Wowo (Wapsbourne Manor Farm)

Despite the trees, the stream, the sheer space and the half-mile track from the road, remote-feeling Wapsbourne Manor Farm, or ‘Wowo’, as it’s affectionately known, still has remarkably good mobile signal. It’s also a place where you’ll never ever touch your mobile phone. With smoky campfires, old rope swings and a festival-esque calendar of well-being activities this is not a place to live out a life of routine. But go with the flow and this rural wonderland is the ultimate outdoor adventure playground.

An otherworldly spot, the farm always seems to have something new to reveal: another field hidden behind the thicket, a secret pathway, a yurt nestled among the trees. And while the five camping fields come with plenty of surrounding space for game playing, there’s a whole separate site that you might not see unless you go looking: the premium woodland camping pitches, otherwise known as the Tipi Trail. These eight spots (christened with such delightfully spacey names as ‘Hobbit’, ‘Woodland’ and ‘Little Owl’) are secreted away in their own exclusive setting, ideal for celebrities, politicians, and newlywed royal couples looking for seclusion. What’s more, they offer a fairy-tale-like base for games of hide-and-seek.

In the centre of it all, a makeshift village of canvas shelters, a marque and a giant tipi, forms a sociable hub that is the heartbeat of the campsite. Like any self-respecting village there’s always something fun going on during summer weekends – story telling, yoga, music workshops, circus skills – and they serve free soup in the tipi to the soundtrack of a local musician every Saturday night. And where would a village be without its own café serving chai tea in the mornings? How many villages have a hot tub area we don’t know.

Don’t confuse the relaxed, bohemian feel with a sense of lawlessness, however. While Kumbaya on the bongos or Wonderwall on a guitar is encouraged, amplified music and electronics are not allowed. And children’s entertainment is strictly of the old-school variety: climbing trees, swinging on tyres, rolling around in ditches, making camps in the undergrowth. In fact, the entire 150-acre site is a natural playground, extending well beyond the camping areas and the clutch of glamping hideouts, including yurts, shepherd’s huts and gypsy wagons snuggled up against the trees.

Nearby, the Bluebell Railway steam train is a big draw, as is Sheffield Park. Lovingly sculpted in the late 1700s by the visionary landscape architect, Capability Brown, the park is arguably one of the country’s finest gardens. With the famous four lakes forming its centrepiece, the rich array of surrounding horticulture exudes vibrant explosions of colour at almost any time of the year. In autumn, black tupelos blend with the rusty reds of the maple and deep scarlet leaves of the oak. Spring brings a lively riot of daffodils and iconic Sussex bluebells. In summer there are flashy splodges of pink rhododendrons and the soft, magenta tones of the rampant azaleas, while an early morning winter circuit around the lake, the grounds blanketed in snow, gives the whole setting an otherwordly quality. Cricket fans might also care to know that the park’s pitch was the venue for the very first home tie between England and Australia in 1884.

But then, many weekend visitors don’t get that far, happy to settle for the ample pleasures of exploring the grounds of Wowo for a few days. With the evening air scented with campfire smoke, the soft murmur of sociability and perhaps a musical soundtrack, this wonderful woodland hideaway just oozes back-to-basics appeal. Leave the phones at home. Let the kids roam free.