Walking Tours in England - anyone done this? Tips, tricks, suggestions?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve never been to England and I want to go. I want to do a walking tour, and I’m thinking about the Thames River Valley path (usually 15 days, from 10-15 miles per day). I think I can handle the walking, I gather it’s fairly easy and flat. The tour includes B&B type accommodations and luggage transfer, as well as guide material etc. I gather you don’t have to walk with the group, but you need to end up at your accommodation by the end of the day.

Has anyone done anything like this, specifically in England? If so, I’d love to hear about your experiences.

2

Mrs Piper and I did it several years ago - took the Coast-to-Coast walk. One of the best experiences of my life!

We used Contours travel agency and found them to be wonderful.

Don’t know anything about the Thames walk, but expect it would be good as well.

The two tips I would give both relate to preparation. We went to the Y about a year in advance and paid for a personal assessment for each of us, followed by a recommended training plan. We did that for a year and found it extremely valuable. We were approaching couch potato status before we decided to do it, and getting off the flight and going straight to the walk without that training probably would not have been good.

The second tip is gear. We got good titanium walking sticks and lots of hikers’ gear. Found it invaluable. The one thing we didn’t really do include was sunscreen and first aid stuff, which we turned out to need. Just an oversight on our part.

Getting late now, but if I think of anything in the morning I’ll post again.

Go for it!

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The Thames path should be pretty interesting if you like historic towns and green countryside - I’ve travelled part of the route on water - by boat from Teddington to Lechlade.

Upstream of Oxford, it’s fairly green and comparatively unpopulated - you’ll mostly be walking on a path through fields (you’ll find pubs along the riverside at some of the road crossings though).

Downstream of Oxford - there’s plenty to do and see - nice historic towns (Wallingford is nice, Abingdon is very lovely) - will you have time to stop and look around the towns?

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Watching with interest. We are not doing a guided tour, but in Sept/Oct this year we are going to walk/bus/train around in the UK. Doing a guide tour is definitely a want in time to come.

I second the advice to increase fitness. We have been working on that, and three weeks ago did a 9.5km each way walk in 6 hours at Wilson’s Promontory in Victoria, Australia. Included about 500m of climbing one way, and 300m the other. No way could we have done that 6 months ago.

Also super second the advice for walking poles. Mr PR’s sister put us on to them, and they are amazing. Help going up and down hill, help prevent turning your ankle on uneven ground.

Have a great time, it sounds like it will be awesome.

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I’d do this one but there’s a pretty good choice here:

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Contours is one of MANY companies offering this sort of service in different parts of the country. Some are in guided groups, some are self-guided with the company providing maps and guidebooks, and handling your luggage. I did a Contours self-guided walk on Hadrian’s Wall a few years ago, which was fine.

The Thames Path would be an ideal introduction, since by definition it will be on the level, and you’re never far from (and often in) towns and villages (plenty of pubs for a rest-stop): but there are loads and loads of options in different sorts of landscape, mountains, lakes, countryside and seaside.

For the Thames path you wouldn’t need particularly rugged outdoor gear, but you do need to be comfortable in your footwear, so make sure that’s well broken-in before you pack it. A lot of the walk would be on made-up towpaths, but it would be helpful if you had some tread on the soles for muddy ground. The weather will most likely be changeable but not extreme, so wear layers of clothing, and make sure you have a waterproof outer layer in your pack. You might find walking poles useful, but for walking along the Thames Path not likely to be essential and possibly even an encumbrance. Take a basic first aid kit (Compeed for blisters, sticking plasters, antiseptic cream/ointment, that sort of thing). Contours will probably advise on all this: I seem to remember they were pretty thorough in terms of information and advice like that, and I’d expect other companies to be so as well.

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Does it have to be England, or would you consider other parts of the UK?

A couple of years ago I did the Great Glen Way in Scotland using a pretty unique method of accommodation and baggage transfer - a converted canal barge. You walk 10-15 miles a day, and your room and stuff moves to the next overnight location while you are walking. You get cruising on Loch Ness thrown in for fun.

http://www.caledonian-discovery.co.uk/

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I think it will be a great way to get to know at least a part of England. 10-15 miles a day is around 3-5 hours walking, leaving you plenty of time for other diversions and meeting the wildlife and the natives. Beautiful scenery on the way, and then through the heart of London. It’ll beat the hell out of a whistlestop tour spending hours on the motorway to check off the “must see” sights. You’ll get a real feel for the place.

Tips: A small tube of suncream… you probably won’t need it.
An umbrella might be handy…
If your budget allows, a couple of days in London at the end might be worthwhile if you fancy it.

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I recently did the Cotswold Way run – all 105+ miles of the Cotswold Way in 4 days. My bit of advice – the Cotswolds are much tougher to walk or jog in than they look on a map, especially when it is raining. The uphills have less than 1000 feet of elevation gain, but they are limestone hills and thus very steep. And when it rains – and it is England so it will rain – the downhills become too slippery to trust myself going quickly down.

The first and last days were not so bad because they were either short or flat. The second day was horrible – 27 miles and 4000 feet elevation gain with slippery trails. The third day was where the advice really held. Only 23 miles with less elevation gain than the second day. I didn’t get in to camp until 6 pm, yet I wasn’t tired: most of the time I was going as fast as I thought I could go but was constrained by the mud.

That said I’d love to go back to do more trail walking provided it is 10-15 miles a day like yours, AND it goes through substantial wilderness in addition to towns.

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Lots of good information, thanks. It’s good to get recommendations about a particular tour group because there seem to be dozens of them available, and they can’t all be great (I presume).

