Where To Stay

A fter the route to be taken on a walk like this, the next important thing to sort out is your accommodation. Early on in the planning of the walk I decided that camping was definitely out of the question. The thought of carrying all the extra gear, of setting up a tent at the end of every day and then dealing with it all every morning, aching all over, well I think you can see why I didn’t think that was a very good idea? Besides, I like my creature comforts far too much and I knew I’d be needing a proper bed at the end of every day.

That decision made it was clear that a good list of places to stay, with a number of alternatives for each stop-off if possible, was in need. I’ll admit that before I headed off to Land’s End I didn’t actually have a list for the entire walk sorted out. My brother – Matt – was helping with the list (one less thing for me to worry about on the run-up to the walk) and he’d sorted out the first month of stops for me with a promise of emailing me updates as I made my way up the country.

I’ll also admit that for the first few weeks of the walk I took a very relaxed approach to sorting out my accommodation, normally phoning around during my breaks for a bed for the night. This worked quite well to start with but I fell foul of that approach when I hit Painswick and ended up staying in a very expensive hotel for the night. Don’t get me wrong the room and hotel were wonderful, but I’d been taught a valuable lesson and from then on I tried to book up to the next rest day. I’d then book the next week’s worth of stops and so on and so forth. I didn’t want to book too many stops ahead as you didn’t know what was around the corner – an accident or need for additional days off for example – and I didn’t relish the thought of phoning around explaining the situation, cancelling rooms and trying to get deposits back.

Having my iPhone and netbook with me made researching hotels and B & Bs a lot easier, some times without which I would have been stuck but knowing that Matt was just a phone call away and there to do a lot of the sorting out for me was a real weight lifted, especially on those really tough days where he sorted out rooms for me and let me know where I had to head to. Thanks!

In Bath I stayed at a friends place but there are so many places to stay in Bath I don’t think it would be difficult to find somewhere if you were following my route.

I haven’t got a listing for Horton-in-Ribblesdale as my older brother – Russ – came and picked me up and took me back to his place in Knaresborough for a few days well-earned rest. One word of warning though. I did try and sort out somewhere to stay in Horton-in-Ribblesdale but had to change my plans, bringing forward my break at Russ’ place by a few days, as I couldn’t get anywhere to stay.

There are only about 30 beds available to stay in Horton-in-Ribblesdale and the weekend I was due to get there just happened to fall on a massive charity event – the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge – meaning there was nothing available. If you’re thinking about taking a similar route to mine I’d be sure to check that you won’t fall foul of this ahead of time to make sure you don’t end up homeless for the night.

There’s no listing for John O’Groats either as I decided that John O’Groats wasn’t going to be a nice place to stay for the night before heading home. I booked the room in Wick for two nights instead, getting a lift back after my final day’s walk from my good friend Dave who came up to see me over the finish line.

So with all that said here are the details of the places I stayed at along the way on my little adventure. I haven’t added any ratings or anything for the places I’ve stayed but I’m sure if there was something worth saying it’ll be written in the blog. As with everything, prices change and people go out of business so if you’re thinking of staying at any of the places below I’d be sure to check them out first.

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