I’M not sure who’s wearing the biggest grin, my husband Andy or our kids Poppy, five, and Raffy, two, as we ride the miniature steam railway through Exbury Gardens.
But this quintessential British break is proving to be a winner.
Exbury is huge – home to more than 1,000 types of rhododendron in 200 acres of woodland.
After exploring, we’ve earned the first home-made scone of the weekend at its eatery, Mr Eddy’s.
Entry costs from £13 for adults, £5.50 for over-threes, and train rides are £6.50 (Exbury.co.uk).
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The full monty
We’re staying at The Montagu Arms in the New Forest’s chocolate-box village of Beaulieu, just a few minutes’ drive away.
The plush, spacious courtyard suites have egg baths, rain showers, Nespresso machines and wooden board games.
Donkey biscuits, flapjacks and sloe gin – all home-made – await too, along with the afternoon sun that bathes the sweet vegetable garden.
The hotel’s pub, Monty’s Inn, serves perfectly cooked dry-aged rib eye, £38, alongside flavoursome guinea fowl with lemongrass rice and Asian slaw, £22.
For breakfast, delectable smoked salmon and creamy scrambled eggs are a real treat.
The National Motor Museum lies on the village’s outskirts.
Here we find vintage cars, including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the World of Top Gear, which has many of the show’s ludicrous inventions, plus an excellent new playground.
Rides on the monorail and retro open-top bus also delight the kids.
Entry costs from £24.50 for adults and £13.50 for over-fives (Beaulieu.co.uk).
Brilliant bakes
There are walks aplenty, but the joy of Beaulieu is its quaint high street.
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We stop by The Beaulieu Bakehouse for a devilishly chocolatey brownie, £3.25, and end up ordering breakfast hashes of fried potatoes, sausages, pepper, spinach and eggs, £9.75 (Thebeaulieubakehouse.co.uk).
A few doors down, we watch masterpieces being created at the tiny Beaulieu Chocolate Studio, before hitting its choc button bar, where there are 20 different flavours – including delicious honey – to pick from, £3.25 per 100g (Beaulieuchocolatestudio.co.uk).
Further up is Fairweather’s Garden Centre with its array of gifts, and Steff’s Kitchen serving more moreish scones (Fairweathers.co.uk).
Plus don’t miss fab vintage homeware at Bellalocus (Bellalocus.com).
Pigging out
For our final day, we visit Paultons Park 20 minutes away, which is home to Peppa Pig World.
I may not be a fan of the show, but we all have a blast here.
Rides like George’s Dinosaur Adventure are a hit, and Poppy and Raffy drive cars, race down water slides and scream their way around the rollercoasters.
Tickets cost from £43.50 per person over 1m tall (Paultonspark.co.uk).
In nearby Brockenhurst, Albero is the perfect neighbourhood Italian.
We feast on polpettini pizza topped with venison meatballs and caramelised onions, £16.50, as well as thick ribbons of bucatini all’Amatriciana smothered in a tomato sauce studded with smoked pork cheek, £18.50.
The kids scoff pizza topped with ham hock, £8.50, and I finish with a Nutella hot chocolate of dreams (Alberobrockenhurst.com).
If this weekend is the high that forest bathing gives you, sign me up!
