New Forest National Park

William I made this a royal hunting forest in 1079, and the odd result of nearly a thousand years of protection is a landscape that stayed open when the rest of lowland England was enclosed. Commoners hold grazing rights, so New Forest ponies, cattle and in autumn pigs wander loose across heath, lawns and roads, managed by agisters on horseback. The mix is unusual: ancient oak and beech woodland at Bolderwood and the Knightwood Oak, wide gorse heath that turns yellow in spring, boggy valley mires that are rare in Europe, and clean gravel tracks that make it one of the easiest places in southern England to cycle. Bucklers Hard on the Beaulieu River preserves a Georgian shipbuilding hamlet of two brick terraces facing a wide tidal reach.

What you actually see

• Free-roaming ponies - grazing across lawns, heath and village greens.
• Bolderwood and the ancient oaks - old woodland with deer viewing platforms.
• Open heath in spring - gorse in yellow flower across the plateau.
• Bucklers Hard - a Georgian shipbuilding hamlet on a tidal river.

When to go

April and May for gorse, foals and fresh leaf; September and October for pannage season and colour in the beeches. Summer weekends are busy with day trips from Southampton and Bournemouth, so start early. Cycling works year-round on the gravel tracks, though winter leaves them wet and rutted.

Honest expectations

It is a working commons, not a wilderness - roads run through it, and ponies are hit by cars every year, which is why 40 mph limits are enforced hard. Do not feed or touch the animals; they bite and kick. Car parks fill early on hot days, the heath offers almost no shade, and horseflies are unpleasant in July.

Nearby

The Solent coast and Lymington's ferry to the Isle of Wight lie south, Salisbury an hour north.