Woking

Wisley in the morning, Wells's Woking by afternoon

One day pairs RHS Garden Wisley with H. G. Wells's Woking. Reach Wisley at opening and allow at least three hours. In the afternoon visit the Shah Jahan Mosque of 1889 outside prayer times, see Maybury Road and the Martian tripod sculpture, and walk to the sandpits on Horsell Common where The War of the Worlds begins.

Morning. Walk the long borders while they are quiet, then climb to the fruit field and orchard, best from September. The glasshouse is the refuge if rain sets in.

Afternoon. Drive or take a taxi back west into Woking. The Shah Jahan Mosque in Oriental Road was paid for by the Begum of Bhopal. A few minutes away is Maybury Road, where Wells lived while writing The War of the Worlds. Then walk out to the Horsell Common sandpits, where the novel's first cylinder lands.

Evening. Finish at The Lightbox gallery if time allows (check its hours before going), then eat on Chertsey Road or along Church Path, a narrow lane by the station with a handful of small restaurants. If you have a second day, give it to a towpath walk from West Byfleet to Pyrford Lock on the Wey Navigation and the ruins of Newark Priory beyond. Day-trippers from London can do all of this and still be back at Waterloo by nightfall.

Curry houses on Chertsey Road and cafés at Wisley

Woking eats mostly South Asian and Italian. The Maybury and Sheerwater districts near the mosque have large communities with roots in Pakistan and India, and the curry houses along Chertsey Road and the Broadway are the town's strongest suit. Order a karahi or a biryani, and ask what the kitchen cooks for its own regulars.

Church Path, two minutes from the station, holds a few independent places including a Lebanese restaurant. The High Street and Broadway add Thai and Chinese options, and Commercial Way has an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet that suits families on a budget.

On garden days, eat at Wisley. The RHS runs a restaurant and cafés on site, and during the autumn food festival the garden fills with producers' stalls, cookery demonstrations and tastings built around the apples, pears and vegetables grown on the estate. Pubs on the Wey Navigation, such as the one at Pyrford Lock, are the best bet for a Sunday lunch outdoors.

For a celebratory dinner, the locals' own advice is to take the fast train: Guildford is one stop, and central London is under half an hour.

Harvest at Wisley and days out along the Wey

Woking's year follows RHS Garden Wisley: spring bulbs from March, borders and roses in June, the five-day Flavours of Autumn harvest festival in October (7 to 11 October in 2026) and RHS Glow from November into January. Painshill Park, Brookwood Cemetery and Guildford make short days out, and fast trains run to London.

In October the RHS Flavours of Autumn harvest festival takes over Wisley for five days of cookery demonstrations, edible garden tours and food stalls; the 2026 edition ran 7 to 11 October. RHS Glow is an illuminated evening trail.

Outside the garden, the best days out are short. Painshill Park at Cobham, a restored eighteenth-century landscape garden with a grotto and lake, is a few minutes along the A3 from Wisley. Brookwood Cemetery, west of town, rewards a slow walk among Victorian tombs and mature redwoods. Guildford, one stop south, has a castle keep and a steep cobbled high street. Further afield, fast trains continue southwest toward Bath via a change, or run straight up to London for a West End evening.

Walkers can follow the Basingstoke Canal west through Goldsworth toward Brookwood, or the Wey Navigation east past Pyrford Lock and the flint ruins of Newark Priory. Both towpaths are flat, waymarked and easy to join from town.