Top Tips for Walking the Coast to Coast Path in England

I have been home for a couple of months now. All my clothes are washed, the backpack is stowed back in the cupboard and thankfully, the jetlag is long gone.

My memories of the Coast to Coast walk in July this year remain strong and positive, and I reckon of all the many trails I have ticked off the list over the years, this Path is firmly in my top five.

If you like exploring England and don’t mind a walk, then definitely consider a walk along all or part of the Coast to Coast Path. Yes, there are a couple of tough days, especially in the Lake District, but it is SO worth it.

Here’s what you need to know…

Where Is It?

• Start & Finish: You have the option of walking East to West or West to East. In our experience, the vast majority of people seemed to walk West to East and this generated a real sense of camaraderie as we often met people we had chatted to four days ago etc. We started at St Bees on the West coast and finished at Robin Hood’s Bay on the East coast. There was a real buzz in Robin Hood’s Bay when we arrived and it gave us an extra sense of celebration, and achievement.
• Distance: The official distance is 310km, but our walk turned out to be slightly short of that for some reason. We definitely walked every step, but maybe a couple of temporary diversions in place affected the final number.

How to Get to St Bees?

• St Bees is a tiny little village that, surprisingly, has a frequent rail service. As we flew into Edinburgh, we caught of series of ever smaller trains south-westwards through Carlisle. Carlisle seems to be a major transport hub with trains from Newcastle on Tyne connecting here too.

How to Do It?

• Independently: You could easily organise and book everything direct with accommodation providers etc. My only advice is to book as soon as you have dates in mind. This is a VERY popular trail and there is a lot of competition for beds. As the trail mostly goes through very small towns and villages, this means additional pressure on availability. The earlier you book, the increased chance of scoring accommodation on the trail as opposed to having to walk, or taxi, away from the trail and returning the next morning. Note: some accommodation providers will pick you up from the trail and return you the next day. You’ll need to talk to them direct about that.
• Luggage Transport: Companies called Packhorse and Sherpa Van (I believe they may be linked now) provide luggage transport the length of the trail. This was an excellent service, allowing us to walk with daypacks only, and they didn’t miss a beat.

• Supported: There are also a large number of companies who will book everything for you including booking all your accommodation and luggage transport. A more expensive and inflexible option, but also zero stress. We booked with RAW Travel over 12 months before our walk date and they were very helpful with suggested itineraries, which we amended to suit our needs.
• Accommodation: I have no doubt there is an accommodation option to suit you. Camping appeared to be popular (both free camping and campsites) and there are large number of youth hostels too. We stayed in B&Bs and pubs, and all our rooms had an ensuite.

How Long Does it Take?

• As long as you like! We booked a 19-day itinerary which included the departure and arrival days, plus a rest day in Richmond (after Day 10) – that meant 16 walking days. Our shortest day was 13.5km and our longest 24km.
• With luggage transport, maybe you could walk a longer day or, if you have absolutely no deadline, simply stroll at your leisure.
• We met many local people and Europeans, who were walking this route in stages over a number of years, often breaking the journey at Kirkby Stephen because of the good transport links there.

When to Go?

• Summer: Summer is a popular time to walk as the chance of drier weather is marginally better. Try to avoid school holidays if you can, as that creates extra pressure on accommodation too.
• Weather: We started walking on 7 July and, at the start, during a record number of heat waves. Even for us Aussies it was very hard going climbing the hills/mountains of the Lake District in the unrelenting heat. Once that passed, we had absolutely remarkable weather – not a drop of rain! Note: some sections of the path are very exposed to the elements and water resupply may not be plentiful. Take care and/or plan accordingly.
• Other Walkers: As this is such a well-known and popular path, we met a lot of day-walkers, especially on weekends. As mentioned, we also met a lot of Europeans (Dutch and Germans) who were great company and we shared lots of great conversations and laughs. See my comments about booking early.

What Does it Cost?

• How long is a piece of string? You can travel/walk almost 5-star or sleep in a tent and be cheap and cheerful.
• As you may be aware, nothing is actually cheap in the United Kingdom and you need to budget accordingly. If you budgeted about £45 a day for food etc, you would go close. Pub meals averaged around £20 each and most accommodation hosts would provide a packed lunch for £8-10, although we did hear mixed reviews about the quality of those lunches.
• There were very few bakeries, shops or supermarkets and sometimes nothing in the really small places. It’s handy to stay B&B so at least you have a solid breakfast to start your day. We planned ahead and had enough supplies for lunch wherever we wanted to stop, and lots of snacks for other breaks.

