Mickledore Travel
Latest articles
Vita and the Cumbria Way
In May 2021, just one day after lockdown ended, Vita, originally from Latvia, now living in Bedford, walked the Cumbria Way along with her husband and brother-in-law. Vita very kindly took the time to tell us all about their adventure. “This was our second holiday with Mickledore – we’d previously done Hadrian’s Wall last summer during COVID times, which was fantastic so we immediately booked our holiday last September for 18th May. In January, we were so worried we weren’t going to make it after Boris announced the 17th May deadline but we just kept waiting and we were so lucky. It was the three of us this time – my husband and my brother-in-law. We are all keen walkers so just follow the trails with OS maps, but the directions are also super easy. Ulverston was a great surprise! Never heard about it before. Our B&B had a great location, we warmed up our legs by exploring the surrounding area and the weather was very kind to us. One of the very best things about Mickledore for us is the accommodation. After every guesthouse was so great on our last trip, this time we got the list and didn’t…
Embracing the Elements on the West Highland Way
This article was written by Katie Armitage during her time with Mickledore and reflects her first-hand experience of the route. Myself and my partner Pedro recently walked the West Highland Way over seven days. We couldn’t wait to see what the route will treat us with! I’ve been booking the accommodation on our West Highland Way holidays for the past five years at Mickledore and I was really looking forward to meeting our accommodation hosts along the way. The route begins in Milngavie which is just outside of Glasgow and finishes in the heart of the highlands in Fort William. Mickledore offer several different walking itineraries depending on how far you like to walk each day. We decided to walk the route over seven days so that we could slightly challenge ourselves but still have a few shorter walking days. