Why not book up a Walking Holiday?

It would be easy to choose one if they were all the same, but walking holidays come in all shapes and sizes. Whether your fancy is for gentle walks or adventure walks, there is sufficient variety available to suit all levels of taste and fitness, both in the UK and abroad. Of course, in these recessionary times, there has never been a better time to re-discover the beauty and variety of the British landscape!

Some people may be simply looking for an escape into the great outdoors where they can meet other walkers and stroll a few miles each day; other people may be looking for challenging treks up rugged mountainsides. So it’s important first to establish what kind of walking holiday you want. Here are some questions you may want to ask when choosing a walking holiday:

• Where do I want to walk – countryside, near the sea, urban, a mixture of all?
• What would I like to see and do? There are specialist walking holidays for bird watching, photography, literature, etc.
• How difficult or strenuous will the walks be?
• How many miles/hours a day will I have to walk?
• Will I go with family or friends or do I want to meet new people and arrange a walking holiday with a specialist company?
• What accommodation/meals are provided? Some trips take you back to base
  each evening, whilst others stay at different places each night.
• Will the walking holiday provider take care of all the organisation for me?

Some companies specialising in walking holidays ‘grade’ their walks into categories of ‘degrees of difficulty’, taking into account:

• Distance to be walked
• Type of terrain – rocky or smooth
• Any ascents to be made
• Level of fitness required – for gentle, intermediate, challenging walks

As you can see, there are quite a few considerations to be made before committing yourself to a walking holiday. But once you make that choice and you are on your way, there is nothing like ‘chilling out’ in the great outdoors, away from the ‘getting and the spending’ as the poet Wordsworth called it.