Ask most people what draws them to Harrogate for a day out and the answer could be one of many things.

The Valley Gardens, the Turkish Baths, RHS Garden Harlow Carr, or the Royal Pump Room Museum.

Yet when I mentioned to my teenage daughters that we were heading for the spa town, they grinned and together chimed: “Shopping!”

Not so many years ago, the idea of trailing around the shops would have horrified them and they’d have made a beeline for the playground at the top of the Valley Gardens. But now, having previously visited the town with their friends purely to spend, spend, spend, they were smitten and keen to return with their Christmas money.

Anyone suffering the January Blues and in need of a little retail therapy will not be disappointed by the famous spa town, with its vast array of high street and quirky independent shops in elegant parades and a stylish, modern shopping centre.

So, once the children had got their fix of clothes, bags and shoes, what did they fancy doing in Harrogate?

They were keen to return to the Royal Pump Room Museum. The curious octagonal building houses the strongest sulphur wells in Europe where, in the the spa’s heyday, more than 15,000 people would come every summer to drink the water, which is said to have healing properties.

It may have been credited with curing ailments from gout to lumbago – but it won’t leave you clamouring for more. The aroma of rotten eggs coupled with a nasty taste, is enough to leave you retching. It is an experience you won’t forget in a hurry.

The pump room was built in 1842 by Isaac Shutt, becoming a museum in 1953. It now houses displays of the bizarre spa treatments that made the town a favourite with the Victorians.

In 1842, the room attracted 3,778 drinkers, in 1867 it was 11,626, and in 1925 that figure soared to 259,000. Visitors included Tsar Nicholas ll of Russia and the novellist Charles Dickens, who described Harrogate as “The queerest place with the strangest people leading the oddest lives”.

This month a new exhibtion – Harrogate for Health And Happiness: A Spa Town In The 20th Century, opens at the museum. It explores Harrogate’s 20th century history through historical objects, fashion, film and photographs.

You can find out about the spa treatments, the visitors, Harrogate during the war years and how the town became a conference venue once the number of spa visitors began to fall.

We ambled around the shops for a couple of hours, grabbing a light lunch from one of the many food outlets. Although cold, it was such a nice day we took our sandwiches to the Valley Gardens and ate them on a bench in the sunshine.

I love the Valley Gardens, and have many happy memories of days out with my friend and her two children. The youngsters would splash around in the open-air paddling pool – a popular attraction in summer – before playing hide and seek in the woods.

The English Heritage Grade ll-listed gardens – which are one of Ilkley-born celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh’s favourite public gardens – cover 17 acres and include woodland and more mineral springs than any other known location. There’s a great children’s playground, as well as a new skate park for skateboards, BMX and scooters. Spring and summer activities include tennis and crazy golf. You can grab a cup of tea and a cake at a lovely cafe with friendly staff.

For art lovers, the Mercer Art Gallery housed in the town’s elegant promenade rooms is home to the district’s collection of fine art, mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries. It includes work by Atkinson Grimshaw, William Powell Frith and Dame Laura Knight.

We didn’t have time to go there, but there was plenty of art to enjoy in Harrogate’s many upmarket antique shops. We did a great deal of window shopping, although when you can’t go anywhere near affording the beautiful crystal chandeliers and exquisite items of furniture, it can leave you slightly downcast.

We blew away any depressive thoughts with a short stroll along The Stray, the 200 acres of land that wraps around the ‘old town’ and is a popular spot for kite flying, picnicking and outdoor games. There’s occasionally a funfair on the land.

The Stray is always a bit chilly and windswept, particularly at this time of year, but bracing all the same. It won’t be long before swathes of the land are coated in spring flowers.

All this, and I haven’t mentioned Bettys tea-room – the perfect place for an afternoon’s indulgence – or RHS Garden Harlow Carr with its vast collection of plants laid out both in themed and wild gardens. And for adults looking for a break from the hurly-burly of modern life, the Turkish Baths offer a menu of luxury treatments in a spectacular Victorian setting.

If you visit Harrogate, take note of the glorious displays of flowers. The district took centre stage at the 2011 Yorkshire In Bloom awards, coming away with 11 category wins – the most in any one area since the In Bloom awards began in 1964.