Wingbury Farm Glamping

If you’re the sort that has stacks of shopping stamina, you may like to flex that credit card in the designer outlets at Bicester Village (40 minutes away). Milton Keynes (half an hour) is pretty good for a spree too, and comes with the added bonus of heaps of activities at Xscape (cinemas, bowling, indoor skydiving, a trampoline park and the Snozone snow sports centre) to entertain those less enthused by retail. A little way outside Milton Keynes is Bletchley Park, famed for housing the codebreakers in World War II and now a fab museum dedicated to their work, 1940s history and all manner of computer and cyber developments. If you’re into your history, you may like to also take a jaunt to Jacobean Ascott House (10 minutes), and Waddesdon Manor (25 minutes), home to a cracking collection of treasures including a musical elephant (of course). Real-life elephants more your thing? And cheetahs, chimps, lions, hippos and all sorts of other exotic creatures? Take the half-hour journey to Woburn Safari Park or ZSL Whipsnade Zoo to get a good look at a gathering of beasts from across the globe.