6abc

Has anybody done a self-guided walking tour of the Cotswalds lately? I have found several companies. The one I am looking at (I won't publish the name unless someone asks) takes us to the following areas. Burford to Bourton-on-the-Water, to Stow-on-Wold (including upper and lower Slaughter, to Blockley to Chipping Campden. to Stanton to Winchombe. I am not sure if this includes the Cotswold trail and has anyone done the trail? Are there any other wonderful places that this company is missing?

We enjoy being away from the very touristy places. We figure since we are hiking we don't want to be faced with SUV's when we get to our destinations.

I did a walking trip 20 years ago in the Cotswolds and I am sure alot has changed. This is a first trip for my husband outside of the USA (we are use to hiking in the seclusion of places like the Grand Canyon (down into) and the Escante region of Utah) and I really want to experience some rural life in the country side.

My main question is (after reading another Cotswold post) Should I be looking at doing another region of England like the Lake District. I don't want to be so remote that we can't go to a pub here and there along the route and see some tourist attractions? Are there any other suggested areas that we can hike through REAL farm lands and stay in some REAL working villages.

Any suggestions on Self-guided walking companies?

All responses would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for all the questions but I would like to book soon. We will be going the end of May 2007.
6abc

flanneruk

You might want the convenience of an organisation that carries your bags for you. But there is asbsolutely no shortage in England of walking routes you can manage for yourself through farmland. There are about 120,000 miles of public-access rural footpath across (mostly) private land, and the whole network is accessible at the Get a Map feature of the Ordnance Survey site (zoom into the highest magnification for the footpaths.) With a couple of exceptions in England's remotest areas, you're never more than 2 or 3 miles from a pub or more than 4 miles or so from a village. However you organise things, there's no risk of being far away from comforts. Pretty well any tour will have you spending most nights somewhere populated. The comforts those population centres provide depend on a permanent, comfortably off, local population. So when you arrive in Winchcombe that population will have the kind of cars you need to drive round the area. Inevitably a pretty good proportion of them will be SUVs. Quite simply, you're going to see (slightly) more Range Rovers in the countryside than outside a Chelsea mews cottage.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with an organisation: I'd rent a cottage and do a series of day walks around the places I wanted to see. England's footpaths almost always allow near-limitless 10-15 miles circular walks from almost anywhere scenic. So I'd take a region, list what I wanted, then organise the walk accordingly - so dispensing with the need for anyone to carry the bags.

Your question about working villages and real farmland is complicated to answer.

British agiculture is in serious trouble for a load of reasons, most of which come down to the fact that lots of other countries produce food cheaper. At the same time, there's great demand for land, and pretty robustly-enforced law about preserving greenery and preserving what's called the "built environment".

So the villagey areas, like the Cotswolds, are full of farms you can walk through, and the built-up area's not significantly different from 20, 200 or even 800 years ago. But there's rapidly declining agricultural activity going on on the farms, with farmhouses being turned into nice country places for townies to stay in, and the land increasingly used for other rural things - stud farms, shooting estates and anything else ingenuity can dream up.

Similarly, the towns and villages are hit by the problem of more and more people wanting to live in them, while their shops can't compete with bigger stores 7 miles away. So the villages become pretty, meticulously conserved, residential areas, with only the churches, post offices, pubs and a few specialist stores aimed at the overeducated incomers really surviving. Tourist attractions are better managed than 20 years ago, the buildings better looked after and the growing population means a vastly bigger range of local choir festivals, lecture courses and the like. The places are "working": they're far from abandoned and not at all given over to tourism: but much of the work is in publishing, obscure consultancy specialities, and commuting into the nearest larger town.

So a typical 3,000-4,000 population small town in rural England will look a commercial desert by the standards of a similar sized US place.

Now there are a few parts of England where villages have kept shops and the like. And there are parts where farming's less badly hit, though a lot of those areas - like Norfolk and Lincolnshire - are pretty uninteresting to walk round.

