Swain's Wood

The woods around High Wycombe are thick with beech and oak, and Swain's Wood delivers exactly what you want from a Buckinghamshire forest walk without the crowds you'd find at somewhere more famous. It's proper woodland - the kind where the canopy closes overhead and you lose track of the nearby town entirely within about fifty metres. The paths wind through dense undergrowth, especially lovely in autumn when the leaf litter is several inches deep and the smell of decay and damp earth fills everything.

This works best for walkers who actually enjoy walking, rather than families looking for waymarked loops and benches every hundred yards. You'll want decent boots if there's been rain. An hour is enough to feel properly immersed without overcommitting; two hours if you're thorough about route-finding. It's free, naturally - it's a wood.

Stay at one of the nearby campsites - White Mark Glamping is about three miles away, or if you're in a van, Chiltern Retreat is a proper working farm setup at four miles - and you've got an easy morning or evening walk on your hands. The proximity to High Wycombe means you won't feel remote, but the woodland itself is genuinely removed from things. Not dramatic or famous enough to make a special trip from London, but if you're spending a week in the Chilterns, it's well worth an afternoon. The lack of signposting and visitor facilities actually works in its favour - it stays uncrowded.