Hiking outside London

March 5, 2008 7:31 AM

Where are your favourite places for going for a day hike out of London?

If you lived in central London and wanted to go hiking for a day where would you go? (recommendations for websites that cover this sort of thing also appreciated)
Here are some thoughts on what I'm looking for:
- hike hopefully between 8-15 miles
- can be relatively strenuous, I'm an experienced hiker and in good shape
- ideally able to get there using train and with buses, not opposed to renting a car though if necessary
- good scenery if possible (preferably out of London - somebody did suggest Hampstead Heath, but was looking for somewhere a bit more out of London if possible)
- could travel up the night before but ideally would literally be leaving early morning and returning late at night same day
In terms of going further field for weekend hikes, have already thought about Dartmoor, Lakes, Peaks etc etc, again though, for this am more interested in places accessible for the day.

Thanks!!

posted by Mave_80 to travel & transportation (13 comments total)

The area around London is very tamed. The Ridgeway?
posted by Leon at 7:50 AM on March 5

(wiki link). Or how about a coastal walk? Isle of Wight, maybe.
posted by Leon at 7:52 AM on March 5

Lee Valley Regional Park.
posted by MrMustard at 7:52 AM on March 5

The South Down Way is brilliant. Especially in summer. I can totally recommend almost anywhere around the Lewes area (1h 5mins on the train from Victoria), but you could start in Brighton or Eastbourne. The walk from Lewes to Brighton is probably about the distance you're after, for example.
posted by brighton at 7:55 AM on March 5

New Forest
posted by Leon at 8:04 AM on March 5

Being congenitally lazy I can't recommend any personally, but the Time Out books of country walks near London 1 and 2 sound as though they can.
posted by Acarpous at 8:11 AM on March 5

I'm a fan of the Ridgeway, especially Section 2 (right up on the downs, quite isolated).
posted by patricio at 9:07 AM on March 5

devils punchbowl in hindhead is excellent - i used to mountain bike around there a lot. not sure about public transport links though.

ive just moved up to the area around the chilterns - and they are very nice to walk around - as has been mentioned here, the ridgeway - its easy to get to from london by train.

several times i drove down to the new forest for the day.

i also mountain biked down in dorset - getting the train down in the morning from clapham junction and back again in the evening. (wareham to the coast around chapmans pool and back).

its easy to forget that there is a whole lot of accessible countryside around london - when you only venture out as far as zone 6.
posted by dnc at 9:39 AM on March 5

Epping Forest.
posted by essexjan at 12:03 PM on March 5

From within London, the Grand Union Canal.

Further afield, but still easy to get to, Avebury.
posted by veedubya at 12:10 PM on March 5

Seconding the South Downs. I don't know about the South Downs trail specifically but in that area if you pick the right walk you can get off the train at one place (coming from London) - walk for the day - and then get back on further down the line to return.
posted by southof40 at 1:52 PM on March 5

Good friends of mine use the Time Out books that Acarpous links to.
When the weather is a little warmer, they go almost every weekend and on the occasions I've joined them, they've all been great.
posted by quiet at 5:10 AM on March 6

Thirding the South Downs. The walk from Falmer to Lewes is lovely, and you can get the train from Lewes back to London.
posted by chicainthecity at 10:58 AM on March 14