Worth getting out of bed for...

Viewpoint

Ramble the North Hampshire Downs and make the meandering ascent up Pilot Hill, the county’s highest point. From the top, you can look down across a pastoral patchwork of grassland and woods into Berkshire.

Arts and culture

Portsmouth is mother city of the Royal Navy, and it really won’t let you forget it. HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and the Mary Rose loom large in the harbour, and the waterfront is lined with museums devoted to nautical warfare. Literary landlubbers can visit Charles Dickens’ birthplace which houses the sofa on which the author met his maker (www.charlesdickensbirthplace.co.uk), or leave town for Chawton to scout out Jane Austen’s house, where she worked on almost all her major novels on a tiny writing table (www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk).

Something for nothing

OK, so it’s not King Arthur’s actual Round Table that currently resides in Winchester’s Great Hall, but the 14th-century forgery still merits a look-see (www.hants.gov.uk/greathall).

Shopping

Portsmouth and Southampton see to any high-street needs, and Basingstoke’s Festival Place is one for the mallrats – although it does host a farmers’ market every Saturday, too (www.festivalplace.co.uk). Hampshire is heaven for antique-hunters, with dozens of shops selling furniture and bric-a-brac dotted all over the county. Gaylords in Titchfield has a remarkable stock of vintage furniture (www.gaylords.co.uk), and, across the border in Farnham, Surrey, the renowned Packhouse is a veritable Aladdin’s cave of yesteryear objets d’art set in a 400-year-old hop kiln (www.packhouse.com).

Daytripper

The serene slice of yesteryear that is the Isle of Wight sits two miles off the Hampshire coast and is easily reached by car ferry from Portsmouth to Ryde (www.wightlink.com) or from Southampton to Cowes (www.redfunnel.co.uk) – ferries run every half hour or so. Once landed, head over to the Victorian fishing town of Ventnor for coastal walks, lighthouse spotting and pub lunches. Unleash the kids at Blackgang Chine, the isle’s fêted fun park (www.blackgangchine.com).

Perfect picnic

Hop over the Surrey border to Secrett’s in Milford, a fantastic farm with a supermarket-sized shop and year-round pick-your-own fruit and veg plots (www.secretts.co.uk). Stock up on fresh local produce, then head over to Winchester and schlep to the summit of St Giles Hill to admire the views over the rooftops and cathedral while you eat.

Walks

The New Forest is riddled with walking trails. There’s a lovely circular route from the village of Lyndhurst through the outlying hamlets of Pikes Hill, Emery Down and Swann Green that doubles as a miniature country pub crawl, taking in thatched cottages, picturesque churches and, naturally, glorious Hampshire countryside.

Children

Introduce young Smiths to Ralph, the wetsuit-toting penguin at Marwell Wildlife near Winchester. (His feathers fell off, and the suit saves him from sunburn.) The park is also home to around 250 species from all over the globe, including tigers, crocs, giraffes and snow leopards (www.marwell.org.uk). For more aquatic animal antics, Portsmouth’s Blue Reef Aquarium is one of the UK’s best sea-life centres (www.bluereefaquarium.co.uk).

Activities

In Farnborough, the Cabair Flying School will happily plonk you in the cockpit of a small plane or helicopter and send you to the skies (www.cabairflyingschools.com). You can also bob along in the basket of a hot-air balloon – champagne in hand – with Adventure Balloons (www.adventureballoons.co.uk). If you prefer to keep your feet on the ground (or very slightly above it), hone your polo skills at Brett Polo (www.brettpolo.com) in Winkfield, or get saddle-sore exploring the New Forest by bike (www.cyclex.co.uk) or on horseback (www.burleyvilla.co.uk).

And

Take to the water: Smith hotel The Pig works with Upstream Dry Fly (www.upstreamdryfly.com) to provide a day of tuition on a private estate lake, including a picnic prepared by the Pig's chef, for £240.