Walks you can reach from East Tilbury by train

Hilly woodland, narrow grassy paths, open estuary waterscape, wide flat creek-side track and gentrifying seaside town.

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

Flat coastal path, seaside promenade, harbour, mudflats, beach huts, residential streets, open grassy seafront and army training area margins.

Warnings: MOD closures apply.

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

Flat riverside path, marshland, industrial scenery, flood defences, graffiti art walls, former wharves and Thames views throughout.

Warnings: Flood risk eastern half.

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

Recommended: A flat and easy walk, entirely tarmacked.

Coastal: almost all along the coast.

Time: 2h–4h

Warnings: Follows a busy road for a sixth of the walk.

Walk details: Railwalks.

Recommended: The views from Leigh on Sea looking out to the sea are beautiful. Quiet woodlands, farm paths, horse yards and pretty residential areas and passing through a nature reserve before reaching the coast at Leigh-on-Sea. Includes a safer crossing of the A127. The route passes through a nature reserve near Hadleigh and goes past a windmill.

Time: 2h–4h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Panoramic views of the Thames Estuary and towards London. A quiet route through the pretty village of Horndon on the Hill, then across gradually rising farmland to Langdon Hills Country Park and up One Tree Hill, with panoramic views of the Thames Estuary. The rest is through more country park and a nature reserve on substantial woodland paths, with the biggest climb to wildflower meadows. Plenty of stiles, kissing gates, narrow gaps, footbridges and steps and potentially muddy paths and ploughed fields. The country park is part of the Langdon Ridge SSSI. The only mid-route facility is the Garage Corner bus stop (about 500m off-route). Horndon-on-the-Hill has a breakfast café, a small shop, a gallery and two pubs.

Time: 3h–5h30

Lunch: Horndon-on-the-Hill (not very near the middle) has a breakfast café, a small shop and two pubs.

Warnings: Wrens Park Farm stables have put an electric fence (taped wires, no gate or stile) across one field and let the eastern stile become very unsafe; walk around the railed-off edge instead, climbing the sturdy wooden railings. Some arable-field paths are poorly re-established; white posts help you navigate. Plenty of stiles, narrow gaps and potentially muddy ploughed fields.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

The path along the estuary was gorgeous, beautiful views. A largely estuary-side route on a temporary alignment, with a lower-traffic exit from Tilbury Station using a new footbridge, a road section with HGV traffic near Tilbury Fort, a gorgeous path along the estuary with shorebirds and wildflowers and old wharves. A field path replaces part of the original near Stanford-le-Hope. Passes Coalhouse Fort (with a café and park) and Tilbury Fort (with grazing ponies and a star-shaped moat); inside the forts you must pay. Salt-marsh wildflowers and shorebirds along the estuary. The route is part of the Thames Estuary Path; East Tilbury has a station, pubs and shops for breaking the walk.

Time: 4h30–8h30

Lunch: There is a café at Coalhouse Fort park, roughly mid-route.

1 end-of-walk reward: the World's End

Warnings: A road section near Tilbury Fort carries HGV traffic. The first part out of East Tilbury along the road is a drag and may be quieter outside school pickup time.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 2h30–4h30

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 3h–6h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A varied, enjoyable but challenging route with a dull pavement start out of Basildon, then a golf course needing careful navigation, a nature reserve, the England Coast Path, a surfaced country park track to Hadleigh Castle. Much of it is wet and slippery in winter and with clay fields near the end; several short flights of steps and stiles. The coastal section is part of the England Coast Path. Passes the quaint St Margaret's Church with a bench, and ripe blackberries in late summer. Easy and affordable trains from either end.

Time: 4h–8h

Warnings: The path across the golf course needs careful navigation as marker posts are few and indistinct. Several wet, slippery and muddy sections in winter that are largely unavoidable.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Hilly woodland, narrow grassy paths, Hadleigh Country Park and estuary views.

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Source: A shorter variant of Benfleet Circular via Leigh on Sea – the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).