← Triplan

🌳 Hampstead Heath & Highgate

London · One day · 4 stops · 70% local · ~5.3 km walked (~7,100 steps) · dense pace

A day where London stops looking like a city — swimming ponds, a free Rembrandt, and the view the skyline is legally protected for.

⛰ Terrain: some climbs. The Heath is unpaved and hilly; Parliament Hill is a real climb.

1
Day 1
~5.3 km · ~7,100 steps
Open route ↗

Up Parliament Hill first for the view, then north across the Heath to Kenwood — the Vermeer and the Rembrandt self-portrait are free. The swimming ponds are open all year if you are brave. Finish down the lanes into Hampstead village. Highgate Cemetery sits on the far side of the Heath and its West half is guided-tour only: worth a morning of its own rather than bolted onto this one.

Hampstead & the Heath

~6h

Countryside that never got built on

  • Parliament Hilllocal

    The city laid out from a protected view line — kite weather most of the year.

  • Hampstead Heathlocal

    Eight hundred acres of proper countryside — the swimming ponds run year-round.

  • Kenwood Houselocal

    A Vermeer and a Rembrandt at the top of the Heath, free, in an Adam interior.

  • Hampstead Villagelocal

    Lanes too narrow for buses, secondhand bookshops, and pubs with real fires.