I was so excited by the fact that we actually went on a little mini adventure, I just had to write about it while the memories are still fresh! Koala & I hired a car and went on our first excursion “out” since lockdown. We mainly stayed within the Surrey Hills are with a brief day trip down to Arundel for a hike. Here are the trials and tribulations of one lady with food restrictions and two germaphobes traveling during a global pandemic.

1. Denbies Wine Estate

Stop #1 was a stay at the hotel located on the Denbies Wine Estate. It was mostly business as usual around here – quite a few precautions in place but we were able to have a real taste of “normal” life for a moment. Our first night we attended a special food & wine pairing event. Denbies even catered to GF/Vegan! (Sometimes its easier to just adhere to that versus adding in the whole fodmappy thing – but I digress). It was a lovely 3 course meal.

Denbies Food & Wine Pairing

Appetizer of falafel with an absolutely yummy hummous with red pepper. A side of artichoke, olives & sun ripened tomatoes. Artichokes have been a recent favorite of mine (in reasonable serve size)

My main included rice, avocado & cauliflower (unfortunately I didn’t eat much of the cauli for fodmappy reasons). With absolutely lovely GF bread and the BEST vegan feta I’ve had! I made myself an avo toast with these components, along with the mango/pomegranate salsa.

For dessert I was offered three different delicious bars from Honeybuns bakery. I didn’t get a picture of the millionaire’s slice, as I immediately ate it. Also enjoyed Denbies’ Pinot Noir – my favorite of their selection.

Village Greens Farm Shop at Denbies

One of the other great things about staying on the estate was the adorable Village Greens Farm Shop they have on the property. Wines, cheese, frozen and cold foods, prepped vegan dishes and all the treats you could want (plenty of GF options, no worries!) Two things we found there that we treated ourselves to were Montezuma’s Vegan Milk Chocolate bar and a legit Gingerbread slice – never had gingerbread like that before!

Breakfast at Denbies

Breakfast was included with our stay, and due to COVID in lieu of a buffet-style, they had you preorder your selections. Which was amazing, as I was able to fully customize my GF/low-FODMAP breakfast and have it delivered to me at a comfortable social distance from others!

And when in doubt, and you don’t feel like thinking too much – there is always Pizza Express GF takeaway nearby in Dorking!

Stepping Stones Hike

One of my favorite little morning hikes we did while staying at Denbies was across the road to the Stepping Stones. If you’re ever around the area it is definitely worth the walk around.

2. Day Trip to Arundel

We did a quick trip out of Surrey and nearly to the south coast – stopping in Arundel for a day hike. The town was quaint and beautiful with the castle on one side and a huge beautiful cathedral on the other. I didn’t get many pics of the town center, as there were a lot of people. I ended up having quite a bit of anxiety and we retreated to the car so I could eat a homemade banana muffin in peace. Always have a backup food plan while traveling…especially when you have dietary restrictions and there’s a pandemic where cafes have pared down menus or you don’t want to sit inside!! Once we got outside of the city center on the hike, we relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. This hike took us past the Cathedral straight away, and then out to Hiorne Tower before hiking up quite a hill to an amazing overlook. With sheep. Lots of sheep.

3. Guildford

Our next stop was Guildford, a sizable town on the western outskirts of the Surrey Hills Area. We’ve only ever passed it by while riding a train to a different destination so we decided to pop in for a couple nights stay. We stayed at the Guildford Harbor Hotel, which was nice and had it’s own restaurant though we did not eat there. Deliveroo was our friend our first day here! We were just too people-pandemic-exhausted to venture out further.

Canopy Coffee: We found a lovely local coffee spot that offered a GF blueberry bakewell.
https://www.canopycoffee.co.uk/

4. Our Most Lovely Day (Guildford/Shere)

It has been way too many moons since Koala & I have had a day as lovely as our Sunday out in Guildford & the surrounding areas. Seriously, it is definitely a contender for the Best Day of the Year. It started with the lovely blueberry bakewell and a sleepy Sunday morning walk around Guildford. From here we decided to see what Loseley Park had to offer. And that was well manicured gardens and lawns – a huge estate and general merriment.

Loseley Park

Shere

We then decided to venture over to Shere, a lovely little town in the middle of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (real name).

Cute cafe with an even cuter name! The Dabbling Duck in Shere was a great place to get a coffee or GF avo toast (all from a comfortable takeaway window – no need to sit inside or in their back garden but you could if you wanted to!)

Albury Winery

From here we took a walk through the countryside, through the trees and quiet forest – to the Silent Pools. And then by complete coincidence our hike ended at the Albury Winery – an organic sparkling wine vineyard. I KNOW, what are the odds?! It was booked out for tables, but they allowed walk-ins for a self-guided winery tour. (Basically, you walk the grounds, read facts, drink wine, and see pheasants)

And if the day couldn’t get better, we found a local pub called The Queen’s Head with an extensive GF menu, including Fish & Chips (10 minute drive out of Guildford to East Clandon)

5. Stonehenge

On our last day out, we decided to take a drive to Stonehenge. Neither of us have been there in several years. You have to book your entrance time slot in advance. We arrived early and I found the experience to be much nicer this time without huge tour buses and groups of tourists. Though by the time we left there certainly seemed to be more people than I thought there would be with such regulations. But it was fun to see again!

Concluding Thoughts

I was grateful for the break from the norm – we needed it especially since we’ve been two little expat hermits post-lockdown. We did learn a lot though, and I’m glad we have this knowledge of what stresses us out most while traveling these days. Koala and I are seasoned travelers in our past life – we used to like to hit new cities/countries pretty fast & hard. I think we learned that navigating this new world we need to be a bit more slow-paced and patient with ourselves. This runs true both in our style of travel and mindset in general these days. 🙂

Be well,
Sara ♥