Outdoors & Nature

Ideal for a sunny day. And for a cold rainy day: "There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing".

Liverpool Street: Constable country and the Essex coast by train

Constable's Dedham Vale in an hour, the Essex coast at Frinton and Walton, and Cambridge the slow way.

Day trips by trainCountrysideSeaside

Colchester Castle's great Norman keep of rubble and red Roman brick, with a flag flying, a wooden bridge to its door and flower beds in the park in front. — Colchester Castle, the oldest recorded town in Britain. An hour. Photo by Spudgun67, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

A tall octagonal brick tower standing alone above a field of dry summer grass, with a clump of trees beside it and the sea on the horizon. — The Naze Tower, Walton-on-the-Naze. Photo by Michael Coppins, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A long sandy beach at low tide beside a concrete promenade, with a row of pastel beach huts running away along the top of the sea wall. — Frinton, the beach huts along the greensward. Photo by Helen Steed, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The turrets, chimneys and stone parapets of Audley End House rising behind a spreading tree and a bank of clipped yews, under a summer sky. — Audley End, on the Cambridge line. Photo by John Chapman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A brick windpump with white sails beside a marsh, a black tarred boathouse marked Open, and a sailing boat moored in the reeds under a grey sky. — Horsey Windpump, on the Broads. Photo by Amanda Slater, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Great Eastern lines run out through Essex to Suffolk and the sea: Manningtree in an hour, for the walk along the Stour to Flatford Mill and the water meadows Constable painted; Colchester, the oldest recorded town in Britain; and the coast at Walton-on-the-Naze and Frinton, where the beach huts stand in a row along the greensward. Southend Victoria is an hour for the pier and the estuary. The Cambridge line stops at Audley End, for the house and Saffron Walden, and the Norwich trains reach the Broads in under two hours. Epping Forest, on the other hand, is the Central line from the platforms below.

Where: Bishopsgate, EC2M 7PY

Google Maps visitessex.com

Trains from early morning until after midnight

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.