Safety

• This is a very safe path and there were many people, especially women, walking on their own. You still need to be sensible and not place yourself in dangerous situations.
• As mentioned above, carry plenty of water and snacks on some sections of the trail when the towns and villages are quite a distance apart.
• Mobile phone service is readily available on the majority of the trail although we did strike a couple of service blackspots in the more ‘remote’ areas. Almost all the places we stayed had WIFI.
• O2 has a prepaid 30-day plan for £20 which offered unlimited calls and texts, and 40GB of data. It worked well for me. My Partner-in-Crime had an e-sim set up from Aus with data only and it was very handy to be connected as soon as we landed in the UK (picture trying to navigate to a hotel 100% jetlagged).

• Wayfinding: RAW Travel provided us with an app and it was great to keep us on track. You could also try AllTrails or something similar if you are not walking with a company. Just check that the app has been updated since the Coast to Coast Path became an ‘official’ trail in March this year. There have been some changes.
• Signage/Waymarking: The signage in the Lake District section was not great and you definitely needed to understand where you should be heading as following other people may mean that you ALL head in the completely wrong direction. Maybe they will upgrade signage in this region soon? Signage was pretty good along the rest of the trail though you do need a decent sense of direction, especially when the local farmer decides to plough up the paddock AND the trail.

What to Pack:

• Footwear: You could get away with trail shoes for the majority of this walk. I found boots handy in the Lake District when there was a lot of rock scrabbling/hopping. Whichever you choose, make sure they have excellent tread/grip.
• Backpack: Again, whatever size works for you. Make sure it is a comfortable one that fits your body like a glove. Considering you will be carrying it for 6-7hours a day, don’t scrimp on the quality or the fit.
• Water: Personal preference I know, but you really should carry at least 2litres of water – more on hot days. There are very few places to top up during the day.

• Clothing: Warm clothes and wet weather gear are a must in case the weather changes.
• Sun Protection: Much of the trail is very exposed to every bit of weather that is thrown at you. Make sure you have a good hat, sunscreen and protective clothing. (Although, we Aussies were some of the few who did this! Maybe we are just a tad paranoid??)
• Hiking Poles: These are essential in the Lake District and are life savers for both the ascents and descents.
• Camera/Phone: To capture the absolutely stunning scenery on a daily basis.

Who is this Hike For?

• Women: I estimate that 55% of walkers were female.
• Age: We met people ranging in age from 19years to nudging 80years. Just pace yourself and plan your days/distances to suit your ability and energy levels.
• Fitness: The fitter you are, the more you will enjoy this walk. Again, the Lake District was the most challenging (and perhaps most rewarding) and there were some days when you just had to walk the distance as there were no intermediate towns. I guess you could always try to book a taxi to allow a shorter day.

What is it Like?

• Stunningly Beautiful: Absolutely every day delivered something of beauty. Yes, sometimes you had to work darn hard to get to the mountaintop to see that beauty, but it was definitely worthwhile.
• Busy: Walking in July meant that the trail was very busy and enjoyable at the same time. Book ahead where you can.
• Super-Friendly:  We met some really lovely people, enjoyed hilarious pub dinners and have made some life long friends.
• Terrain: My daily descriptions below will give you an idea and photos of the terrain. Walking through the three different national parks was wonderful as the landscape contrasted so well with each park.

And for a Daily Description of My Stroll Across England – For a day-to-day description of what we were seeing and experiencing, have a read below:

• Day 1 – here.
• Day 2 – here.
• Day 3 – here.
• Day 4 – here.
• Day 5 – here.
• Day 6 – here.
• Day 7 – here.
• Day 8 – here.
• Day 9 – here.
• Day 10 – here.
• Day 0 – Rest day – here.
• Day 11 – here.
• Day 12 – here.
• Day 13 – here.
• Day 14 – here.
• Day 15 – here.
• Day 16 & Final – here.

I hope this one-stop post is interesting and useful to help you plan your own Coast to Coast adventure. It was an outstanding experience, certainly helped along by the superlative (and unheard of) weather we enjoyed. Of course, I am happy to answer any specific questions you may have. Just pop them in the Comments section below or contact me via the Contact Form on this blog.

Happy trails to you all.

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