This walk near Burley includes a variety of woodland habitats that look particularly splendid in autumn. Stop off at Burley for a browse around the mystical gift shops and learn about its connections to witchcraft.

In 2023, a new playground was completed in Rowlands Castle. Using this as a starting point, if you walk over the splendid village green, passing pubs and a café, you will find yourself in a forest where long grassy rides frame views of Stansted House.

Walk under the tallest trees in the New Forest on this easy to follow forestry trail. At the end, play in the steam, take a picnic or grab and ice-cream from the van.

The tall beech trees of Blackwood Forest provide the ideal habitat for spring bluebells. Forest Holidays manage a collection of log cabins here, but you do not need to be on one of their breaks to be able to enjoy some of their excellent facilities and of course, the bluebells.

Follow in the footsteps of Jane Austen and take a stroll through Chawton Park Wood to find bluebells and if you’re lucky, a deer or two.

If you are looking for a place to take the family for a walk in the New Forest, then Wilverley Inclosure makes an excellent choice with its firm, waymarked paths, toilets and a picnic area.

The play trail may only be a mile long, but expect it to take you a couple of hours to walk, for along the way are nine incredible wooden play structures that will enchant children of all ages. Moors Valley Country Park is right on the Hampshire/Dorset border and is host to an exceptional amount of forest attractions, most of which are free.

Alice Holt Forest is an extremely popular location for a variety of outdoor pursuits from high ropes courses to mountain biking. For the littlest explorers, there are multiple woodland play areas and Forestry England regularly host trails here based around Julia Donaldson stories. New for 2023 is a Zog trail which is detailed in this guide.

Creech Wood near Denmead is an easy to explore mainly coniferous woodland with a network of firm paths. It has an interesting history having once been part of the Medieval Forest of Bere and more recently the site of a WWII encampment.