Silver Birch at Blackwood Forest

Marwell Zoo is a 140-acre zoo at Colden Common, near Winchester, run by the conservation charity Marwell Wildlife. It is home to hundreds of animals, including giraffes, leopards, meerkats and penguins, with red pandas, snow leopards and a walkthrough lemur exhibit among the other residents.

Tip: Book tickets online for the correct day before you arrive, and allow about 4 hours on a first visit.

Paultons Park is a family theme park on the edge of the New Forest National Park in Hampshire, set in 140 acres of parkland. It has rollercoasters, thrill rides, family rides, indoor and outdoor play areas and water splash parks, along with a collection of birds and animals.

Tip: Tickets are for a set date and some days sell out, so book your visit date in advance.

Winchester College was founded in 1382 and has been on the same site ever since. It is still a working boarding school, but members of the public can join its daily guided tours and see the heritage museums and collections.

Tip: Public access is through the daily guided tours, so check the Winchester College Heritage pages before you go.

The New Forest Wildlife Park sits on the edge of the New Forest near Ashurst and Lyndhurst. It specialises in animals that are or once were native to Britain, plus otters and owls from around the world. The otters are the stars, including the world's largest collection of giant otters, and you can also see wolves, a lynx and Bodie, Hampshire's only wolverine.

Tip: Parking on site is free but first come, first served, so arrive early on busy days. Put the full address into your sat nav rather than just the postcode.

Jane Austen's House is a small independent museum in the village of Chawton, near Alton in Hampshire. It occupies the 17th-century house where Jane Austen lived with her mother, her sister Cassandra and family friend Martha Lloyd. Here she revised Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey for publication, and wrote Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion. The house is Grade I listed.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, a World Heritage Site and one of Britain's best-known landmarks. The outer ring of huge sarsen stones, topped with lintels, was raised in the third millennium BC. It sits within a landscape dense with burial mounds and other Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments.

Tip: Pre-book your ticket before you travel.

HMS Victory is the 104-gun wooden warship that served as Admiral Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She now sits in dry dock at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where you can step aboard and explore the decks where sailors ate, slept, worked and fought.

Tip: Tickets can be bought online through the Royal Navy Museums website, so it's worth sorting them before you set off.

Hinton Ampner is a National Trust country house with gardens, set on the Hampshire Downs near Alresford. The house was remodelled in a Neo-Georgian style between 1936 and 1939 for Ralph Dutton, who filled it with early 18th-century furnishings and Regency art and decorative objects. Outside, the picturesque gardens are surrounded by an estate that is perfect for walks.

Tip: Parking is free. The café can get busy around lunchtime, so pick up something earlier or bring a picnic.