I lived in Guildford for a year and at first glance it not great. However, if you are fond of walking, there is a fantastic choice of well-marked, public footpaths in and around the town through a variety of landscape including forests, open parkland, rivers and hillsides. Off the top of my head, the river has a good path and if you look at the map of the town on googlemaps, the big green area on the south-east side of the town is a big open common with nice views and walks. It's part of the 'North Downs Way'. We used to walk different parts of the NDW at weekends and almost any part of it is easy to access with free parking and good signage. Box hill at nearby Dorking is a nice spot for a walk. It has nice views over a nearby vinyard (they also do vinyard tours), one of the few in England.
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Really, you'd be supprised that such nice scenery could be found 20 miles from central London.