We are hoping to book a 5 or 6-day self-guided walking holiday with a company providing luggage transfers and accommodations in August 2023. We are avid hikers, and we would like to travel between 7-12 miles per day. Our interests are in either Snowdonia or the Yorkshire Dales. Might anyone have recommendations for a route or a tour operator in those regions? Wensleydale routes and the Herriott Way look interesting, but there are so many options for routes and operators, it is a little overwhelming!
Posted by
Yorkshire
1344 posts
Hi Heidi -
I see you’ve already come across the Herriot Way which is easily doable in the time you have available, but you might also consider The Dales Way, which runs from Ilkley through to Windermere in the Lake District. It’s a splendid walk which I’ve done several times over the years. If you search ‘The Dales Way’, the usual suspects for self guiding/luggage transfer appear - Mickledore, Contours, Macs Adventures and the like. The only caveat I would add that in the time available to you, you might have to increase your daily mileage a little to get from end to end - this shouldn’t be a problem as it will still make for leisurely days and, for the most part, the walking is fairly easy.
There’s another trail ‘The Dales High Way’ which is a tougher proposition, sticking to high ground and running from Saltaire through to Appleby (the benefit here is that there are rail links at both ends, but then the Dales Way also has rail links at each end) of the two, for you, I’d go with the original Dales Way which follows rivers for the greater part.
‘Lady Anne’s Way’ runs from Skipton to Penrith through the Dales, following part of the Dales Way and is a ‘progress’ in the footsteps of Lady Anne Clifford (born 1590) visiting her properties en route, but the six day schedule requires a greater daily mileage than you are currently wanting to do. That said, some of the companies - see above - would tailor make your trip to allow you to do part of the walk, so you could perhaps end at, say, Kirkby Stephen (those rail links again), and do shorter days along Lady Anne’s Way.
In fact many of these companies will do bespoke or shorter sections of longer trails. For instance, you could take in the Dales section of Wainwright’s famous Coast to Coast Walk (soon to become an official National Trail!) or you could take in the Limestone country section of the lengthy Pennine Way starting at Gargrave and finishing in Hawes. It would be worth investigating what is on offer through the various ‘Sherpa’ companies (possibly including Sherpa themselves!).
Other, shorter trails that you could complete comfortably in the time you have available are the Nidderdale Way and the Six Dales Trail.
Have a check through the internet for starters and don’t hesitate to get back to me if you think I might be able to help further!
Ian
Posted by
Lake District, England
8136 posts
You learn something new every day- I didn't know about the Dales High Way or Lady Anne's Way. I've done the Dales Way of course.
But then 10 minutes drive from home this morning I came across Hadrian's Cycleway. Last time I looked (last year) that was just National Cycleway 72, so I don't know when it was named, goes the full length of the extended Hadrian's Wall apparently, from Ravenglass to South Shields.
Posted by
22 posts
My wife and I have used Macs Adventure a few times, and can recommend them. They have a few different self-guided walks in the Yorkshire Dales. They can also customize any of the listed walks to add or subtract days.
Posted by
OP
Woodinville, WA, USA
9 posts
Thank you for your excellent suggestions! We will look into these routes in more detail. Some of these I have never heard of and sound very interesting for what we are looking to do. Thank you for the names of tour operators also, as it is nice to get recommendations from people who have had good experiences with companies.