Once a claypit for the local brickworks, this nature reserve is now a wildlife oasis with a series of little lakes and woodland alive with birds. In between Portsmouth and Southampton, and close to the M27, it is easy to access and easy to explore.

Pagham Harbour is a nature reserve on one of the few undeveloped stretches of the West Sussex coast and it is an internationally important wetland site for wildlife.

Known to some as Hundred Acre Wood, West Walk is actually part of The Forest of Bere, an ancient landscape that once stretched uninterrupted across much of Southern Hampshire. Today, you will find miles of easy, marked woodland trails as well as an excellent children’s playground and picnic area.

If you want a playground on your walk, you really can’t find better than the one at Alver Valley Country Park. If you can drag the children away from the play equipment, the rest of the park offers easy walks with ponds, views of The Solent, various wildlife habitats, and even a second play area.

On the downs above Winchester, the quirkily named Cheesefoot Head is an area of far reaching views with a network of paths including the South Downs Way. In the summer there are meadows of wildflowers and often fields of blue linseed.

There is something rather surprising lurking in the undergrowth of The Old Thorns Estate on this walk near Liphook. Once you have spotted the T-rex, you can go on to explore the heathland and woodland of Weaver’s Down with a lovely country pub at the end.