Posters here can help you identify such areas if that matters to you.

But does it? I may have misinterpreted you: if all you're concerned about is that you're worried you'll be walking through endless 1990s strip malls: you won't.

Alternatively, you might be thinking rural England has gone like a lot of scenically-interesting rural America, with rather sprawling, relatively new, tourist accommodation and eating places occupying a tightly defined area which is then surrounded by wonderful, but largely deserted countryside.

That simply hasn't happened. England's countryside is, by US standards, qute densely populated. Stand anywhere in the countryside by day and it looks almost deserted: at night there are pinpricks of light all over. Those pinpricks get more concentrated in (but rarely around) the towns and villages, where it's been very difficult to be allowed to build any new tourist facilities for most of the past 50 years.

For some of us, the transition from horrible shops selling tinned food and nothing else to bookshops and decent delis makes England's rural settlements infintely nicer. But if you want a range of tiny quirky shops, you have to look elsewhere. Darkest Hampshire, for example.

6abc

Thank you FlannerUK. I am going to explore doing this on our own by renting a cottage but if we do that I am not sure I will see all the villages in our short period of time without a car. But I will definetly look into it. And I am also sure I will have more questions. I am trying to read through a lot of the Cotswold postings to get the info that I need. Once again thanks!

Pumbavu

What about Hadrians Wall!

a good long walk acoss the country steeped in history and amazing scenery!

http://www.hadrianswalk.co.uk/

flanneruk

Walking the Cotswolds without a car?

Yes it's possible: I often do it. But then I have a Cotswold house a few hundred yards from both a bus stop and a railway station. And I've no interest in seeing the area's Greatest Hits - which is just as well, because many of them are practically inaccessible without a car

It MIGHT be possible to create a cottage-based walking holiday featuring the best-known sites using only public transport. But it'd take an AWFUL lot of planning, and a lot of very frenetic running for the last bus of the day to catch the relevant connection home.

If you can construct such a plan, a local publisher chum of mine might well be interested in turning into a guide book, since none of us have the time to research and test it.

If however you both have livings to earn or dependants to look after, you probably won't have the time either.

The Cotswold route your company suggests is fine. Either it, or the Hadrian's Wall coast to coast, would be delightful.

Without a car - unless you want to be a published author - I'd forget my suggestion, and concentrate on whether similar organised point to point walks in the Pennines or Devon might be better.

isplumm

Hi ...

Not sure how much time you have - but want about the Coast-2-Coast - Wainright version. It is about 190 miles - takes anything from 8 days upwards. I am sure there are companies who carry your luggage from stop to stop.

Excellent walk - you see Lake District, Torkshire Dales & North York Moors, as well as the sea at both ends.

Mark

6abc

Thanks again everybody. FlannerUK, Hummm! that writing about our trails sounds pretty tempting. Not sure if I have the time right now but you planted a thought and that is dangerous with me. So I guess it sounds like if we rent our own cottage we will need a car? I don't know if I want to do that it seems like a waste to have it sitting there all day while we are hiking. But if we do decide can you direct me to any good agencies that do cottage rentals?

And Mark thanks for the info. The Lake District is still of interest. The total time of our trip is 11 days.

I am just getting ready to book our flight and then we will take a few more days and decide whether we will do a self-guided with a company or on our own (that book things is sticking in my brain

Thanks again. 6abc

Cimbrone

I loved the Lakes District, but found the towns a bit gritty compared to the honeyed stone, story book villages in the Cotswolds. The countryside is lovely, however, somewhat wilder than you'd find in the Cotswolds.

Consider the Dales Way in the Yorkshire Dales. Lots of working farms in this area. Not quite as yuppified as the Cotswolds. I stayed here www.smithyfold.co.uk/ and loved it.

flanneruk

"can you direct me to any good agencies that do cottage rentals"

No. I know nothing about the tourist industry.

