[thorin]

Where do you live and what do you have nearby? I'm in central England and can walk to the river and a nature reserve in 2 minutes. I can take out one of my kayaks on the river. I can ride my bike from home on the nearby trails and roads. This has been possible in our harshest lockdowns here. When things opened up I could travel around the UK in booked accommodation. UK is a really varied country and compact so that allows for quite a bit of variety. It's made me less inclined to travel and more keen to appreciate what I have.

[J-dawg]

It's just a shame the UK is so densely populated / overpopulated.

When the rules were relaxed in the summer, it seemed like every outdoor place I normally go to was overrun with people. Makes you realise how many people we export to other places in a normal summer.

[thorin]

Kind of. South East is overpopulated (although even there, there are plenty of quiet places if you can access footpaths or rivers). Outside of that there are particular "cool" places to go on holiday such as Snowdonia (but people congregate around Snowdon and many other hills are empty), the Lake District (same deal) and parts of Devon or Cornwall. My nearest National Park is the Peak District and if you get up early there is no one there, if you stay into the evening there is over there. There are numerous places within walking distance of my house (outskirts of Nottingham) where I could walk/cycle/kayak/open boat and even bivi out overnight undisturbed. I'm pretty sure most places are the same, even when I was living in central london I'd get into the countryside at least once a month.

One issue is lots of people that wouldn't normally go out, were looking for places to go and because they had no experience of the outdoors they went to the honeypot locations, which were then busier than ever.

[himlion]

That's cheating :) , I'm living in small crowded Netherlands and would love to have areas like Sotland, Snowdonia, Lake District, Peak District and the coast of Southern Wales available a short ride away.

[thorin]

Within a days drive you have the French Alps, Jura, Pyrennes, Austria, Switzerland, Northern Italy, Slovenia, Scandinavia, etc etc. I guess for lockdown you need to get creative. My holiday plan for this year was to get the ferry over to Holland with my bike and tour around randomly for a few days, but unfortunately I missed out.

[amit_bhalla]

I agree with @himlion :) I live in a big crowded city too.