Planning A Walking Holiday

The United Kingdom is a walker's paradise: Hundreds of thousands of miles of well-mapped public footpaths, beautifully varied landscapes, excellent hospitality, and easily accessible. It’s no wonder this is a nation of walkers.

From the Scottish Highlands to the South Downs and almost everywhere in between, walker-friendly accommodation, well organised baggage transfer services and convenient transport connections make organising walking trips a piece of cake.

And don’t forget the British USP: almost every day of walking can be rounded off in that most unique and ancient of British institutions: the village pub, a welcoming place to rest, drink, usually eat, often stay and always experience an easy way to meet the locals.

Once you've decided where you want to go, it's time to figure out how you want to do it. Read on for our essential guide to planning your next walking holiday.

There are three broad categories of walking holidays: Fully independent, an organised but self-guided holiday, or an escorted tour, typically with a guide and a group of other walkers.

Each has its own merits. Which you plump for depends partly on your physical ability and your budget, but generally speaking it’s a question of convenience versus freedom.

This is typically the preserve of dedicated trekkers in the more remote wilderness areas where accommodation and services are few and far between.

Some take this to the extreme by being almost completely self-sufficient, carrying a tent and cooking equipment with them and pitching up at whatever quiet camping spot they find each evening. (Wild camping is generally prohibited in England and Wales, but is permissible—within limits—in Scotland.) Others will use B&Bs as they go, but carry everything they need for the entire trip, perhaps altering their route as they go.

It’s difficult to quantify the sense of freedom you have when you set off on a walk from A to B, carrying everything you might need along the way and navigating yourself the entire way. It’s also usually the cheapest way to go, but the main advantage is that you don’t have to tie yourself down to a rigid schedule. Instead, you can go with the flow, walking as fast or slow as you prefer and stopping wherever and whenever you like. And unless you’re hiking a very remote mountainous area in, say, the Scottish Highlands, navigation is rarely a major problem.

Most walking trails in Britain are well marked, particularly the National Trails and the coastal paths, and they are usually covered by a comprehensive, easy-to-follow guidebook, or at very least a mapping series. Top tip: Invest in a walking guide. It’ll be the best £10 you spend on your trip.

For most walkers, carrying all the gear you need for a multi-day trip just isn’t feasible, but going on an escorted or fully guided tour also doesn’t appeal. Fortunately, there are plenty of specialist walking holiday companies that will tailor an itinerary to your level, book your nightly accommodation and transport your luggage from one guesthouse to the next as you complete your walk. This is by far the most common and popular mode of walking holiday in the UK.

There are some restrictions (they can’t always deliver to campsites, for example, nor to very remote hostels), and you’ll be tied to a pre-set itinerary of course, but this option does leave you with the freedom of walking on your own, without having the physical burden of anything more than a light daypack.

A slightly more DIY variation on the organised self-guided walking holiday is to pre-book each night’s accommodation yourself and organise your own baggage transfer from inn to inn. Walker-oriented B&Bs may offer a baggage transfer service via local taxi companies or, in the more popular walking areas, you’ll find standalone baggage transfer services. When all’s said and done the cost saving between this and booking an organised holiday won’t be significant, and the convenience and reassurance of using a specialist walking holiday company usually outweighs any benefits of doing it all yourself.

For those who don’t trust their navigational skills or just prefer to walk with others, escorted tours offer fully supported group walks with an experienced guide. This also removes the hassle of having to plan your trip—a nice feeling when you’re on a holiday. Trips usually include accommodation, transport arrangements, baggage transfer, minibus back-up and, of course, a guide.

The downside is that you won’t be able to stop where and when you want, to take that afternoon snooze on a sunny riverbank, to spend an extra few minutes lining up that perfect selfie, or to take an extra rest day in an idyllic fishing village you discover you have a soft spot for. Taking a guided tour also makes your walking holiday significantly more expensive.

Classic point-to-point (sometimes marketed as ‘inn-to-inn’) walking trips follow a single route for the duration of your holiday. This allows walkers to tackle long distance trails and enter into the purposeful mindset of accomplishing a single, longer journey with a rewarding sense of completion at the end.

The downsides are of course a lot of planning for changing accommodation and refreshment on a daily basis. It may mean organising a luggage transfer service, either formally with a specialist company, via taxi, or through your accommodation. You’ll never be settled and feel at home in one place and may be forced to walk to the next accommodation whatever the weather or state of your legs.

Centre-based walking holidays are a more relaxed option, although if your centre is Llanberis in Snowdonia or Windermere in the Lakes you could be in for a very challenging series of day walks. The choice of home base becomes more important if you are spending every night of the holiday there.

If your holiday is more than a couple of days your walks from the same base are likely to involve some repetition, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing if the scenery is truly great. You will never get the same smug feeling of completion at the end of a two-week hike but balance that with the compensation of being able to do something different whenever you fancy or find a short cut back to your accommodation if it starts raining. You can adapt to the weather and your energy levels in a way that point-to-point walkers can’t.

Muddying the waters further is the option of dual (or more) centre trips. There’s nothing stopping you spending several days in one place and then moving on to the next. A specialist walking holiday company can create a suitable itinerary.

Costs vary depending on your chosen flavour of trip and can fluctuate significantly by location. Prices are generally higher the further south you go, but also spike in tourist hotspots like the Lake District and the Cotswolds. Solo travellers will often pay more for accommodation than a couple would pay per person.

(per person)

Accommodation (B&B/walking inns): £50 - £100 per night

Evening meals (in pubs/hotel restaurants): £15 - £20 per day

Baggage transfer, if applicable: around £10 per day per bag

Extras (lunch, snacks, entrance tickets): £5 - £20 per day

Between £80 and £150 per person per day, depending on the location. Typically includes accommodation, breakfasts, bag transfers and all other logistics.

One week escorted tour: depending on standard of accommodation, from £700 to £1,000 (including accommodation & breakfast, but no other meals)

Meals: £120-£200

The UK has a temperate-maritime climate which brings cold, wet winters and warm(er) but also often wet summers. Surrounded by sea, the country has changeable weather that can vary within short distances and timescales. There can be fine bright walking days at any time of the year, but they can just as quickly turn into wet and windy afternoons!

Summer is almost never too hot to walk but winters can bring snow, particularly in Scotland and on high ground in Wales and northern England.

Overall the north is on average four or five degrees cooler and wetter. The southwest and Wales are mildest but due to prevailing winds from the Atlantic get more rain than eastern areas.

Generally the shoulder seasons of spring and autumn offer the best balance of smaller crowds and more agreeable weather.

Aside from the more remote stretches of the Scottish Highlands, you won’t find any genuine wilderness in the UK. But conditions can still turn treacherous even when you’re relatively close to civilisation. Regardless of the month, sensible preparation and packing all-weather gear is essential.

Maps, walking guides, apps and other trip planning resources for UK walking holidays.

Ordnance Survey: The gold standard of maps and a national treasure. (ordnancesurvey.co.uk)

Harvey Maps: Specialist walking maps in a variety of scales. (harveymaps.co.uk)

Cicerone Guides (cicerone.co.uk)

Pathfinder Guides (pathfinderwalks.co.uk)

Inn Way Guides (innway.co.uk)

UK National Trail website (nationaltrail.co.uk)

National Trust walks (nationaltrust.org.uk/walking)

Long Distance Walkers Association (ldwa.org.uk)

Met Office mountain weather forecast (metoffice.gov.uk)

GPS Routes (gps-routes.co.uk)

Walk Highlands (walkhighlands.co.uk)

Walk NI (walkni.com)

Visit Wales (visitwales.com)

Visit England (visitengland.com)