Cooden Wood

The woodland paths through Cooden Wood feel properly quiet once you get past the car park. You're looking at a decent stretch of mixed forest - oak, beech, the usual Sussex woodland suspects - criss-crossed by trails that range from easy ambles to routes that demand actual walking boots.

It's the sort of place where you'll genuinely lose the sound of the main road after ten minutes. Families with young walkers can manage the gentler loops easily enough; older kids might push for a longer route if they're not the "standing still to look at things" type. The woodland floor changes with the seasons - proper carpeted with bluebells in spring, though you'll have to time it right.

Near Pevensey, so close enough to combine with a stay at Pevensey Bay Holiday Park if you want something low-key between beach days. The walk itself is free, naturally. Allow an hour for a short circuit, two or three if you're taking it slowly and actually paying attention to where you're going.

It's not dramatic. You won't get Instagram-moments or sudden vistas. What you get instead is the actual experience of being in a decent piece of English woodland without crowds. Bit muddy in winter, but that's part of the point. Good dog-walking too, if that matters to you.