Day trip to Dorking & Box Hill

Dorking is a wealthy London commuter town, so it gets good rail services. The town itself won’t take too long to look round as there’s not much to it. Box Hill is the other side of the rail station from the town centre. It’s a good mix of town and country.

Have you looked at a topo map? Do you know that Box Hill is actually quite steep? Is that OK for you and your Mom? The station is in the valley below the hill. There is often ice cream available at the top. Have a look at the National Trust website.

Maybe you should not schedule anything for that day and let your mom decide when you get to England. She might have ideas of things she'd like to see that you haven't thought of.

What I forgot to mention about Box Hill, in addition to its Jane Austen connections it actually is a very beautiful place. Both the top of the hill and the view down into the flatlands are really gorgeous.

I've been to Box Hill and Westhumble station and I've driven many times to the top of Box Hill, but I must admit I've never either rolled down nor climbed up.

Thanks for the feedback. I was hoping to hear the view was in fact pretty and worth the effort. Because even though I'm a JA fan and that's what got me interested in Box Hill, I was hoping for nice scenery. Good point about the steepness of the trail. I wonder if we could take a local taxi from the antique area of town to the top of Box Hill (if I can drag my mom out of the antique stores...) to save ourselves the climb. We're moderately in shape, but it might be too much for her to hike both up and down the hill. I saw on the National Trust site there's an easy one mile loop around the top of Box Hill and it's only 1.5 miles back down from the Visitor Centre to the train station.

Also, we do have a few other days where I've got things planned, but didn't have to book ahead of time, so we can be flexible and trade out my plans for her ideas. But, I am pretty sure this day trip will be something right up her alley!

If you check the National Trust site for Box Hill, there is a guided walk on Wednesdays and Fridays around noon.

Dorking. That's a funny name!

It may seem funny to you but it has been around since William the Conqueror days - it is in the Domesday Book with a very similar name. If you lived there you wouldn't think it funny. Actually, until it was mentioned as funny I never thought of it such.

What's funny about it?

I thought it was an unusual name too when I first saw it. Not sure if it has this meaning in British English but in the US the definition of "dork" is:

DORK- Slang. a silly, out-of-touch person who tends to look odd or behave ridiculously around others; a social misfit:

Virginia can be construed as funny, too. It's OK to be a bit irreverent and lighthearted (and maybe lightheaded at times) in this world. I'm an Anglophile. You don't think we can laugh at ourselves in WV? My wife is from Gassaway.