Please the entire family with a trip to Hamsphire’s Peppa Pig theme park – with incredible views and tons of furry animals to feed
Enjoy long walks through a beautiful forest before tag teaming the kids with a game of laser-tagging
WITH three daughters – one nearly a teen, the others ten and six – it is becoming a challenge to please them all on holiday.
But we smashed it on a weekend in Hampshire.
After two days meeting Peppa Pig, feeding giraffes, hiking and laser-tagging, I am exhausted — but everyone was happy.
We were based at Sandy Balls holiday park in Fordingbridge with touring facilities, camping pods, static caravans and lodges.
The site offers evening entertainment, pools, bike hire and, if you are lucky, your very own hot tub.
I even snuck off for my first ever pedicure. Bliss.
The on-site restaurant has just been given a makeover and the food was delicious.
In fact, according to my youngest, Willow, it was the “best pizza ever”.
The Sandy Balls laser-tag is £6pp and was a highlight, mostly due to the competitive adults taking part.
The poor kids didn’t stand a chance.
You don’t have to wander far on the site to get close to nature, with the surrounding forests and paths leading to the River Avon bursting with wildlife.
I was thrilled to meet a deer stamping across the path on my morning run, and birds and bunnies galore in the fields.
Giraffes licked around our feet for scraps
Just 20 minutes down the road is Paultons Park, home to Peppa Pig World and, in my opinion, the UK’s best amusement park for two to 14-year-olds.
It has a great mix of wild and tame rides, fantastic staff and is clean, safe and is set in lovely grounds.
The day we visited we were lucky to enjoy a preview of Peppa Pig World’s latest porky additions.
The Queens Flying Coach Ride is a monorail giving a bird’s eye view of the park, while Grampy Rabbit’s Sailing Club is a gentle cruise.
Both will delight Peppa and George fans — even my adrenalin-junkie kids loved it.
The humour and attention to detail is heaven sent for Peppa Pig viewers, young and old.
Another terrific nearby attraction is Marwell Zoo.
GO: HAMPSHIRE
STAYING THERE: Two nights in a camping pod at Sandy Balls costs from £42.50pp based on four sharing.
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OUT & ABOUT: A family of four ticket for Paultons Park costs from £113.
See . A family day ticket for two adults and two children to Marwell Zoo costs from £62.
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The new Energy for Life Tropical House is amazing and the first in the UK to generate its own power for the zoo — using animal poo.
Heidi, my sloth-obsessed ten-year-old, was thrilled to see the Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth, curled up in the canopy of the Tropical House.
He was asleep and doing what sloths do (not much). But that was plenty good enough for her.
The Tropical House is packed with an incredible range of plants and animals including Javan mouse-deer, pygmy marmosets, tortoises and free-flying birds.
There is also a 70,000-litre aquarium with 2,500 fish, a crocodile monitor lizard and a colony of leaf-cutter ants.
The zoo’s giraffe-feeding experience was fantastic.
We spent 30 minutes with the knowledgeable and entertaining hoofstock keeper, Darren Ives.
After feeding the beautiful Rothschild’s giraffes, I am now officially in love with them.
Once lunch had run out, the giraffes licked around our feet for the scraps, a slobbery delight for Willow in her open-toed sandals.
Attractions aside, getting out and exploring the South Downs and New Forest will brighten and lighten the heaviest of hearts.
We enjoyed a breathtaking stamp across the South Downs, made more fun as we laughed at the hundreds of lost teenagers attempting their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
Driving is a pleasure, too.
The kids loved the ponies and wild horses found behind every corner.
They laughed hysterically at the animals’ total indifference to the queues of traffic, munching grass on the roadside.
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This is their countryside — pesky cars can wait.
We only scraped the surface of Hampshire but we will be back.
And, no matter how old the kids are when we return, I know we will love it.