Buckinghamshire: Holiday Apartments among Gardens, Museums and the Chilterns
Accommodation in Buckinghamshire
In Buckinghamshire, expansive landscaped gardens, woodlands and historic estates meet museums, a family-friendly walking trail and the Chilterns Cycleway. This contrast is particularly vivid at Stowe Gardens: the 18th-century landscape garden covers 250 acres, which are open to exploration. A 1.2-mile family-friendly walking trail runs along the lake and past the temples.
File:Music Room ceiling - Stowe House - Buckinghamshire, England - DSC07148.jpg
Photo: Daderot via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Nature
Stowe’s parkland also opens up a broad landscape of avenues, woodlands and monuments. Across 750 acres, there are walking paths, bridleways and opportunities for wildlife watching. Hughenden, the country house of Victorian statesman Benjamin Disraeli, lies in the Chiltern Hills. The estate includes more than 600 acres of woodland and farmland and offers wide views across the surrounding landscape.
Several footpaths cross Hughenden. The estate can be reached on foot from High Wycombe and several surrounding villages; High Wycombe railway station is just under two miles away. There are three colour-coded and signposted routes for walks. They range from an easy one-mile circular walk to a two-mile route.
Buckinghamshire’s country parks offer walking paths, trails, opportunities for wildlife watching and park events throughout the year. Together, they cover more than 700 acres across three locations. Black Park in the south of Buckinghamshire combines open water, mature pine stands, mixed woodland and heathland. It also has 10 miles of well-surfaced cycle paths.
Culture
The Chiltern Open Air Museum displays more than 30 reconstructed historic buildings and a working farm across a 45-acre site. Visitors can learn about traditional crafts there. The museum can be reached from Chalfont & Latimer and Chorleywood railway stations by short taxi rides.
The Roald Dahl Museum is located in Great Missenden. The museum is in the village where Roald Dahl lived and wrote for 36 years. Three galleries combine hands-on activities, sounds, moving images, craft activities and original material from the Roald Dahl Archive. The Roald Dahl Children’s Gallery at the Discover Bucks Museum also focuses on interactive learning: it offers a hands-on journey through Roald Dahl’s stories and ideas.
The Discover Bucks Museum tells the story of the people and landscapes of Buckinghamshire from 200 million years ago to the present day. It is housed in a listed building with a painted Tudor wall, a medieval roof and a decorated Georgian room. The Cowper & Newton Museum is located in the historic centre of Olney, at the Market Place. Its collections on William Cowper and John Newton include manuscripts, books, lacework and objects relating to the history of Olney.
History
Waddesdon Manor was built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild between 1874 and 1885 to display his art collection and entertain his friends. The gardens of Waddesdon Manor are an example of Victorian horticulture and include formal gardens, trees and walking paths.
Bletchley Park Mansion in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, is now a museum and a living heritage site. During the Second World War, Bletchley Park was the centre of Britain’s codebreaking efforts. The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre on the edge of the small village of Quainton in Buckinghamshire offers a different historical perspective. It is a working steam railway museum and a heritage railway. On so-called Steaming Days, trains run on its own line with a full-size steam locomotive.
Getting around
For longer cycling experiences, the Chilterns Cycleway runs as a 170-mile circular cycle route through Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. The Waddesdon Greenway is shorter: the 4-kilometre route for pedestrians and cyclists connects Aylesbury Vale Parkway, the village of Waddesdon and Waddesdon Manor.
Individual destinations also have clearly described connections. Bekonscot Model Village & Railway can be reached from Beaconsfield railway station in around five minutes on foot.
Places
Other places in Buckinghamshire: Stone, Stoke Poges, Stokenchurch, Saunderton, Marlow, Ibstone, High Wycombe, Denham, Chesham, Chalfont Saint Peter, Buckingham, Botley, Beaconsfield, Aylesbury, Amersham, Gerrards Cross, Drayton Parslow, Chilton, Grendon Underwood, Waddesdon, West Wycombe, Great Missenden, Penn, Taplow, Little Horwood, Winslow, St Leonards, Burnham, Wing, Chalfont St Giles, Wendover, Aston Clinton, Fulmer, Seer Green, Flackwell Heath, Hazlemere, Iver, Weston Turville, Loudwater, Slough, Princes Risborough, Cheddington, Long Crendon, Wooburn Green, Adstock, Worminghall, Pitstone, Ivinghoe, Mursley, Middle Claydon, Little Missenden, Easington, Farnham Royal.
For the higher-level travel overview: South East England.
