I’m lying in plush white bedding under a four-poster treetrunk bed, watching my three children giggling in a patchwork of green wheat fields outside our canvas dome tent, the distant sea framing it all in the background. It’s a far cry from the steamy London we’ve left behind — we’re on the Isle of Wight, only a half-hour ferry from mainland England. Driving off the ferry, we discover the island has two immediate things in its favour: a cooler climate (we left London in 30C, and here found a more pleasant temperature of 25C), and a feeling of going back in time.

Our family of five was seeking out some kind of digital detox. As a freelancer, my phone is rarely free from my clawed grasp as I chase deadlines — and the Xbox needs a holiday too, back at home. Will a break on the Isle of Wight, with its old-fashioned vibes, help us embrace Famous Five mode?

We picked Tapnell Farm’s Dome Meadow for just that reason — thinking this was to be our first family camping experience. But as we unlocked our glass door, I swiftly had to admit this wasn’t even glamping. Our 6.5-metre wide dome included the lush four-poster, a bunk bed and double sofa bed for the kids, a proper bathroom with a seriously-pressured shower… and when I opened a kitchen cupboard and discovered a dishwasher — well, no, I couldn’t say we were roughing it under canvas. But we did find a rural escape where the kids ran free and we all relaxed.

The pace is slower here: drivers politely pull in and wait; on our WightLink ferry over, the staff were so friendly that my London-bred kids asked why everyone was smiling.

Then, once we’d checked in to the farm, the kids went feral in an outdoorsy way: gathering eggs in the morning, grabbing a ball from the bucket of footballs for impromptu kickabouts with strangers, playing the free hoopla and beanbag-toss games dotted around the site.

The only irritation was the lack of a farm shop: hunching over our phones to Deliveroo a Sainsbury’s shop wasn’t the ideal holiday-starter. Tapnell’s accommodation stretches from basic pods to five of our glamorous domes, plus well-appointed cottages, but all come with open access to its farm, which is about 30 per cent animals and 70 per cent kids’ activities. Mine were sprinting between feeding guinea pigs with mini fishing rods and patting wallabies before go-karting, zip-lining, scaling hay bales and playing football golf. We all loved the farm’s Aqua Park — slides and obstacle courses on top of a green-watered lake. Overall, we found a higher tolerance for risk than we’re used to in London: fewer rules and more of a wave of the arm and an order to “have fun”.

When it came to eating, we found much of the island’s food game to be London-level — just without the traffic and snobbiness. At Braai, a huge open cattle shed with a fire-roaring open kitchen on the ancient Nunwell Estate farm, we shared blackened whole chicken, seabass, grilled peaches, flatbreads, charred cabbage and pillowy brisket. The long wait for food didn’t matter, the kids ran wild in the adjacent field. It was a similar set up at Isle of Wight Pearl. Before we chomped on our crisp, homemade hash browns glistening with wild mushroom and truffle, piquant beef with zesty lime guacamole, and salt-and-pepper chicken, the children escaped to the lawn, which had been set up with sports-day games pitting young against old.

Enid Blyton’s days didn’t feel far away. We went free range at the beaches too. Compton’s rock pools and cliffs, then the soft sand at Colwell Bay. At Robin Hill, an old-fashioned amusement park that’s the opposite of Merlin Entertainment’s fiscal-squeezing, everything was included in the entry price — mini golf, boat rides, playgrounds, falcon shows — except the toboggan run, a veteran ride so good we happily paid the £2 entry fee for it twice. On our final day we decamped to Blackgang Chine, which opened in 1843 and claims the title of the UK’s oldest theme park.

As for the detox? The kids didn’t ask for a screen once. As for me? Just one issue — the stunning sunsets and beaming smiles called for my camera, which was on my phone, of course. Still, we’ll print off analogue memories of a brilliantly offline holiday.

A Dome Meadow stay at Tapnell Farm starts from £297 per night