Pingle Wood

A proper woodland walk rather than a manicured nature reserve, Pingle Wood sits just outside St. Ives and delivers the kind of foresty peace you're after without the crowds. The trees are mature and dense enough to shut out the Cambridgeshire flatness for a couple of hours, with decent paths that meander through the canopy and occasional clearings where light actually reaches the forest floor.

It's the sort of place that suits walkers more than families with very small children - there's no playground, no café, no facilities to speak of. Bring a decent map or your phone's GPS because the paths can feel a bit repetitive if you're not paying attention. Most people can cover the main routes in 90 minutes to two hours, which sits nicely between a quick leg-stretch and a proper outing.

The wood works well as a midweek break from the holiday parks clustered nearby - Waterclose Meadows Campsite and Wyton Lakes are both within a few miles - giving you somewhere green to escape to when the pitches get a bit samey. Winter's actually decent here when the undergrowth dies back and you get more sight lines through the trees. Summer can feel a touch murky and mosquito-prone, so come prepared.

Worth a visit if you're based in the area and want to stretch your legs properly, but don't expect anything flashy. It's a working woodland that happens to let walkers through, and that's exactly what makes it feel real.