Pookles Farm

The hiking and cycling trails of the South Downs National Park are accessed from your pitch. You can also explore the chalk downs on horseback (10 minutes’ drive), and if you get a particularly clear night, climb Butser Hill (half an hour) – one of the highest points in Hampshire – to gaze at the Milky Way sparkling in the heavens above your head. After all that exercise and fresh air, a gentle afternoon’s potter may be called for, so sit back on the steam train as you chug through Hampshire countryside on the Watercress Line from Alton (15 minutes). Too tired to stir even that far? Smell the soothing scent of lavender as you tour the fields at the Lavender Barn (five minutes), where there’s a pretty café and a craft shop selling lavender-related bits and bobs. If you are of a literary bent, be sure to look in at Jane Austen’s House, left pretty much as it was when the author lived there for eight years before her death in 1817. The former mansion home to 18th-century naturalist Gilbert White (both 10 minutes) is also open for tours of its grand period rooms and gorgeous gardens.