Barometer: Lime Wood, Hampshire

In the heart of the New Forest, past feral ponies chewing yellow gorse, a discreet signpost directs you to the Lime Wood hotel. On the drive there is a notice saying, "Go Easy". It is a foretaste of the weekend ahead.

Although only in its sixth year of operation, having been bought and extensively refurbished by Ineos chief executive Jim Ratcliffe, the hotel has all the ambience of a long-established estate. At its core is a Regency country manor house, with a welcoming courtyard bar and a suite of drawing rooms looking out on to a lawn dotted with abstract, decoratively rusting art.

We arrive before noon and, since our room is not yet ready, head to the spa. After losing any sense of time contemplating the forest views from the steam room, followed by an invigorating massage, we shuffle in dressing gowns to the Raw & Cured restaurant. After spicy Thai wraps with pureed almonds, cabbage, mango and ginger, I feel the London toxins being banished.

Our room is in The Crescent, one of the newer buildings next to the main house, which contains four suites. Ours has two balconies overlooking the forest, open fireplaces and some charming touches: wooden toothbrushes, bowls of fresh dates and mandarins. It is immediately welcoming, luxurious without proclaiming it.

Lacking any desire to leave, we nevertheless make our way to the Hartnett Holder restaurant, where the staff are young, witty and well trained. Chef Luke Holder has been with the hotel since 2010, while Angela Hartnett, the well-known chef-patron of Murano in London, works with him several days a week.

Our dinner scotches any earlier health benefits from the spa. We are offered a "selection of the chef's favourites" but the "selection" has no limits. Starters include a lavender-cured pork loin and locally sourced salmon, smoked at the hotel's own smokehouse. We fail to pace ourselves. As the waiter brings a hunk of veal with bone marrow, roasted fennel and Parmesan, I feel ashamed by our gluttony.

Waking the next day, bloated as walruses, the prospect of a session of "inspirational yoga" is ditched in favour of staying in bed until five minutes before breakfast ends. To get there we pass rows of Hunter boots, ready for guests' use, and a bicycle, muddied by forest trails.

We ignore these in favour of the windswept beach at Calshot. A former RAF base, it twice played host to the Schneider Trophy, a historic seaplane race (in 1929, a million people lined the Solent shoreline to watch). Next up is the Beaulieu motor museum, which is phenomenal, even for non-petrolheads like me. Highlights include the "flying" car used in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. "At the flick of a switch, one of the rear seats could eject unwelcome guests," a sign reads.

As we return for dinner, I am relieved there is no such switch in our bed. Lime Wood is a bolt-hole you do not want to bolt from.

Beaulieu Road, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, SO43 7FZ, 023 8028 7177; limewoodhotel.co.uk. Doubles from £255

Getting there

The hotel is 8 miles from Southampton; nearest station Beaulieu Road

Camel Valley, Cornwall

A weekend of degustation no longer necessitates a trip to France. As England's winemakers grow in ambition and confidence, many are opening their wineries to visitors, and several offer places to stay. Camel Valley, which has been making award-winning wines since 1989, has two stone cottages for rent (sleeping two and four). From £440 per week; camelvalley.com

Hush Heath, Kent

This vineyard, set around a 16th-century manor house, strives to make sparkling rose to rival the best from Champagne. Visitors can tour the 400-acre estate and then taste wines in the onsite shop. The estate's pub, in the nearby village of Goudhurst, opens after a refurbishment this weekend, offering four stylish rooms. Doubles from £80; hushheath.com, thegoudhurstinn.com

Three Choirs, Gloucestershire

One of England's oldest winemakers, Three Choirs produced its first vintage in 1976. Its vineyards near Newent, on the edge of the Forest of Dean, host tutored tastings and there's a choice of accommodation - eight smart hotel rooms attached to the winery or three wooden lodges set among the vines. Hotel rooms from £140, lodges £170; three-choirs-vineyards.co.uk

Caroline Daniel is editor of FT Weekend. She was a guest of the hotel

Photograph: Paul Winch-Furness

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