5 days near Gatwick

[HappyCrab]

We are from up north and are giving people lifts to and from Gatwick.
We thought we'd take it as an opportunity to have a short break down there. Don't want to do London. Happy to travel up to 3 hours from vicinity of Gatwick if necessary.
Can anybody suggest somewhere nice in that radius to spend 5 days? Couple in our 50's. Don't want to spend loads,

What's the budget? You might be able to get a cheap flight to somewhere nice!

What do you like doing?
Rye?
Hadtings?
Surrey Hills?

Budget say £1000 all in. Less if possible.
Don't want to fly this time.
We like walking, history, good food.

Kent Weald? Plenty of day trips - whitstable Canterbury Brighton.

Arundel/Chichester

East wittering , western edge with more sand, near Chichester for day trip. Lewes , good for history, lovely walks, trip to Brighton

The New Forest

Canterbury and surrounding Kent coast areas.
Bath - a bit further though. Also areas around Cheddar but definitely at the max of 3 hours
New Forest
Winchester - possibly also combined with New Forest
Chichester and coast nearby
Guildford - close by, possibly less than some places but a decent place to explore some of the South Downs

If you have a car, you might consider staying a bit out of one of these places. Will cut your costs and you can drive in to cities/towns as well as out to the countryside

Rye

Thank you for the suggestions. Yes we have a car and I like the idea of Bath / Cheddar / Bristol / Wells etc. feels like a great mix of things to do and within the 3 hour radius.
Also cheaper than the South East!

That's loads. Why don't you book into some B&Bs and have a mini road tour of the area or Airbnb if you want to stay put and have a base? There's Chartwell, Hever Castle, Bedgebury Arboretum, Leeds Castle, Bodium Castle.

There's the Sussex downs. A google of Sussex walks gives oodles of choice.
You could hop onto Eurotunnel and have a day trip to Boulogne or the beaches and town of Le Touquet - it's about 30 mins from Calais.

Around the South Downs is beautiful, you could stay at East Dene - beautiful little village, walk box hill, the coast path, the south downs, there's a lovely vineyard. It's a beautiful part of the world, great cycling too and easy to hire bikes.

There's some National Trust properties and Wakehurst Place gardens.

Bath etc is a good shout too and a really interesting drive from Gatwick - if you divert off into Hampshire....

In fact Hampshire has some lovely places if you didn't want to go as far as Bath, arundel, the coast etc etc.

There is Absolutely masses to do without driving to Bath. Loads of NT type properties in Sussex and West Kent and lovely walks. The coast is expensive to stay near but inland East Sussex is not particularly expensive and you can still visit Beachy Head, The Seven Sisters, Brighton, Hastings and Rye if you wish.There are also some lovely gardens to visit eg Sissinghurst, Wakehurst and Nymans , vineyards galore , Ashdown Forest .

Thank you. My slight reservation is it's the end of October so weather might be a bit pants and gardens not at their best.
Will take a look though.

Portsmouth! Stay in Southsea for ease of walking the city.

Visit the historic dockyard, lots of walks along the seafront and up through the city if the weather holds (Portsmouth has a microclimate so you might be surprised), short drives to Chichester, Winchester etc for additional days out.

I love Rye and Hastings too -if you fancy a shorter drive - if the weather isn't bad they are both lovely and if they are you can hole up in a gorgeous pub.

@HappyCrab We stay in the Chichester area quite a lot. Anywhere like Petworth or Pulborough are lovely and lots of self catering around. Arundel, Bosham and West Wittering are all worth visiting. Portsmouth for naval history is hard to beat. I tend to think staying in the countryside is lively and you will get autumn leaves!