Cleeve Hill

The walk up Cleeve Hill rewards you with some of the finest views across the Cotswolds you'll find without actually climbing a mountain. At 1,083 feet, it's the highest point in Gloucestershire, and on a clear day you can see for miles - the Forest of Dean rolling away to the west, the Malvern Hills rising up in the distance, and on good visibility days, even Wales. The summit is just off the A46 near Cheltenham, so it's accessible without hours of trudging.

What makes it work is the flexibility. You can do a gentle ten-minute stroll from the car park to the trigonometry point, or link into the longer walks that criss-cross the open common land up here. The terrain is proper breezy - windswept grassland with gorse and bracken, nothing twee about it. Families will get an hour out of it easily; serious walkers can stretch it to three or four hours by looping around the wider common.

Time your visit for late afternoon when the light softens the landscape and the crowds thin out. Winter walks are cracking here - the exposed hilltop catches the low sun beautifully, and you avoid the summer tourist crush. Free to visit, though the car park near the summit charges a modest fee.

If you're staying at Star Glamping nearby, Cleeve Hill is close enough for a morning excursion without faffing about with long drives. Pair it with a look around Cheltenham's regency architecture on the way back down. It's straightforward, unpretentious, and it delivers.