Box Hill Juniper Top Circular Walk

This is the National Trust page about it-
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/surrey/box-hill/box-hill-juniper-top-circular-walk

Box Hill and Westhumble station is a 45 minute ride from London Waterloo, once an hour

This is the Metrobus 21 bus timetable mentioned (Crawley and Dorking stations both have very frequent stations from London)-
https://passenger-line-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/metrobus/MB/21-timetable-20220817-6c2927b9.pdf

(and, unusually, there is even a faretable)-
https://passenger-line-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/metrobus/MB/21-fares-20220411-c115b40e.pdf
The Arriva bus 465 mentioned is actually a Transport for London service, which runs half hourly. It is therefore covered by your Oyster Card, even though it runs well into Surrey.

EDITED- I have just looked at your other post and agree with Helen that I think this looks a much better/accessible walking option than a day trip to the Cotswolds. Pre-Covid (not sure if it's restarted) there used to be a Surrey Hills rambler bus service at weekends on Heritage buses.
I saw that first post and thought other people would respond to that. Hopefully they will do now.

Wow, isn31c, thank you for all of the great information! People here are so generous with their time and advice; it’s heartwarming and greatly appreciated. I’ve quickly looked at the various ways to get to Box Hill, and it seems the train from is about a half hour shorter from London. Our flat is closest to the South Kensington or Gloucester Road stations. I am very much a newbie trying to figure out the public transportation piece to this planning, but it’s fun to try to do it! Your links are a big help!

I looked up the Surrey Hills bus service and it does look like they are starting their tours in March if anyone is interested. The cost for us is not within our budget for this trip at least ;) but maybe this link will be of interest to others who want to visit this way. It looks really neat!

https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/big-red-vintage-tour-bus-26203796

Good grief about the Surrey Hills bus- £135 each. In it's old form that was something like £10. I would never have suggested it otherwise.
Then it was a really affordable thing and fun thing to do.
That's Covid inflation for you.

From Gloucester Road/South Kensington its District or Circle line (shared platform, take whichever train comes first) 3 stops eastbound (the District line trains will usually be to Barking or Upminster, which are suburbs way out east) to Westminster, change to the Jubilee line (trains bound for Stratford- if you board a Stanmore train you are going the wrong way!) one stop to Waterloo.
South Kensington also has the Piccadilly line, but that would be the long way round to Waterloo.

This is the train timetable- all the trains to Box Hill are going to Dorking (this is from the South Western Railway website).
file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/PTT05%20December%202022.pdf

Public transport via the London Underground ( the Tube) is great. Busses can be enjoyable but like any major metropolitan city traffic is abysmal so its a slower paced means of transport.

An option regarding your desire to see scenery and enjoy a good walk. London and its neighborhoods have stellar parks where you could achieve your desire to appreciate nature.

Having been enjoying London for decades and offer this suggestion:

From Gloucester Road take a District Line train to Richmond ( Richmond The Quadrant.) Make your way to North Sheen station. Exit and head towards East Sheen Cemetery. Adjacent to the cemetery is the Kings Gate Path into the massive Richmond Park.

Walk to your hearts content.

Claudia, that’s a great suggestion! Maybe staying in a bit closer to enjoy Richmond and Richmond Park would be better than adding another train trip to Surrey. I’d love to keep that walk in our back pocket for a subsequent trip, though. I was looking at Richmond Park and it looks lovely. As do Kew Gardens. If we took the tube to Richmond, saw the sites & park and maybe the gardens, do you need to reserve tickets to take a boat back down to Westminster Pier or can you just walk up to purchase? Thanks again for all the wonderful advice!

I agree with Claudia about Richmond Park. 100 percent. 💯

Given your screen name I expect you will glad to see all the dogs in Richmond Park too.

And if you ask Claudia she will - I expect - tell you about her favourite dog Rudi at a nearby eating and drinking establishment.

Dogs, except registered assistance dogs, are not allowed at Kew Gardens, so you won't see them there.

sorry, can't help with the boat - after all these years I've never done it .... and I love messing about on boats

This is the web site for the boat from Hampton Court, Richmond and Kew to Westminster-
https://www.thamesriverboats.co.uk/index.asp
As you can see booking is not essential, but is recommended, and bookings are now open. If you are going part way like this, back to Westminster, I think I would say very highly recommended.