into the Springs Branch below. It withstood a three-year siege during the Civil War. It was home to the Cliffords, a powerful family at the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
Hardcastle Crags NT
Opposite wharf entrance. HX7 7AA Beautiful wooded valley with waterfalls, wildlife and the biggest anthills you've ever seen. The perfect place for hide-and-seek. The recently restored 19th-century Gibson Mill is powered by sustainable energy (with sustaining tearoom). Location for Nicholas Nickleby and Sharpe.
Walks
From anywhere Our canals are surrounded by renowned walking country. The Pennine Way & Calderdale Way cross the canal, and can be picked up from link paths. Hebden Bridge was one of the first Walker Friendly towns. There are fantastic views from the tops, reachable from anywhere along the canal. Marsden Moor NT rises above Standedge.
Grand designs
Saltaire BD18 3LA Ever wanted really to be in control? Then envy Sir Titus Salt, who built a complete Victorian model town beside his mills, to provide excellent housing - but strictly no pub - for his staff. He called it Saltaire. The houses are still much sought-after, and the mills are thriving with new uses including the Hockney Gallery.
Leventhorpe Vineyard
Woodlesford LS26 8AF Long-established and much recommended winery producing red, white and sparkling wines, available to buy direct. Just north of Woodlesford Lock.
Gordon Rigg Garden Centres
Walsden OL14 7TJ People drive from all over the North to pick up bargains at these incredible centres: you just moor outside and bring your trophies home on the boat. Canalside at Walsden and Rochdale.
Film trails
Discover locations for Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack, Last Tango in Halifax, The Jetty, Stay Lucky and True Tilda filmed in Sowerby Bridge and Hebden Bridge. See locations for Last of the Summer Wine and Where the Heart Is in the Colne Valley, plus Emmerdale at Esholt; and lots of other films and TV shows.
Food by Cargobike
Have your breakfast box or other fresh, local food delivered carbon-free to your boat by electric Cargobike. Cargodale will bring you fresh food to anywhere between Luddendenfoot and Walsden. Order by Tuesday night and confirm location by Friday morning for Friday delivery.
A bus or train ride away
Eureka!
Halifax HX1 2NE The Museum for Children in Halifax is the first and foremost hands-on children's museum in the UK and is designed especially for 0-11 year olds. You can walk there along the line of the old Halifax Arm, or get the bus from Salterhebble or Sowerby Bridge.
The Brontë Parsonage museum
Haworth BD22 8DR The home of the Brontë sisters, full of intriguing stuff about their life and times, as well as being a centre for academic study. The West Riding is also dotted with houses used as locations in their stories - and films.
Nostell Priory
Wakefield. WF4 1QE A house built for someone who had to buy his own furniture - but it was made for this house by Chippendale and there are interiors by Robert Adam, and paintings by Brueghel and Hogarth. Plus a terrific park and lake. A bus ride from your moorings.
National Media Museum
Bradford BD1 1NQ See dinosaurs larger than life and three times as natural on the 5-storey Imax screen at this centre devoted to film, photography, television, radio and the web.
York
Easily worth a day, by train from anywhere on the waterways. See the view from the tower of York Minster. Go underground to discover life with the Vikings at Yorvik. See Mallard and the Flying Scotsman at the National Railway Museum.
Imperial War Museum North
Salford Quays M17 1TZ The building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, represents a fractured world. Permanent and changing exhibitions include the gun which fired the first British shell in the First World War.
The Lowry
Salford Quays M50 3AZ Three theatres for all kinds of performing arts, and galleries with a permanent exhibition of the works of local hero LS Lowry, plus changing shows of other artists.
The National Coal Mining Museum
Caphouse Colliery WF4 4RH A unique opportunity to travel 140 metres underground down one of Britain's oldest working mines, where models and machinery depict methods and conditions of mining from the early 1800s to the present.
Harewood House
Harewood, Leeds LS17 9LG The home of Lord Harewood. Worth the long bus ride from Leeds. House built by John Carr of York and Robert Adam, financed by the sugar trade and slavery. Chippendale furniture, extensive park, rare birds, adventure playground. Hosts many special shows such as Eric Clapton.
Railway journeys
KWVR: KeighleyBD22 8NJ Step back in time and enjoy a train ride through the heart of Brontë country on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. Or pick up the Settle & Carlisle Railway from Skipton, and fulfil that dream to travel across Ribblehead Viaduct. Or try the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway; or Kirklees Light Railway....