Petersfield

Petersfield makes a comfortable, well-connected base for exploring the South Downs National Park, with a good spread of hotels, inns and bed and breakfasts to suit different budgets and styles of trip. In the town centre, former Georgian and Victorian coaching inns have been converted into hotels within easy walking distance of the railway station, the Market Square and the shops and restaurants along the high street, making them a practical choice if you want to leave the car behind and explore on foot. These central options tend to suit weekend breaks, business stopovers on the London to Portsmouth route, or anyone keen to be close to the Wednesday and Saturday markets.

Outside the town, the villages that ring Petersfield, including Steep, Buriton, Sheet and East Meon, offer a quieter alternative with country pubs that let rooms and farmhouse bed and breakfasts set among the beech hangers and chalk downland. These are well suited to walkers heading up onto Butser Hill or along the Sussex Border Path, since many sit right on the doorstep of waymarked routes through the National Park. A handful of larger hotels with gardens and countryside views can be found just outside town along the A3 corridor, useful for families or groups wanting more space and parking than a town-centre inn can offer.

Whichever you choose, Petersfield's compact size means nowhere is far from the centre, and its position on the Waterloo to Portsmouth railway line means it also works well as a car-free base, with the Downs, the Heath and the town's museums and shops all reachable on foot from most accommodation.

Petersfield rewards a slow wander as much as a day of hiking, with plenty to see in the town itself before you head for the hills.

• Petersfield Heath — A large heathland common right by the town centre, centred on a tranquil boating lake and dotted with Bronze Age burial mounds; good for a lakeside stroll, birdwatching or letting children loose on the playground.
• South Downs National Park — The chalk ridge and beech hangers rise straight from the edge of town, with waymarked routes including a stretch of the Sussex Border Path and the climb up to Butser Hill, the highest point on the Downs.
• Petersfield Physic Garden — A free, tucked-away 17th-century-style garden behind the high street, with formal herb beds, a knot garden and topiary walk, created on the site of a former physician's garden.
• Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery — Housed in the town's former Victorian police station and courthouse, telling 10,000 years of local history through the Flora Twort art collection, the Bedales dress collection and social history displays.
• The Market Square — The wide Georgian square at the heart of the town, home to a street market every Wednesday and Saturday and overlooked by a bronze equestrian statue of William III.
• Queen Elizabeth Country Park — A few miles south of town on the A3, with miles of forest and downland trails through Butser Hill, plus a visitor centre and mountain bike routes.
• Old Petersfield town centre — Independent bookshops, galleries and cafes fill the lanes off the square, a legacy of the artistic circle that once gathered around painter Flora Twort's bookshop on the corner of The Square.

The town's food scene leans on solid, unpretentious pubs and a strong showing of independent cafes. The Good Intent, a timber-framed pub just off the Square, is a long-standing favourite for a pint after a walk on the Heath, while The Square Brewery serves its own beer in the heart of town. JSW, a well-regarded restaurant just outside Petersfield, has built a reputation for seasonal, precisely cooked British food. For something more casual, the cafes clustered around the Square and Chapel Street serve good coffee and cake between browsing the town's independent shops, and the Wednesday and Saturday markets are a reliable source of local produce, from Hampshire cheese to seasonal fruit and veg.

Camping around Petersfield puts you right in the South Downs National Park, with chalk ridges, beech hangers and quiet farmland within a short drive or even a walk of the pitch. As with the rest of England and Wales, wild camping on open land here is not permitted without the landowner's permission, so it is worth booking one of the established campsites and small farm-based sites dotted through the villages around the town, in places such as Buriton, East Meon, Steep and Langrish. Several are working farms that have diversified into camping and glamping, offering simple grass pitches alongside yurts, shepherd's huts or safari tents for those who want a softer introduction to sleeping outdoors.

The terrain here is real downland rather than flat farmland, so expect gently rolling or steeply pitched fields depending on where you pitch, with some of the best sites tucked into folds of the hills that offer natural shelter from the wind. Butser Hill and Queen Elizabeth Country Park, just south of town, are popular anchors for a camping trip, with waymarked trails leading straight out from nearby sites onto open downland and through mixed forest. Because the ground is chalk-based, sites tend to drain well and stay usable even after wet weather, though the exposed higher ground can be breezy, so a lower, wooded pitch is often the more comfortable choice outside the height of summer.

Late spring through to early autumn is the best window for camping around Petersfield, when the beech hangers are in full leaf, the Heath's lake is at its most inviting for an evening walk, and long days leave plenty of time for exploring the Downs before dark. Glamping options have grown steadily in the area over recent years, giving visitors who want the views and quiet of the National Park without the full commitment of a tent a comfortable middle ground, and many of these sites are within easy reach of Petersfield's pubs, shops and Wednesday and Saturday markets for supplies.