quick remote getaway from London

I have not been there personally so others may have better opinions, but I have heard that the Brighton area is great and is only a short distance from London.

You can get quickly to many places from London. I googled England and Walks and got this link http://www.enjoyengland.com/ideas/rural-escapes/walking-and-cycling/walking-in-england.aspx From this site you can look check into different regions. The Peak District in Derbyshire (home to Elizabeth Bennet's Darcy) has many walks and biking. The Lake District has many. Others Dartmoor, the Chiltens, the Thames river valley. If you want to go further afield Scotland has a similar site as does Wales.

Pam

For somewhere really close to London you might want to look at the South Downs. There's a lot of info here

http://www.visitsouthdowns.com/

You can easily do this from Brighton. Although Brighton itself doesn't fit your 'relaxing in a peaceful setting ' criteria it is by the sea and has a lot of nice restaurants and some historic buildings.

Nearby Lewes is also a good base,and Rye is also nice.

Cheers
Alan

When doing research for our recently completed trip that included Oxford, I noticed there were several biking/hiking tours for the Oxford area. It was about a 2 hour train journey from London. The area was absolutly beautiful! I highly recommend it!

I would go to the Cotswolds. Moreton-in-Marsh is on the train line and has a few B&Bs (check RS or the TI on Moreton's High Street. The area is full of small picturesque towns connected by paths or buses.

I'll second the Cotswolds - one of my favorite parts of England. The train station in Moreton rents bikes for about £15/day and they'll even give you a map and tell you the best routes. We biked to Stratford upon Avon, which was pretty difficult, but there are tons of shorter routes as well. Lots of great walking paths too. The countryside around there is so beautiful!!

What about Stratford-Upon-Avon? Near enough to the Cotswolds to do day trips. Also check out Cardiff- if you like shopping, etc. it is a really cool city! York is also good and you could do trips to the Yorkshire Downs. If you really want to "get away" I'd suggest either Inverness or Aviemore in Scotland.

Although it may require a car (not sure of the train connections), my vote would be Devon or Cornwall - in the summer, it may be crowded in Cornwall near the beaches, but it's shockingly beautiful. We rented an apartment near Dartmouth (Devon) a few years ago and it was a great base for exploring. There's lots of beautiful countryside and walks/hikes along the coast. You could also catch a few good sites on the drive there.

http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk/londondaytrips.html

This link has some great ideas.

Have a wonderful birthday excursion.

Peak district is the nearest proper outdoorsy place to london.You could try a section of the Pennine way.Theres hundreds of mile of trails. Lathkill Dale,Monsal Head,kinderScout,Stanage Edge are Prebought train tickets from London to Sheffield can be from £13 upwards.The Yorkshire Dales are also worth checking out,a quieter area than the peak and about 4/5hours by train from London.Settle-Carlisle railway might interest you.
Happy travelling

Thanks for all of the great information!
It was a tough decision (wish I had more time!) I just booked a room in West Looe and plan to do a bike ride to the Eden Project, a day of horse riding in Dartmoor and hopefully will not be too tired to walk along one of the coast trails.

Thanks again all who replied. Really appreciate your help.
Cheers!