What is your priority - somewhere you can use for holidays, or short term income or long term protection of capital/capital growth? And how much time/work are you prepared to put in yourself?
If you want somewhere you can use yourself for holidays a small well maintained cottage or flat in a tourist-y area may be a good bet, if you choose carefully somewhere that will cover its costs for most of the year (including agency and cleaning fees unless you are local and will manage yourself) and you off-set what you would otherwise have spent on accommodation for your own holidays it may even be profitable but bear in mind that unless you have enough capital to buy outright you'll need a specialist mortgage which may have high costs, plus the 'headline' rent you can charge in the summer months will usually be much less or nil in the winter (in the UK anyway). Also the kind of holidays you want now may not be the same in 10 years time, do you really want to tie yourself down to holidaying in the same place every time forever more?
If monthly income or long term capital growth is more a priority for you then a regular buy to let may be a better bet. If you have at least a 25% deposit you can get a buy to let mortgage so you don't have to have the full purchase price in cash (although obviously the bigger the mortgage the more interest you pay/less monthly income you get). When doing your sums you will need to include agents fees, maintenance costs, insurance, allowance for void periods/tenants not paying rent, and of course tax (people often forget this because you used to be able to tax deduct a lot more, now you have to pay tax on pretty much the whole income) on any rental income before you are into 'profit'. BTL is not the cash cow it used to be but still can be profitable if you are savvy about the area/type property you buy (look for areas where property prices will increase due to investment, development or transport improvements) and particularly if you are able to do management and improvement or maintenance work yourselves.
Otherwise there are plenty of other sensible things you can do with the money where it will be perfectly safe and you won't have to do much/anything about it on a monthly basis as you would with any kind of property investment. Depending on your circumstances, paying off your residential mortgage, maxing out pensions, buying premium or government bonds, ISAs and/or stocks and shares (via a managed fund, don't pick yourself unless you know what you are doing) can be sensible, safe, tax efficient investments... Depending on how much you have it might be sensible to see an independent financial adviser, yes you have to pay but money well spent to ensure you pick the best investment for you?