Late August, and your sang-froid is melting like the tar on the road. The fag end of summer is fizzling out fast, but you are pinned to your desk in the city, with the boss on your back, the watercooler running on tepid and your stress gauge at regulo 9. Your va-va-voom has well and truly vamoosed.

What you need is a sharp blast of fresh air, some quick-fix countryside to save you from urban meltdown. We’ve found exactly the thing — a whole host of easy, breezy ideas for a fast getaway to the cleaner, greener beyond.

Whichever of Britain’s main metropolises you happen to live in, you’ll find three hand-picked escapes to choose from — and six if you’re in London (three north of the river, three south). None is much more than an hour from town, and they range from high-adrenaline (throwing yourself out of a plane) to low-impact (throwing yourself into a lunch).

By all means go next weekend. Better still, blag a day off during the week, when the hills are lonely and the feeling of freedom is even sweeter.

LONDON SOUTH

Land-yachting in Kent: the first thing they teach you on a land yacht is how to stop. No surprise, really, given that the maximum speed these lean, green racing machines can reach is an eye-popping 45mph. Tuition comes courtesy of the land-yacht manufacturer Kirrawee (01797 362132, www.kirrawee.com), on the Kent coast at Greatstone-on-Sea.

That’s a good hour and 20 minutes from the Smoke, but with wide-open sands and big Channel skies beckoning, it’s well worth the extra time in the car. A four-hour introduction to the sport costs £65pp.

Wine touring in the North Downs: it’s official — English wine is no longer a joke. The dry, chalky uplands of Surrey, Sussex and Kent are now considered some of the best places in the world to make sparkling wine, and several recent vintages have had the cognoscenti fizzing with interest.

Denbies Wine Estate (01306 876616, www.denbiesvineyard.co.uk), near Dorking, offers tastings and tours (from £4pp). You can follow on with walks along the North Downs Way or a wander through the gardens of Polesden Lacey, the famous Regency pile (01372 452048, www.nationaltrust.org.uk; £5).

Green fingers in Surrey: there are garden centres, then there’s the Royal Horticultural Society’s centre at Wisley: 240 acres of arboretums, water features and greenhouses, all designed to inform and inspire. Once you’ve stocked up on fresh ideas — whether for a new flowering border or a couple of pots on a windowsill — you can buy all your raw materials at the RHS plant shop, which sells more than 10,000 species.

The centre is open daily until 6pm (01483 224234, www.rhs.org.uk), and admission costs £7 (£2 for children aged 6-16, free for under-6s).

LONDON NORTH

Sailing at Sunbury: make the wind your master with a day’s sailing on the Queen Mary Reservoir. Nearly a mile wide and raised 45ft above ground level, it catches every gust going, and it’s home to one of Britain’s most competitive and highly organised sailing clubs.

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