I’m already doing 3 miles uphill on a treadmill 4 times a week; I will up that to 4 miles and 5 times a week, I think that should be enough.

Finding good hiking shoes will be a challenge, I have flat wide feet, but I have a couple of ideas. Any specifics in that area from anyone out there would be great, though.

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Personally if I were to do it over again, and I wasn’t going to a place with steep slopes and mud, I’d use a brand new pair of (cross trainer) Air Monarchs. Lots of cushioning and side support, and you can even go through tiny streams without getting your socks wet. I say “new” because they start off with very little tread and lose that quickly, otherwise they’d be the best hiking shoe ever. Much faster to walk in than boots, while not as fast as trail runners but at 10-15 miles a day you don’t need speed.

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Do you fancy a beer or 500? If you’re doing the walk in April/May aim to be in Reading over the early May Bank Holiday weekend for the Reading Beer & Cider festival. The festival is about 50 yards off the Thames path. Here’s an article about this year’s fest - Reading Beer and Cider Festival 2017: All you need to know about food, drink and more - Berkshire Live

As for the walk itself I’ve done a short section from Reading to Shiplake. As others have said, it’s flat but could be muddy in places. There are also a few stiles to negotiate.

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You must visit a few good English pubs along the way. The Thames Valley has loads. This site is searchable and has literally hundreds of good recommendations. You should be able to find one nearby to where you are staying every night!

https://whatpub.com/

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Buy good quality wool or wool/synthetic hiking socks, I prefer thickish ones but opinions vary. Do not economise on socks and, whatever you do, do not wear cotton socks. Your feet will be more comfortable and will smell less. Make sure when you purchase your hiking footwear that you try them on with your chosen type of socks.

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Unfortunately, I’m allergic to wool. How about sythetics by themselves?

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I would think if going for synthetics then it is even more important not to economise. What you want is something which is soft against the skin and which wicks away moisture, and there are some great synthetic fibres which do both very well. Viscose fibres made from bamboo seem to be all the rage at the moment: https://www.amazon.com/Bridgedale-Bamboo-Natural-Eucalyptus-Medium/dp/B01C5QKF56. Alternatively you could consider thin liner socks made from something like Coolmax which wick moisture well and can be worn under regular socks.

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Au contraire! we ran into trouble because we didn’t have any!

When we arrived in England, we realised we had forgotten sunscreen, so we bought a couple of tubes, just in case. Cost the Earth compared to prices in Canada.

Then we hit the Lake District and a “wee mist” as our B&B host called it. Being from the dry prairies, we called it a downpour.

We found we had overpacked and to lighten our load, we ditched the sunscreen, amongst other things. It was obviously not going to be needed.

You know where this is going? :smack:

Once we left the Lake district, we had uninterrupted sunshine for several days, unprecedented for Yorkshire - beautiful clear blue skies and hot sun. Mrs Piper was wearing hiking shorts and developed bad sunburn on her right knee and calf - because we were always walking east, her right leg got all the sun.

By the time we got to Keld, it was blistering and infected. :smack: :smack:

Fortunately, our host at the Keld B&B, Tony, was ex-Army and had a massive first aid kit. He patched up the sunburn for Mrs P with antibiotic cream and sterile dressings, while Mrs Tony plied her with hot sweet tea “just to keep your strength up, dear”. Tony warned us to get some additional antibiotic cream when we got to Richmond the next day.

When we got to Richmond, we got a couple of tubes of antibiotic cream. Again, pricey compared to Canadian prices, but we were not going to skimp. Got two extra-large tubes. As well, we’d booked Richmond as a rest day, so Mrs P could take it easy while I climbed the towers of Richmond Castle.

Then the next day, we hiked the next stage and got to our next B&B at Ingleby Cross. We turned on the tv.

News item: Animal rights activists were upset with a pharmaceutical company because of animal testing, and announced that they’d broken into the factory and contaminated the antibiotic cream that the company made.

The pharmaceutice company denied that there had been a break-in, but out of abundance of caution was advising consumers to discard certain lots of it, just in case.

We checked the tubes of antibiotic cream. Yup. Made by that pharmaceutical company. :smack: :smack: :smack:

Checked the lot number. Yup. On the discard list. :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:

Into the rubbish bin it went.

As it turned out, the day off in Richmond and the excellent care from Tony and Mrs Tony in Keld had done the trick, so Mrs P was able to keep going even without the antibiotic cream.

Moral of the story: buy sunscreen and antibiotic cream in the US before you go, and do not discard the sunscreen, even if you are getting the forty days of rain following St Swithin’s Day.

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Our choice came down to Contours and Sherpa. We went with Contours because of good internet recommendations, and also because they had much more flexibility in booking than Sherpa. Contours gave us a range of from 12 to 21 days to do the C2C, and also included bookings for days off. We took the maximum hiking time, and booked three days off, in the Lake Country, Richmond, and Kirkby Stephen.

They took very good care of us, and no glitches at all, so would recommend them. Mind you, it was back in 2007, but I would be surprised if they’ve gone downhill since then.

19

I have a slightly crooked leg with a tendency to plantar fascitis, and in our training here in Canada, found that the classic high-ankled hiking boot tended to cause the plantar problem to flare up.

In the end, I just went with a good pair of hiking shoes that didn’t go up the ankle. Worked fine for me, even in the rugged areas.

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Silly question: can you even take tubes of SPF∞ with you on a plane now? I thought it was one of the things that the TSA takes away (and sells on card tables at the local flea markets on weekends).