Walks you can reach from Strood by train

Highly recommended: Undulating Kent farmland, orchards, bluebell woods, greensand escarpment and deer park.

Ightham Mote: Immaculately preserved medieval manor house with idyllic gardens. Touring the house thoroughly takes an hour, and the gardens another 30 minutes (3h30 in).

One Tree Hill (National Trust; 4h15 in)

The Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio (National Trust; 5h in)

Knole House: enormous aristocratic estate, associated with the Bloomsbury Group; well worth a visit but consumes a day in itself.

Time: 7h30 (6h walking, 1h30 lunch)

3 lunch spots: the Swan on the Green (1h30 in), the Kentish Rifleman (2h30 in), or Ightham Mote café (3h30 in; not bad)

Source: Trains2Green.

Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.

Recommended: Really beautiful woodland segments and occasional idyllic countryside vistas. The first segment, closest to Faversham, isn't great due to a busy road, but very quiet beyond that. Quiet and isolated.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Faversham: Very picturesque medieval market town with many interesting shops and historic sites.

Canterbury Cathedral (5h in)

Canterbury (5h in)

Time: 7h (5h walking, 1h30 lunch, 30m break)

Lunch: No lunch venues en route. There's a playground with picnic tables at Chartham Hatch that makes a good stop for a packed lunch.

7 end-of-walk rewards: the Black Griffin, the Lady Luck, the Old Weaver Restaurant, Marlowe's, the Drapers Arms, the Old Buttermarket, or the Shakespeare

Source: Trains2Green.

Similar walk: Slow Ways.

Flat riverside paths, farmland fields, orchards, quiet lanes and a floodplain.

Time: 4h30 (3h walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

River Medway start, open fields, deer-fenced woodland, Kentish Weald countryside, vast managed woods, bluebell woodland valleys, orchard edges and small villages.

Time: 6h30 (5h walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

Rolling upper Medway Valley — woodland, wetland, orchards and farmland, two historic river bridges and old hoppers' huts on the Greensand Way.

Yalding Bridge (Town Bridge): A medieval ragstone bridge across the River Beult, said to be the longest medieval bridge in Kent.

Time: 4h (2h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Five stiles.

Walk details: Explore Kent (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Flat flood plain, riverside meadows, tree-lined field edges, mixed woods, open countryside, village streets and gentle Greensand Ridge slopes.

Time: 5h30 (4h walking, 1h30 lunch)

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

North Downs ridge, southern escarpment, fields, woods, open views south, forest, country park, open countryside and urban streets.

Time: 7h (5h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

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

Chalk grassland, orchid-rich fields and woodland in Ranscombe Farm reserve, the neoclassical Darnley Mausoleum and the North Downs Way.

Ranscombe Farm Reserve: A 560-acre combined nature reserve and working farm in the Kent Downs AONB, nationally renowned for its rare arable wildflowers and orchid-rich chalk grassland.

Darnley Mausoleum: A Grade I listed neoclassical mausoleum designed by James Wyatt in 1783 for the Earls of Darnley, set in woodland on the Downs.

Time: 3h30 (2h walking, 1h30 lunch)

Walk details: Explore Kent (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

River Medway, a medieval Carmelite priory, old chalk quarries, North Downs views and the Neolithic tomb of Kit's Coty House.

Aylesford Priory (The Friars): A medieval Carmelite priory beside the River Medway, founded in 1242 and restored as a working friary and retreat centre.

Kit's Coty House: A Neolithic chambered long-barrow burial monument on the North Downs, built roughly 6,000 years ago.

Cobtree Manor Park: A country park on the slopes above the Medway occupying the former site of Maidstone Zoo.

Time: 4h30 (3h walking, 1h30 lunch)

Walk details: Explore Kent (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Flat marshland, creek embankments, farm fields, quiet country lanes, woodland and tidal waterways.

Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

River Medway valley, riverside paths, low hills, orchard country, country lanes, water meadows and woodland.

Time: 4h30 (3h walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

Dickensian Kent and the Medway: Rochester's cathedral and castle, then Ranscombe Farm and Cobham Park to Sole Street.

Woodland: a fifth under tree cover.

Cobham Wood and Mausoleum (National Trust; 3h in)

The Rochester Cathedral: England's second-oldest cathedral, founded in 604, in the heart of Rochester.

The Rochester Castle: A Norman castle beside the Medway with one of the tallest surviving keeps in England.

The Ranscombe Farm Reserve: A nature reserve near Rochester protecting rare arable wildflowers on the Kent downs.

The Cobham Park: A landscaped Repton parkland surrounding Cobham Hall, with the Darnley Mausoleum.

Time: 5h (3h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

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