Throwing down his bicycle after another wobbly attempt at climbing uphill, Frank declaimed: “I don’t even want to touch my bike again!” Hot and frustrated, he’d had enough and took up a seat on the wooden fence nearby. Typical six-year-old boy behaviour. And typically, minutes later he was back on board, freewheeling down the other side, smiling and using his feet as brakes.

Visitors can bring their own bikes, but we had hired mountain bikes for my wife Hilary and me, and sons Arthur, 8, and Frank, 6, and a baby seat for Jimmy, 3, in Bedgebury Forest in Kent. Its trails weave through a vast grey-green woodland entered via a cluster of gleaming pine cabins.

The family cycle trail has a number of hills, perhaps too many for young children, as ours became quickly tired. We also omitted to take water with us, and were all soon gasping.

Needing a break, we had our picnic lunch in the pirate-themed play area. The boys loved playing on the big pirate ship, ringing its bell and rolling around on the clean, white sand. Best of all were the raised boardwalks, cleverly constructed in and around the forest, with carved animals dotted among the trees. Ideal for playing chase or hide and seek. After ice cream we tried the forest trail, a more gentle, circular route that becomes a quest as you discover more things to climb on or jump off – a giant spider’s web, a grasshopper climbing frame – in small clearings in the woods.

All in all the day had been, declared Arthur, “exhausting but fun”.

We stayed in the Langley Oast in Langley, near Maidstone, a leisurely half-hour drive away. The owner, Margaret Clifford, showed us up a spiral staircase to our large family room, a rotunda decorated in a comfortable cottage style, and let the boys, mysteriously restored to full energy, play football in her back garden.

Dinner was booked for 7pm at the relaxed and family-friendly 500-year-old Three Chimneys pub, a 20-minute drive away in Biddenden, where our excellent meal included homemade bread.

We decided that the ideal place to entertain our boys the next day would be the Hop Farm Country Park in Beltring near Tonbridge. Spread over 400 acres, the site includes a farm, indoor and outdoor play areas, a museum and pets farm, all centred around a picturesque traditional Kentish oast village. Our favourite animals were the gentle giant shire horses. The museum has a good exhibition on the story of hop picking. A series of giant photographs show pickers at work between the wars, and there is a great short film, shot in a Bermondsey pub in the 1960s, featuring locals recounting their funny and endearing tales of hop picking. However, the boys were more interested in playing outside – and of course they discovered the amusement arcade – not quite what we’d brought them to the countryside for.

However, we thought we might like to come back for one of the themed event days that are promised for summer 2007. There is a full calendar including extreme sports, Wild West shows, circus displays and monster trucks.

- Bedgebury National Pinetum & Forest, 01580 879 820, www.forestry.gov.uk/bedgebury. Parking and admission is £6 per car. Hiring a mountain bike costs from £8, baby-seat hire from £3, a family ticket (two adults and up to three children) from £30. Booking is advised for weekends and bank holidays; Hop Farm Country Park, 0870 027 4166, www.thehopfarm.co.uk. Entry £7.50 per adult, £6.50 per child aged 3-15 (under3s are free), family tickets from £27; Langley Oast B&B, 01622 863 523, double room from £50; The Three Chimneys, 01580 291 472; www.visitkent.co.uk/family

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