On a beautiful Saturday in October, David and I decided to head out to the Surrey countryside and visit Winkworth Arboretum. I had never heard of it before, but a quick search online made me believe it would be a great place to see some amazing autumn colours. David was questioning why we had to drive so far out just to see some trees, but when we saw the beautiful colours at the Winkworth Arboretum he said it was definitely worth the drive!
Winkworth Arboretum is our best autumn day trip from London so far!
Let’s see just how beautiful the Winkworth Arboretum really is:
We followed the red route, called challenging walk (I didn’t find it that challenging, but you do need to be able to walk hills), and it took us to see all the highlights of the park. It’s not a long route, so you could walk it very quickly. But I think the whole point is to enjoy the scenery and take many breaks to see the lovely views ? I would say, take at least 3 hours, but you could stay even longer and have a picknick on the meadow as we’ve seen lots of people do. The meadow has some lovely views of all the colourful trees, so it’s a great place to take a break.
Winkworth Arboretum was created by Dr Wilfrid Fox, who had the vision of painting a masterpiece with the landscape. He thought the Surrey hills were a perfect location and selected plant types specifically for their potential to show different colours in different seasons. When visiting in autumn, you’ll see how his vision has come to life!
Best time to visit Winkworth Arboretum in autumn
Our visit was in the middle of October and there was a lot of green still, but also a lot of colour already. I’ve just looked at some recent pictures of the arboretum and it looks like there is still lots of colour going on! I’d say if you want to visit Winkworth Arboretum to see the autumn colours, a visit during the second half of October and the first week of November would be your safest bet. But you might be able to see some colourful trees all throughout October and at least the first half of November.
How to get there
The easiest way to get there will be by car. Just pop the postcode into your navigation (GU8 4AD) and off you go. There is a free car park right outside the entrance and to park there is free. Note that the car park gets locked after closing time, so make sure you take note of the closing time for that day (it changes with the seasons). It took us close to two hours to get there from east London, but if you are staying more towards the south it might take you only around an hour.
There is the possibility to get to the Winkworth Arboretum on public transport, but it might be more of a challenge than driving. From Waterloo train station in London you need to take a train to Godalming. When writing this, it looks like these trains don’t run on Sundays. Once there, you’ll need to walk to the High Street and find bus stop B (Pepperpot). Take bus 42 to Cranleigh, you can pay cash to the bus driver, and get off at the stop called Winkworth Arboretum.
For any other practical information, it’s always a good idea to check out Winkworth Arboretum’s official website: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/winkworth-arboretum
Thanks for reading ? Let me know in the comments if you’d like to visit Winkworth Arboretum or if you have any other tips for autumn outings around London!
