Help with choosing a walking holiday base in the UK

I honestly don’t think you can go wrong with any of them. They are all set in absolutely classic walking country and you’ll enjoy any of them. If you’ve been to Yorkshire before maybe try the Brecon Beacons?

There is good walking from any of them and they are all in lovely parts of the country. The Brecon Beacons will take longer to get to from the Peak District than the others.

Given you have been to Yorkshire I would go for either of the others. The Lakes can get busy but not especially in late April and anyway Coniston is a quieter corner.

Bluebells can be found across the country and the time you’re here should allow you to see them in lots of places, although the weather any given year can result in them blooming sooner or later than the norm.

The Western Yorkshire Dales you might find interesting. Sedbergh (a very interesting town) itself is one of those confusing towns which was historically in Yorkshire, but now in the former Cumbria (now Westmorland and Furness)- whatever HF say it is not in Yorkshire nowadays and hasn't been since 1974.
Although, as the Yorkshire Dales National Park was founded pre 1974, this corner of Cumbria is in the YDNP!!

At the time of writing this is the complete local bus timetable- https://www.westerndalesbus.co.uk/

I say that as there are rumours that Westmorland Council may try to restart big bus services in the area, using government funding from the cancelled HS2 project.

The walks will presumably all be in Cumbria- in the little known Howgill Fells, Dentdale, maybe Cautley, up towards Ravenstonedale- a lovely and quiet part of the world.

Thorn Hall at Sedbergh looks a nice place from memory of going down that road. Please be aware that public transport in Sedbergh is sketchy. Unless they are providing transport you will not be able to get to any of the Yorkshire Walks like Aysgarth, only those in the Howgills.

Oh, gosh. Malham is Newfield Hall.

Malham, classic and splendid limestone country, will be lovely in the Spring. Malham itself gets busy, but you will soon be away from the crowds.

Of Sedbergh or Malham I would edge Malham in the Spring- but it's a tight contest. But for your three criteria and the time of year IMO it's my favourite.

I can't really comment on Brecon.

I would shy away from Monk Coniston at early May bank holiday.

Are you driving or using public transport? Whichever, you need to figure out how you will get from the Peak District to your second choice and then back to London.

Bluebells cover the floor of deciduous woodlands in April & early May with flowering varying on weather.

As for the question of transfers-

1. Sedbergh is easy, taxi to Buxton, train Buxton to Manchester, TPE or Northern Train to Oxenholme for the shared transfer at 1630 or taxi (which is cheaper than their transfer) then train direct Oxenholme to London;

2. Malham- either taxi to Derby, train Derby to Leeds, train Derby to Skipton for the transfer or taxi, on the way back train Skipton to Leeds, Leeds to Kings Cross

3. Brecon- taxi to Buxton, train to Manchester, hourly train Manchester to Abergavenny (journey time 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 hours) then taxi or bus #X43; then train Abergavenny to Newport and train Newport to Paddington.

All easy journeys.

For Malham I would be tempted to take advantage of having all day by taking the Buxton route to Manchester then the scenic double deck Witchway bus (also by a fluke the X43) to Burnley transferring there to the hourly M6 to Skipton.

The X43 is every 20 minutes. The X43 takes about 1:15 and the M6 about 1:30 so end to end journey 3 hours or so through some very nice country. The X43 has table seats and a glass roof- nice buses. And as a bonus £2 capped bus fare for each leg.

The Buxton to Manchester train also has £5 advance fares.

Thanks, this is very helpful. We will be using public transport, and HF Holidays gives suggested routes to each of their country houses—-generally, “train to X, pre-booked taxi or shuttle from there to the house”.

I do need to look at the travel times, and routes back to london. We are now thinking of stopping in Cambridge for a night or two on the way; we have never been there and there is so much to see, especially for my husband, with his PhD in Biology and interest in the history of computers and chips.

Lola,

If you want to build in Cambridge-
then from Malham (Skipton) take the Leeds to London train as far as Peterborough, then change into an hourly Cross Country train bound for Stansted Airport- about 1 hour to Cambridge.

from Sedbergh- get a Woof's taxi to any of Kirkby Stephen, Dent (the highest main line station in England) or Garsdale stations, then the mid morning Settle/Carlisle train to Leeds (the 0824 ex Carlisle) then as above to Cambridge.

Hi Lola -

As others have said, you can’t go wrong with any of these. While it might be thought that given my proximity to Malham, I’d be a primary advocate for there, I’ve also spent a lot of time in the Lakes, particularly the Southern Lakes and think Coniston and around is a fantastic area and not perhaps as well known or frequented by the regular Rick Steves forumite, given Rick’s penchant for Keswick at the other, northern, end of the Lakes. There’s nothing wrong with that, I’m a big fan of Keswick myself, but the Coniston Fells are well worth a visit. Looking at the ‘more strenuous’ walks from Monk Coniston they visit some great country, onto the tops, excellent walking, but don’t forget the layers as it could be sub tropical in the valley and arctic on the peaks! I’m sure you’ll know this being no stranger to the vagaries of British weather!

Malham is endlessly fascinating, but does get incredibly busy. That said, if you head away from the ‘honeypot’ sites of The Cove, Gordale Scar, Janet’s Foss (although all of these are exceptional in their own right and shouldn’t be avoided) onto the lesser travelled routes, then it gets much quieter, pretty quickly. And HF’s accommodation near there is pretty swishy!

Don’t hesitate to give me a shout if you think I can give you more in-depth advice or suggestions - I try not to go into vast detail here unless specifically requested!

Ian