I want to come to London for a week, together with my wife and daughter.
Of course we want to go to London for a few days but it would be great if we could combine it with walking in the beautiful British landcape.
We will travel by Eurostar so we are looking for a place that is easily reached from London by public transport.
Suggestions would be very welcome!
Jan
Hi Jan. Tring is 40 minutes from Euston, Aylesbury less than 1 hour Chiltern railways, both lie near to the beautiful Chilterns. Pm please if get stuck..chris
Hi Chris,
This looks wonderful, I will investigate it.
Many thanks!
Jan
Jan link https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiltern_Hills train fares off peak around £20 per person. Wendover Woods , canals
If you are staying in London take the tube (Central Line) to Loughton (the station building is a great example of Art Deco architecture) and from there you can take a walk through Epping Forest. You'll need a map. Walk up to to High Beach and have lunch at the Kings Oak pub right in the heart of the forest. It is busy at weekends but if you go on a weekday it will be fine.
That sounds lovely. My idea of a country walk! :beers:
Don't ignore what you can see in London - it is very green.
Try https://skygarden.london/ You need to book but it's free.
London is surrounded by green spaces, so travel in virtually any direction and you'll get to some beautiful walking spaces. If you go south west you get the North Downs and Surrey Hills which are both lovely, and in places afford some lovely views back toward London. Walking from somewhere like like Boxhill & Westhumble there are some lovely walks, but all would be self guided.
And you're never far from a pub for lunch.
When I lived in London I used to use a book called Time Out Country Walks Around London as all the walks were accessible by public transport.
It's a bit out of date now but there is a website that contains up to date versions of these walks: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/ (https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/).
Here's a couple that people have mentioned up thread:
Chess Valley in the Chiltern Hills: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/chorleywood-to-chesham/ (https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/chorleywood-to-chesham/)
Box Hill in Surrey: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/effingham-junction-to-westhumble/ (https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/effingham-junction-to-westhumble/)
Epping Forest: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/loughton-to-epping/ (https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/loughton-to-epping/)
Look for the Download Walk (pdf) button at the top of the page. :thumbsup:
Pick your dates carefully at this point as we are in the midst of a lot of strikes as well as some large planned protest marches. All the dates are announced well in advance so it's just a case of aiming to miss them.
Whilst being a consideration it's generally a couple of days a month of strike action, so worth checking, but it's not like it's a huge impact with weeks of interruption.
Our visit will be in October, thanks for warning us!
And many thanks for the advice, we have some planning to do :)
Jan
Jan a few leads https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/london-autumn-walks-and-changing-leaves/ (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/london-autumn-walks-and-changing-leaves/)
https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/best-london-parks-for-autumn-walks (https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/best-london-parks-for-autumn-walks) cheers chris
Some types of landscape are not far from central London, e.g. the Walthamstow Marshes nature reserve https://www.visitleevalley.org.uk/walthamstow-marshes (https://www.visitleevalley.org.uk/walthamstow-marshes) which is conveniently close to the Markfield Beam Engine https://www.mbeam.org/ (https://www.mbeam.org/)
You can also have interesting walks along the Thames and The Regent's Canal. The Thames Path https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/thames-path/ (https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/thames-path/) follows the riverside most of the way through London, with a few detours around building sites and so on.
October weather can be hit and miss....but since your coming from Holland (right?) you know that. As for London walks, the Thames path is a good one, and often gets overlooked. Start in Isle of Dogs and walk to Tower Bridge. Well worth it.
You're right, I'm from Holland (near Rotterdam) and I know that we can expect rain.
But we will have a good time even if the weather won't cooperate.
Jan
I strongly recommend Kew Gardens ( on the Richmond branch of the District line)
Unparalleled plant collections, the largest glasshouse (in the UK / world, delights around every corner tree walk , japanese garden and farmhouse, a pagoda!,
Visit the Maids of honour tea shop , near the main gate to pick up a picnic lunch!,
https://www.kew.org/ (https://www.kew.org/)
https://theoriginalmaidsofhonour.co.uk/ (https://theoriginalmaidsofhonour.co.uk/)
Mention of Kew makes me think of Wisley, Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) HQ and garden. The problem is that it is a distance form the nearest railways. West Byfleet is easy to reach from London Waterloo, but from there to the RHS is over 1 hour's walk (although that walk in itself includes a lot of country.)
As 'my back yard' I second the North Downs. Access stations include:
Dorking, Boxhill, Gomshall, Woldingham, Betchworth
There's a Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust site is a 15 minute walk from Barnes station:
https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/london (https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/london)
Steven B