Oakdene Forest Park

The sandy beaches of Bournemouth are only nine miles from Oakdene Forest Park: add the ones at neighbouring Poole and Christchurch and you’ll keep the kids happy for the whole hol, especially when you throw in the fossil-hunting of the Jurassic Coast and the Adventure Wonderland Theme Park. Start off at the Bournemouth Eye to see the town from heady heights; once nerves have recovered, totter off to the seven miles of award-winning Bournemouth beaches and the newly refurbished pier with kids’ rides and boat trips along the Dorset coast. To get about on land, take the Land Train along the pier to Poole – with a stop-off on the way at Alum Chine for the acclaimed Tropical Gardens and the pirate-themed playground. Poole’s gorgeous natural harbour is the biggest in Europe, and a harbour cruise from Poole Quay might make you think you’re in the Med (the multi-million pound houses of the Sandbanks peninsula might give this impression too). There are boat trips from the harbour to the National Trust’s Brownsea Island, home of increasingly rare red squirrels and described by Bill Oddie as ‘the best place for seeing wildlife in Dorset’. Go east from Bournemouth and Poole to reach Christchurch and another lovely natural harbour, then Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard with historic ships including HMS Victory. West leads to the seaside towns of Weymouth and Swanage, famed for watersports and more miles of sandy golden beaches. Boat trips and sea fishing trips can be picked up anywhere along this stretch of coast; if you want to keep it simple and/or cheap, give the kids a line and bucket and let them crab off Bournemouth Pier. Back in Hampshire, the New Forest wood be wrong to miss, and we suspect this won’t be an option once small people in your party discover it’s the location of Peppa Pig World at Paultons Park. The popular Beaulieu Motor Museum and Village, voted the best large visitor attraction 2013 by VisitEngland, is in the heart of the New Forest and also has Beaulieu Abbey and Palace House and Gardens on site.