Walks you can reach from Earley by train

Flat Thames towpath, riverside parks, wooded sections, pasture fields, meadows and riverside gardens.

Waterway: four fifths along the River Thames.

Time: 4h–8h

Warnings: Flood risk sections.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Similar walk: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Flat Thames Path riverside countryside, the Horseshoe Bridge and the historic Bull Inn at Sonning (of Three Men in a Boat).

The River Thames: England's best-known river, whose towpath (the Thames Path National Trail) carries long stretches of nearly every walk in this set.

Time: 2h30

Warnings: Shared with cyclists between Reading and Sonning; walkers only beyond.

Walk details: Reading to Basingstoke Community Rail Partnership (turn-by-turn directions).

Parkland, lake shores, ornamental gardens, light woodland, deer park, tree-lined avenue and historic town streets.

Woodland: two fifths under tree cover.

Windsor Great Park

Windsor Castle

Windsor

Time: 3h30–7h30

1 lunch spot: Savill Garden Visitor Centre Cafe (1h30–3h30 in)

4 end-of-walk rewards: the Prince Harry, the Carpenters Arms, the Royal Windsor, or the Boatman

Adapted from: Time Out Country Walks Volume 1.

Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.

River meadows, gravel-pit lakes, nature reserves, country lanes, mixed and pine woodland, heathland, golf course, soft fruit farms and historic market town.

Time: 6h

Warnings: Flood risk in places.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Loop from Egham through Windsor Great Park and the Long Walk to the Magna Carta memorials at Runnymede.

The Windsor Great Park: A vast royal deer park south of Windsor Castle, crossed by the Long Walk.

Runnymede: The Thames-side meadow where King John sealed the Magna Carta in 1215.

Time: 3h30–7h

Walk details: Walking Post (tips, photos and local insights).

Flat urban riverside paths, small river corridors, local parks, Thames towpath, luxury riverside houses and Palladian parkland.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Meadows, plantation woodland and heath, through buttercup meadows and Gorrick Plantation to the Heath Lake viewing platform. Rich in birds and wildflowers.

Heath Lake: A Site of Special Scientific Interest lake with a viewing platform, surrounded by woodland.

Warnings: Paths can be muddy after rain.

Walk details: Blackwater Valley Nature Walks (tips, photos, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Longer heath-and-forest crossing on the Three Castles Path, past Englemere Pond, Swinley Park forest tracks and Bagshot Heath. Some of east Berkshire's finest open country.

Englemere Pond: A nature reserve centred on a heathland pond near Ascot, rich in dragonflies and wetland plants.

Lunch: Café at The Lookout, and the Coral Reef waterpark, both roughly midway.

Warnings: Crossing the A322 bridge on a busy, narrow road is the most challenging part.

Walk details: Blackwater Valley Nature Walks (tips, photos, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Heathland, Horsell Common and a Peace Garden; Chobham Common, Rhododendron Walkway, Basingstoke Canal into Woking.

Woodland: half under tree cover.

Chobham Common: The largest National Nature Reserve in the South East, a fine example of lowland heath.

Horsell Common: Sandy common made famous as the Martian landing site in H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds.

Time: 3h30–7h

Warnings: Longcross has no facilities and trains roughly twice an hour; buy single tickets as the stations are on different lines.

Walk details: Walking Post (tips, photos and local insights).

Flat urban start, parkland, deer park, historic royal landscape, ornamental gardens and lake.

Time: 4h

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Residential streets and a short lane out of Goring join the Thames Path to Whitchurch, a wooded stretch with steep inclines and steps. Then quiet lanes, gravel and metalled tracks and concrete farm paths north of the Thames through Mapledurham and with steep hills on the north side. The final water-meadow section near Goring can get muddy and flood in winter. Follows the Thames Path National Trail as far as Whitchurch, then lanes and footpaths north of the river. The route passes the Mapledurham and Hardwick estates with their horses and organic farm. The walk can be shortened by dropping into Pangbourne at Whitchurch.

Time: 4h–8h

1 lunch spot: the Greyhound Inn

End-of-walk reward: Caversham's Church Street, near the end, has plenty of amenities.

Warnings: Some residential roads have no pavement, though good verge paths exist on each side. The Hartslock woods section has steep inclines and steps. The water meadows can get muddy and sometimes flood in winter.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A largely riverside route following the River Kennet and then the Thames Path for a long stretch and with open fields and shaded paths. A narrow path past Sonning Lock with barbed-wire fences can become muddy in wet weather; the approach to Twyford is on a metalled road and through a country park. Follows the Thames Path and the Oscar Wilde Memorial Walk past the walls of Reading Gaol; passes Reading Abbey ruins and Abbey Gardens. A detour through Charvil Country Park gives respite from the main road.

Waterway: two thirds along the River Thames.

Reading Abbey: the ruins of a major medieval abbey founded by Henry I, beside the former Reading Gaol where Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

Time: 3h–5h30

Lunch: Refreshments available at Sonning, roughly midway.

Warnings: An unavoidable stretch of the A3032 Old Bath Road has a narrow pavement near Twyford, and there is an annoying crossing of the A4.

Walk details: Slow Ways.