Birmingham and the West Midlands offer some of the best canal routes - great for wintry mornings.
Canals provide free and low-cost family-friendly days out by the water, which can be particularly atmospheric during the autumn and winter months as long as you wrap up warm.
Explore top-rated canal routes with our gallery below:
1. Cannon Hill Park, Moseley
Cannon Hill Park is the most obvious choice for a walk in the winter. It covers 250 acres consisting of formal, conservation, woodland and sports areas. | Creative Commons
2. Canalside, Birmingham
Birmingham has many canals connecting different parts of the city. Walking along the canals during spring is a pleasurable activity and there are multiple restaurants and cafes along it in the city centre. You can just pop into one if it starts raining. | Asmita Sarkar
3. Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Park is one of the largest urban parks in Europe. The park has open heathland, woodlands, seven lakes, wetlands, and marshes - which you can discover by foot or by cycling around the area. | Stephen McKay/Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license
4. The Shire Country Park, near Moseley
The park is a local nature reserve and follows the River Cole Valley for four miles and crosses one of the few remaining fords in the city. It contains wetlands, grasslands, woodland and heath, which all support a wealth of animal and plant life. The park was named to honour the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien who lived within its borders as a young child. | Elliott Brown/flickr