Maidenbrook Pond

A shallow water body on the Somerset Levels just outside Taunton, Maidenbrook Pond is the sort of place you stumble upon rather than plan a day around. It's a modest affair - nothing like the dramatic reservoirs you find further up country - but that's rather the point. The water sits low and still, reflecting whatever sky happens to be above, and the banks are accessible enough for a poke about with binoculars or a quick sit-down with a flask.

Birdwatchers will find this worthwhile, especially during winter months when migrating wildfowl settle on the Levels. The surrounding landscape is dead flat and open, which sounds boring until you realise that's exactly what makes it work - no competing hills, just water and sky and the distant sound of nothing much. A proper Somerset experience, in other words.

If you're staying at Cornish Farm or Ashe Farm, both within three miles, it's an easy leg-stretch between pitches. Families with young children might find thirty minutes is about the limit before restlessness sets in - it's not a destination in itself, more a gentle add-on to a park-based break. Go when the light is good, which usually means late afternoon, and come prepared for wind off the Levels. There's no obvious visitor infrastructure, so bring your own refreshments.