Road trip days out from London: north

Travel north eastwards via Tottenham (A10) or Walthamstow (A503) to the A406 – aka the North Circular. Don’t be put off by the retail parks – you’ll be away from the big city soon enough.

Take the Woodford Green exit and head north on the A104 towards Epping Forest.

The A104 turns into Epping New Road and leads you through this beautiful ancient forest on the fringe of London. If you want to stretch your legs, stop off at Wake Valley Pond.

Back on the Epping New Road, keep heading north and follow signs to the M11. Here, take the M11 heading north towards Cambridge.

You don’t want all of your day trip to be taken up with motorway, but the M11 does help skip a few A-roads and get you other to new discoveries more quickly. As you pass Stansted, it’s worth bearing in mind this area was known for its castle hundreds of years before the airport sprang up.

If you fancy a diversion to this open-air museum of medieval life, take junction 8 off the M11. Follow the brown tourist signs to Stansted Mountfitchet village (for about two miles). With costumed re-enactments, farm animals and reconstructed wooden buildings including the castle itself, Mountfitchet invites you to picture life in Britain during Norman times. If you’re using SATNAV, use the postcode CM24 8LY.

Retrace your route back the motorway and continue north. In less than half an hour, take junction 10 and take the A505, following signs to IMW Duxford.

This is where your day really takes off! Now part of the Imperial War Museums collection, the former RAF Duxford air base played a significant role in the development of 20^th century fighting planes and key events in World Wars I and II. Now a vast museum space, you can see permanent exhibitions about what daily life would have been like here for servicemen and women, look around the hangar full of vintage and modern aircraft and book a flight experience.

Duxford, Cambridgeshire CB22 4QR.

Return to the M11 and continue north, past Cambridge, then take the A14 towards Huntingdon. From here, follow the A414 towards Warboys and Chatteris and keep going until you see signs for North London Skydiving Centre. This part of your journey might take just under an hour, so stop off as you go past Cambridge if it’s time for lunch.

Thirty miles north of Cambridge, this skydiving centre might have a rather baffling name, but it offers one of the few places close to the capital where you experience a skydive from a plane, or learn to body fly in their wind tunnel simulator. Exhilarating, safe and a very special experience – especially if the history of Duxford has inspired you! Booking ahead essential.

Chatteris Airfield, Block Fen Drove, March, Cambridgeshire PE15 0FB.

From here, retrace your route back to the M11 and head south for London.