Winkworth Arboretum Guided Autumn Walk

Winkworth's hillside of maples was planted specifically to blaze in October, and a National Trust volunteer walking you through it — pointing out the Japanese maple groves below Sorbus Hill and around the lake — makes far more of the colour than wandering alone with a map.

It's an unticketed, drop-in-and-join group activity, so it's a genuinely easy one to turn up to solo or bring a slow-walking dog along to; conversation with fellow ramblers comes naturally on a route like this.