Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve

Port Lympne is a 600-acre conservation reserve run by the Aspinall Foundation on the escarpment above Romney Marsh, and it is the only place in the South East where you can reasonably describe a night's sleep as a safari. Black rhino, giraffe, wildebeest and Asian elephant range across the open paddocks, and accommodation has been built to overlook them.

The choice runs from treehouses on stilts with hot tubs and forest views to lodges and tented accommodation set directly beside the animal enclosures, plus rooms in the Port Lympne Mansion itself — a striking 1910s house by Sir Herbert Baker with Moorish courtyards and terraced gardens stepping down the hillside. Stays typically include a truck safari across the reserve and buggy access to explore it independently.

It is a genuinely unusual proposition, and worth being clear about: this is a wildlife park with excellent lodgings rather than a hotel with animals nearby. Families get the most from it, though the treehouses work perfectly well for two. The Kent Downs, Hythe and the Romney Marsh coast are all a short drive.