3 Best Sights in The South, England

The family seat of the marquesses of Bath, Longleat House is one of southern England's most famous stately homes, and possibly the most ambitiously, even eccentrically, commercialized, as evidenced by the presence of a drive-through safari park (open since 1966) with giraffes, gorillas, monkeys, rhinos, lions, tigers, and more (there are also walk-through and boat versions). A two-hour, first-come, first-served Safari Bus tour of the park is provided twice daily (£9), as well. The house, considered one of the finest remaining examples of High Elizabethan style, was largely completed in 1580 for more than £8,000, an astronomical sum at the time. It contains outstanding tapestries, paintings, porcelain, furniture, and one of England's largest private collections of books (more than 40,000 volumes housed in seven libraries). Notable period features include Victorian kitchens, painted ceilings, and an Elizabethan great hall with massive wooden beams and a minstrels' gallery. House visits are by one-hour guided tour for a specific time slot and are included with a House and Gardens ticket. In addition to 900 acres of parkland designed by Capability Brown, plus formal and pleasure gardens, the property has a miniature steam railway, a koala family, Britain's largest (and fairly fiendish) hedge maze, and animatronic dinosaurs (summer only). All this makes it extremely popular, particularly in summer and during school vacations. Book your tickets online before you visit. You can stay at one of seven cottages on-site (from £500).

Close to the village of Stourton lies one of Wiltshire's most breathtaking sights—Stourhead, a Palladian mansion whose gardens are the most celebrated example of the English 18th-century taste for "natural" landscaping. Both house and grounds have few parallels for beauty anywhere in Europe. Stourhead was built between 1721 and 1725 by wealthy banker Henry Hoare, popularly known as "Good Henry," with his descendants adding the portico and wings. (A fire gutted the building in 1902 shortly after restoration, but it was able to be largely reconstructed unaltered.) Henry's grandson added a wing for the elegant Regency library and a picture gallery to house his paintings and books. There are also significant collections of Chippendale furniture and Chinese and French porcelain collected by the early Hoares on their Grand Tours, comprising some 8,000 objects in total. Still, Stourhead's greatest masterpiece is its gardens, designed by Henry Hoare II and open to visitors since the 1740s. Influenced by the neoclassical dream landscapes of 17th-century painters Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, Henry "the Magnificent" used hills, water (notably the central lake), and a remarkable collection of trees and shrubs—interspersed with classically inspired temples, grottoes, follies, and bridges—to create the effect of a three-dimensional oil painting. Discover the changing vistas on a walk around the artificial lake (1½ miles; walk counterclockwise for the best views).

The best times to visit are early summer when the massive banks of rhododendrons are in full bloom or mid-October for autumn color, but the gardens are beautiful anytime. You can get a fine view of the surrounding area from King Alfred's Tower, a 1772 folly (a structure built for picturesque effect).

Just outside Abbotsbury is one of the world's few remaining undisturbed brackish lagoons, a 25-acre wildlife haven and the only place in the world where you can walk through a colony of nesting mute swans. Originally tended by Benedictine monks as a source of meat in winter, the swans have remained for centuries, drawn by the lagoon's soft, moist eelgrass—a favorite food—and fresh water. Now some 600 swans build nests yearly in reeds provided by the swannery. Cygnets hatch between mid-May and late June. You can try hand-feeding the birds at noon and 4 pm daily. You can also try finding your way out of the county's largest willow maze (swan-shaped, naturally). A joint ticket is available with nearby Abbotsbury Tropical Gardens ( abbotsburygardens.co.uk).