Compton Grove

Walk into Compton Grove and you're immediately swallowed by proper woodland - the kind of place where the canopy gets thick enough to muffle traffic noise from the nearby roads. It's a modest forest on Gloucestershire's doorstep, just a few miles out from Cheltenham, and the sort of spot locals clearly know better than visitors do.

What you get here is straightforward: woodland trails that wind through mixed forest, patches of open space where light breaks through, and enough green to reset your head for an afternoon. There's no visitor centre, no café, no infrastructure to speak of. You park nearby and you walk. It's free, and it costs nothing to spend an hour or two threading between the trees.

For families with young children, it's decent enough if your kids can manage a moderate woodland walk without demanding attractions every five minutes. Older kids and adults who actually want to move their legs will find it satisfying, though it won't take long to cover. Serious walkers will appreciate it as part of a wider route through the Cotswolds rather than as a destination in itself.

If you're based at Bourton-on-the-Water Caravan and Motorhome Club Campsite, just four miles away, it's an easy detour for a morning ramble before heading into the Cotswolds proper. Combine it with a proper walk elsewhere - the Cotswold Water Park or the hills around Symonds Yat aren't far. It fills a gap but doesn't demand your full day.