Multi day walking tours

We did Provence with Backroads, a very good company. I have friends who have gone on walking tours with Country Walkers and liked them.

I enjoyed my "walking holidays" in the UK. I used a booking service for my three self-guided walking trips that included pre-paid B&B accommodations ranging from country inns to farmhouse B&Bs. Booking services arranged daily luggage forwarding, overnight accommodations, OS maps, guide books and walking route instructions. We did the walking.

We used Contours Walking Holidays, one of many UK booking services. Benefit is the booking service finds daily accommodations and will custom insert rest days, provides advice on getting to and from trailheads. We just did the walking. Downside is that you do pay marked up prices for having arrangements made for you.

I will add that some American guided walk services will cheat by short cutting walks. The for example is the Wainwright Coast to Coast 192 mile walk tours that are covered in a long week (8 nights, 9 days) by not walking the full 192 miles. (Contours suggest programs of a fast as 12 walking days to as slow as 18 walking days)

This June, we walked the Hadrian's Wall path across northern England, from sea to sea, west to east. While some people put in 15 or more miles a day, and finish in a week or less, that pace doesn't allow for any time to appreciate the ancient Roman wall and its forts, milecastles, and the fantastic museums along the way. We planned on 8 to 11 miles a day and only had to skip 1 worthwhile museum. That also allowed us time to get to our B&B for the night, relax a bit before heading to the pub for dinner, and not have to get up at 5:30 the next morning to hit the trail as early as possible. We had a couple of days with rain (one morning we got drenched), but weather was generally favorable, the people we met were wonderful, and the whole experience was fantastic. Not that I'd go out tomorrow and do it again, right away, but it was very worthwhile. Walking in France would probably offer better cuisine than night after night of Cumbrian sausages with fried potatoes :-)

We used guidebooks to help plan our trek, but didn't use an organizing company, booking our B&B's directly online. We did use local Walker's Bag Transfer service, which was well worth the cost. They picked up our bags each morning and took them to our next B&B each day, and the bags were waiting for us each afternoon, safe and dry, which saved having to haul a full backpack every day. Big camping backpacks are necessary hiking in the backcountry, but not in Cumbria and Northumbria, where civilization is never too far from the trail.

If you're not dead-set on covering every mile of a trail, it's nice to have options like hopping in a cab to get to your next B&B, which was sometimes available on this trip. Our guidebooks listed several local cab companies. We brought along Clif Bars, beef jerky, almonds, and other backpacking energy foods, and ate some of it along our walks, but with towns every few miles much of the way, we didn't need to bring as much as we did. Well broken-in footwear is essential, along with clean, dry socks, plus a spare pair. Blisters on your feet will quickly turn your vacation into misery.

We also brought collapsible trekking poles with us from the USA, which, even collapsed, wouldn't fit into our smallish (but not International carry-on sized) suitcases, so that required bringing one of our longer, non-rolling duffel bags. While that was less convenient transporting at the airport, carrying up to our room at the B&B, getting thru downtown London at the end of the trip, etc., it was still worth it having the poles for our long trek.

There are places along the southern coast of England where public buses run quite near the coastal path. One could park oneself at a B&B or hotel in one of the towns and do contiguous segments of the path by taking buses to and from the starting/stopping points. I haven't done this myself, but I met someone who was doing such a walk this summer. It's a way of avoiding what I'm sure is a rather substantial extra expense for the transportation of bags, etc.

We did a wonderful walking tour in the Cotswolds with HF Holidays. Stayed for a week in Burton on the Water - in a lovely Manor house. Each day we were offered choice of short - medium - or long walks.
We loved it !!! ( this company offers walking tours in several different countries)
Here is a link to UK walks:
HF Holidays UK

We've done lots of walking tours at home in the UK, Ireland and in Europe. Sometimes we've carried everything we've needed, this usually when booking our own accommodation, or if abroad we've more likely gone with an organised or guided tour with included baggage transportation (The Alps or Mallorca for instance). Our trips in Ireland (Kerry Way, Dingle Way) were very much DIY and we carried all our gear, although it's amazing how little you can pare down to if you have to carry it! My rule of thumb for this is to pack your backpack, walk up and down a flight of stairs a couple of times and then ditch a fair proportion of what you have in there!

It is quite a while since we did our Ireland walks and although I don't recall there being the option of baggage transfer back then, I'm sure there will now be options to do this. A web search on the trails might be helpful. We were talking recently about going back to complete the 'Irish hat trick' by doing the Beara Way and I'm certain that advancing years will probably mean that we'd look to have our main bags transferred each day even if we booked our own accommodation.

Our most recent walk in the UK, The Two Moors Way (Devon) was completed last month and we booked through a company called Encounter Walking Holidays who did our accommodation, bag transfer, route schedule and brief trip notes and who couldn't have been more helpful, even when we told them we wanted to walk it 'backwards', I.e. In the reverse direction to the usual direction! Encounter concentrate in the south west of England and South Wales and although they seem to specialise in the South West Coastal Path, they offer lots of other routes including some more esoteric ones such as The Coleridge Way, which sounds good. They have a website which details all their routes. Based on our recent trip I can't recommend them highly enough.

In Europe we went with KE Adventure Holidays to the Alps and we did the Tramuntana Traverse in Mallorca with a guy called Richard Strutt who runs a trekking company on the island - pm me if you need further details of his company.

Wherever you end up walking, hope you have a great trip! No better way of experiencing a country than on foot.

Ian

An alternative to luggage transfer supported inn to inn walking tours are guided Norwegian hytte til hytte or self-guided trekking or skiing: https://english.dnt.no/guided-tours/
You will need to carry your own backpack but do not need to carry bedding or food other than lunches. I leave my extra baggage at a hotel in Oslo. I have not done summer treks but have done winter hut to hut ski tours.

Norwegian mountain huts range from staffed mountain lodges to self-serve huts. The have bedding and food supplies with staffed huts preparing Norwegian style meals with alcoholic beverages available.
https://english.dnt.no/about-the-cabins/

Staffed lodges serve breakfast and dinner. Many have showers and
electricity, either from the power grid or from a local generator.

The self-service cabins are equipped with all that trekkers need for
cooking and sleeping. Firewood, gas, kitchen utensils, table linen and
bunks with blanks or duvets and pillows (hut sacks, also known as hut
sleepers, are required!) The cabins are also stocked with provisions
including tinned goods, coffee, tea, rye crispbread and powdered soup
packets, but the selection can vary from cabin to cabin.

No-service cabins usually have the same equipment as self-service
cabins, but they have no provisions.

Private staffed lodges resemble but may have higher or lower standards
and prices than DNT staffed lodges. Some are real hotels.

I ran into a couple in Chamonix that had just completed a walking tour that sounds like what you're interested in. They booked their tour with a small travel club they belong to in North Carolina. The tour included a guide, lodging, food and transporting luggage from place to place. They said the lodging was a little lacking, sometimes good, sometimes staying in an unheated barn with outhouses but the food was outstanding. They also ran into quite a bit of bad weather but still seemed really happy overall. I wish I'd paid more attention to the who their guide was so I could pass it on.

Friends of ours took this trip across England earlier this year and had a wonderful time. They are strong walkers and did a lot of conditioning for it, but they said there were options to do less walking on certain days.

I understand that Hadrian's Wall is also a very good trip, as described by another poster.

But I have no firsthand experience to share, alas.

We used contour for a walk in Scotland and will definitely use them again.