Stumblet's Wood

The woodland around Stumblet's Wood offers proper Sussex walking territory - dense enough to feel properly forested, but close enough to Bexhill-on-Sea that you're never far from civilization. It's the sort of place where you can actually hear birdsong without the distant rumble of traffic spoiling it.

What you get here is straightforward: tree-lined paths, patches of open ground where light filters through the canopy, and the kind of undergrowth that makes you grateful for decent boots. It's not dramatic - no sudden viewpoints or dramatic ravines - but that's rather the point. Walkers after a gentle couple of hours will find it works well. Families with young children might squeeze an hour out of it before restlessness sets in, though older kids who actually enjoy being outdoors will get more.

There's no visitor infrastructure to speak of that we can find, so come prepared. No cafes, no loos, no charges as far as we can tell - just woodland. Best visited in autumn when the ground's firmer and the light's golden, or spring when things are greening up. Summer can feel a bit gloomy under all that leaf cover.

It slots nicely into a broader Sussex walking holiday. You're barely two miles from Crowhurst Park if you're basing yourself in one of the holiday parks dotted around this stretch, and the Bexhill seafront is a different kind of outing altogether when you need a break from trees. The woodland won't take your breath away, but it's honest walking country.