Kennet & Avon Canal Trust

The Kennet and Avon Canal runs through West Berkshire like a proper lifeline for anyone who fancies a gentle escape from Newbury. This isn't a single visitor attraction with turnstiles and a gift shop - it's a 87-mile waterway that you experience on foot or by bike, wandering alongside locks, bridges, and stretches of water that feel wonderfully removed from the real world despite being minutes from town.

Walkers get the most from this. The towpath is dead easy to navigate, and you can potter about for an afternoon or make a proper day of it without needing special kit. The locks are genuinely interesting to watch if you time it right and spot a narrowboat working through. Summer weekends bring out the narrowboats and day-trippers, which adds life to the water but also means you'll be sharing the path.

It's free to access and walk - that's the beauty of it. Allow a couple of hours minimum for a worthwhile stretch, though you could easily spend a full day exploring different sections. Spring and autumn are cracking times to visit, when the towpath isn't rammed and the light's proper golden in the afternoons.

If you're based at Cherry Bird Country Park or one of the other nearby caravan sites, the canal is an absolute gift. You can launch straight into a walk or cycle without driving anywhere, which beats queuing at a theme park any day. Families with younger kids might find an hour enough before they get restless, but teenagers and proper walkers will find it genuinely rewarding.