1-Bedroom Hot Tub Lodge in Shaftesbury - Fun Days Out

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.

You can walk up to the Stone Circle and take photos, then step into the reconstructed Neolithic houses. Children can have a go at finding out what it takes to move a sarsen stone. The exhibition explains how the builders lived and worked, and includes a Neolithic man brought to life face to face. There's a café for a snack, and plenty of wider landscape to explore on foot.

History fans, families and anyone ticking off an icon will get a lot from it.

Tip: Pre-book your ticket before you travel.

Monkey World is an ape and monkey rescue centre set in 65 acres near Wool in Dorset. It was founded in 1987 and takes in primates rescued from the illegal pet trade, laboratories and abuse, rehabilitating them into natural living groups.

You can see the largest group of chimpanzees outside Africa, split across four social groups, plus Bornean and Sumatran orangutans. The park also has Europe's only orangutan crèche, five species of gibbon and a wide range of monkeys and lemurs, including capuchins, marmosets, spider monkeys and slow lorises. The lemurs are fed at their window each day around midday. There's also a gift shop, and the centre's work is shown in the TV series Monkey Life.

Tip: Book online in advance, as tickets are cheaper than at the gate.

Shaftesbury Abbey Museum & Gardens sits in a commanding spot with views over the Blackmore Vale, close to the famous Gold Hill. The ruins lie in a peaceful walled garden, and only the foundations of the abbey survive.

King Alfred the Great founded the abbey in AD 888 as the first great abbey just for women. By the time of Henry VIII it was the wealthiest and most important Benedictine nunnery in England, and it was the last abbey he destroyed, in 1539. The museum tells the story of the abbey and the people who lived there. It displays items recovered in archaeological excavations, alongside a digital representation of how the abbey may have looked.

There is a gift shop and refreshments on site. One Google review quoted by the abbey mentions enthusiastic, knowledgeable staff and delicious cake.

Tip: Gold Hill is close by, so the two can be combined in one trip.

Salisbury Cathedral is a leading example of Early English Gothic design. It was built in just 38 years from 1220, which gives it an unusually consistent style. Its 404-foot spire is the tallest in England, and the Cathedral Close around it is the largest in Britain.

Inside, you can see one of the oldest working clocks in the world and one of the four surviving original copies of Magna Carta, kept in the Chapter House. Behind-the-scenes options include the Stonemasonry Works Yard, a Tower Tour to the foot of the spire and the historic Library. There are also free tours and demonstrations, including stained glass window tours and the medieval clock demonstration.

It is a living church, so you may hear choristers rehearsing or the organ being played. There is a restaurant and a gift shop on site.

Tip: Allow plenty of time to park if you drive. The nearest public car parks, Lush House (SP2 7TD) and Old George Mall (SP1 2PH), are about a five-minute walk away.

Wilton House is a Grade I listed country house near Salisbury and still a family home for the Earl and Countess of Pembroke. It stands on the site of Wilton Abbey, which Henry VIII granted to William Herbert. Inside, the state rooms behind Inigo Jones's Palladian south front hold an art collection. The house also has literary links: Shakespeare's theatre company performed here, and Mary Sidney led a circle of poets based at Wilton.

Outside, 21 acres of landscaped parkland include water and rose gardens beside the River Nadder, and a Palladian Bridge. Children can head for the adventure playground, which has a separate area for toddlers and under-5s. The licensed café serves light lunches and afternoon teas, plus takeaway drinks, snacks and ice creams. The house and grounds are wheelchair accessible.

Tip: Dogs aren't allowed in the house or grounds unless they're registered Assistance Dogs, so leave yours at the lodge.

Stourhead is a National Trust estate on the Wiltshire and Somerset border, with a Palladian mansion and one of the most famous landscape gardens in England. The garden was laid out in the 18th century around a large artificial lake, with classical temples, a grotto, the Palladian Bridge and the Gothic Cottage summerhouse beside the water. Rare and exotic trees add to the setting.

The house, built in the 1720s, holds the Hoare family's art collection and library. The estate also includes the village of Stourton and wider farmland and woodland you can explore. There is an adventure playground, a restaurant, a shop, a plant shop and a pub, so families and garden lovers can easily fill a day. Dogs on short leads are welcome in the garden.

Tip: Parking is by the JustPark app or on-site machines, so download the app before you arrive. National Trust members park free but must register their visit.

The Cerne Abbas Giant is an ancient figure cut into the chalk hillside above the village of Cerne Abbas. At 180ft tall, it is Britain's largest chalk hill figure and perhaps the best known. Theories about who he is and why he was made range from a symbol of spirituality to Hercules, though National Trust research suggests he was probably first made in the late Saxon period.

There is a viewing area in the car park, and a gentle quarter-mile signposted footpath leads from the village. The surrounding chalk grassland is nationally and European important for rare plants and insects, so look out for wildflowers in summer. Above the giant is the Trendle, an Iron Age earthwork. It suits history fans, walkers and nature lovers. How clearly you see him changes with the light and the season.

Tip: The viewing area in the car park gives the best view; the A352 lay-by is free but offers only a limited view. Keep dogs on leads, and expect mud on the steep slope after rain.

Longleat is a Grade I listed stately home near Warminster in Wiltshire, and one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain. It was the first stately home to open to the public. The house sits in 1,000 acres of parkland landscaped by Capability Brown.

The house tour takes in the Elizabethan Great Hall with its minstrels' gallery, the ante-library with a Venetian painting on the ceiling, and the Red Library, which displays many of the 40,000 books in the house. Visitor books signed by royal guests are also on display. Beyond the house, the estate has the first safari park outside Africa and a hedge maze, one of several mazes and labyrinths created by the 7th Marquess of Bath. Longleat has been used as a film location many times.