Mimar

Why don't you look at www.slowtrav.com? The founder of that site has stayed in many cottages in England. And, while you're there, look for Kaydee's report on her family's walk across England on the Coast-to-coast trail. Was it the Wainwright version, Kathy?

I love the cottages at www.ruralretreats.co.uk, but they may be too upscale for your budget. The English do cozy so well!

janisj

Rural retreats do tend to be on the pricey side - but they are mostly very nice.

I prefer these agencies - they are also quite good but have properties in wider price ranges.

• Cottage in the Country www.cottageinthecountry.co.uk Good agency with cottages in the Cotswolds, Berkshire, Warwickshire and others areas. # C292 is an example of a 3bdrm cottage sleeping 6, for less than £400 a week.

• Manor Cottages & Cotswold Retreats www.manorcottages.co.uk Cotswold-based with properties of all sizes.

And for someplace really special:

• National Trust Holiday Cottages Ph 011-44-1225-791199. Cottages on National Trust land in England, Wales and N. Ireland. Some one-of-a-kind historic houses. Need to book early. Relatively expensive, but most are unique.

6abc

WOW, thank you all.
6abc

brin57

You could also try:

www.discoverthecotswolds.net

and

www.campdencottages.co.uk

Both have a good range of lovely cottages both in size and price.

Good luck with your search.

6abc

Has anybody heard of the walking group called the Discerning Traveller? And if so any comments. Thanks

6abc

Well the time has arrived. When did i first post to this lets see March 2007. It is going to be England this time. Air is already booked. So it is time to start planning the hiking. Just to catch you all up we did Scotland on our own and a hiking trip in Tuscany (trip report posted here- not quite finished YET) with a self-guided group called Grisole.

I reread this post and now have to make a decision as to what area. We go this May 2009. Any comments on the weather in different areas which is cooler, hotter, wetter. I have decided not to do the Cottwolds. So we are looking into the Lake District, C2C, or something along the coastlines. I have looked at some videos on youtube.com and the coast looks like the weather can be quite miserable and windy (which I wouldn't mind for a few days it makes it kind of exciting).

Love to hear more feedback. When I do a search for hiking nothing much seems to come up. I am also on slow trav and have heard some great stuff. So anyone have any good hiking stories.

Oh I am either going to choose Contours or hfholidays (I would have used ATG but no trips in these areas) for the self guided trip.

6abc

I am just getting use to this new format of fodors. I haven't been on for a while. If anyone wants to read my trip report from Italy here is the link

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ltop-towns.cfm

Can anyone point me in the direction of a trip report for hiking in England?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Cimbrone

Here's my trip report, for what it's worth.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

I could be wrong, but I don't think the English use the word "hiking" as much as they do "walking" or even "rambling." You might find more by searching those words.

6abc

Cimbrone Thanks for the link to your trip report. I will read it later today when I settle down with a hot cup of coffee and no distractions.

I took your advise and changed my search to "walking England" and a few more posts. Some good info in them, so thank you.

ron

Cimbrone is correct about the use of the term "hiking". I was on one of the HF guided walking holidays a few years ago; the group included a number of walkers from Oregon that continually referred to what were doing as hiking. There was a discussion about this at the dinner one evening. The comment I most remember is one the English guests suggesting that hiking might have been something a boy scout troop would have done in the 1930s.

In terms of your weather concerns, the Lake District will be wet. The Lake District portion of the C2C will be wet. There may or may not be few rain showers if you are doing a coastal walk.

My personal preference is coastal walks. Favourites are Pembrokeshire Coast Path and the South West Coast path.

6abc

Thanks Ron, I had been looking at the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. I haven't done any research yet on it. Since we are flying into Heathrow do you know how far it is and can we get there by train. I am tending towards the coastal paths but hubby thinks it might be too much like walking on the beaches here in New Jersey (well not quite but He doesn't want to just have a straight ahead view be the same the entire walk). What can I advise him on the view?