Walks you can reach from Victoria by train

Beginner-friendly: This short walk is nearly all National Trust territory and signposted. If you want to make it even shorter and simpler, just skip the detour through the woods. The lunch stop is a simple café, so no messing around with booking a table in advance. Extensive woodland. Mostly secluded.

Standen House

Time: 2h30–4h30

1 lunch spot: Standen House café (1h–2h in)

Source: Trains2Green.

Highly recommended: Quiet country lanes, meadows, rolling wooded hills, and two very attractive villages.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Shoreham

Otford

Time: 4h–7h30

3 lunch spots: Shoreham (1h30–2h30 in) — the Samuel Palmer, the Kings Arms, or the Mount Vineyard

3 end-of-walk rewards: the Crown, the Bull, or the Woodman

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Adapted from: Time Out Country Walks Volume 1.

Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.

Highly recommended: North Downs woodland ridge, open chalk downland, M25 crossing, village green, Greensand Way farmland, small settlements and ancient churchyards.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Time: 4h–7h30

4 lunch spots: Godstone (2h–4h in) — the Hare & Hounds, the Old Forge Deli, the White Hart, or the Bell

1 end-of-walk reward: the Oxted Inn

Warnings: Chalk paths can be slippery.

Source: Trains2Green.

Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.

Highly recommended: Greensand hills, apple orchards, woodland paths, streams, deer park, open parkland and historic manor grounds. Mostly secluded.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Ightham Mote

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

Knole Park

Time: 4h30–9h

2 lunch spots: the Plough (2h–3h30 in), or Ightham Mote café (2h–4h in)

3 end-of-walk rewards: the Chequers, the Restoration, or the Sennockian

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Adapted from: The Rough Guide to Walks in London & the South East (3rd edition).

Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.

Rural valleys, North Downs escarpments, beech woods, plantation paths, open downland, hilltop village and historic garden village.

Time: 5h

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

Low hills, Ouse Valley, woodland, nature reserves, fields, hedgerows, historic villages and canal-era river crossings.

Time: 4h30

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

First stage of the Vanguard Way, from suburban East Croydon out through Selsdon Wood and the North Downs to Oxted.

Woodland: a third under tree cover.

Time: 5h30–11h

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

Linear Darent valley sides on the North Downs Way and Darent Valley Path: three nature reserves including Lullingstone Country Park and Polhill Bank, panoramic Kent Downs views.

Otford

Time: 4h30–9h30

Walk details: Kent Downs National Landscape (tips, photos and local insights).

Similar walk: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Linear walk into the Darent Valley countryside, with breathtaking views, Lullingstone Roman Villa, the Eynsford Viaduct and the village's humpback bridge and ford.

Walk details: Kent Downs National Landscape (tips, photos and local insights).

River valley, open fields, orchards, beech woods, golf course, ridge path and historic villages.

Time: 4h

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

Reverse direction: Kent Downs National Landscape.

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

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

Undulating High Weald farmland, woodland, golf course, reservoir dam wall, fields and a private school grounds.

Time: 4h

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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