Introduction:

At 630 miles long running from Minehead in Somerset to Poole in Dorset, the South West Coast Path is easily the longest and most arduous, of England's National Trails. The path is actually the amalgamation of 4 paths; the Somerset & North Devon, Cornwall, South Devon, and Dorset Coastal paths. The route is quite popular, and it can be crowded in the summer months, though there are always long stretches where your only company will be a chorus of sea birds. The trail can be windy - the prevailing wind is from the southwest, and numerous river estuaries along the way require ferry crossings. This means that a good guidebook with tide and ferry timetables is essential equipment for walkers. The path is best enjoyed in May, for then the wildflowers are in full bloom. In full summer it is busy in the popular places and it may be difficult to find accommodation. (Extract adapted from Britain Express)

The best web sites for General Information and Planning:

National Trails Lots of information here making it the best place to start planning.
Ramblers Association A comprehensive site providing details on the route. Includes an accommodation guide, booking service providers, maps required.
SWCP Association A registered charity who care for the route. Useful for recent news.
John Butler Essentially a journal but it is excellent with lots of advice planning the walk.

The best web sites for Guided Walking:

H F Holidays Full guided walking service for parts of this monster long distance path.

The web sites that organise your accommodation and baggage transfer:

Contours Full self guided service for the South West Coast Path.
Encounter Cornwall Full self guided walkers service.
Celtic Trails Full self guided walkers service.
Lightfoot A self guided service for the Cornwall section of the walk.

The best web sites for you to plan your accommodation:

S H Systems Excellent range of accommodation. Just type in the location to bring up a list of accommodation in the area. You can sort them by price, postcode or rating.
Ramblers Association Includes a comprehensive web listing of accommodation.

(Note - finding suitable walkers accommodation on the web is a minefield. It is best to search for accommodation by searching for it in a specific place. If you don't then you will spend ages wasting your time trawling large databases and getting nowhere fast. I have done so many times. In my experience S H Systems has proved to be most useful)

The best personal journals of the walk:

John Butler An excellent journal with lots of practical advice.
Henk Nous A lovely journal with photographs and some good advice.
Will Wallis A superb pictured report of the Cornwall section of the walk
John Harlow A good journal (with photographs) covering the first 250 miles!
Mike Brockhurst A detailed journal with statistics covering Kingsand to Land's End.

The sites for safety advice and emergency services:

Ramblers Association Practical walking advice including a guide to map reading, navigation and a detailed list of the essential gear required on a long distance walk.
Ramblers Association Essential safety guide with clear web site navigation.
Mountain Rescue UK You may need them so take their advice.

This site conforms to W3C XHTML 1.0, HTML 4.0 and CSS standards.

Copyright © 2003 - 2008 Walking Englishman. All rights reserved.

This page is built using validated W3C XHTML 1.0 & CSS codes.