England coast to coast walking vacation, Wainwrights

Planet

It is safe to drink the water from the tap in England, however, for customers keen to avoid buying single use plastic bottles we encourage customers the chance to purchase a discounted filter Water-To-Go bottle which combines three different technologies to remove over 99.9% of all microbiological contaminants in water.

We operate a ‘leave no trace’ policy on tour; our tour leaders are trained to promote this message to customers. As the focus of this trip is primarily walking, we aim to leave a minimal impact on the areas as possible. This trip actively encourages customers to reduce the carbon footprint to a minimum. The 194 mile Coast to Coast walk from St Bees on the Cumbrian coast to Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea shore attracts hikers looking for a long distance challenge with the added attraction of three National Parks and some of the country’s most inspiring scenery.

This vacation provides the chance to tackle the western section of the trail from St Bees to Kirkby Stephen in seven days walking, or the eastern section from Kirkby Stephen to Robin Hood’s Bay in eight walking days, or the whole route in walking sections of 9-16 miles a day. We’ll walk a total of 85 miles on the western section and 109 miles on the eastern section. We walk from inn-to-inn staying in B&Bs, guest houses and small hotels.

We’re committed to running our business responsibly. In our office we reduce, reuse, and recycle whenever possible. It’s in a refurbished mill, and we’ve also installed a waterwheel to generate electricity from the river. It was the first of its kind in Britain, gives us our own sustainable source of power and any excess goes to the National Grid.

People

We provide accommodation at various places along the trail and we try to stay as close to the trail as possible to minimise the use of transport. All hotels and guest houses we use along the trail are generally small businesses, rather than larger hotel chains.

Breakfast and dinners are served in each hotel we stay at; however, lunches are taken in a variety of local eating establishments, such as local cafes, pubs or supplies are purchased from local shops, which helps to spread the financial benefits of tourism.

We offer millions of pounds in financial aid to walking groups within the UK to maintain walking by young and old for future generations, rebuild broken paths and bridges washed away. This falls under an organisation named the Charitable Trust.

We cap passengers at a maximum a very small group size of 14 customers so as not to impact on the environment surrounding the Coast to Coast trail, especially as we explore primarily on foot. We use as many locally owned services as possible throughout this trip.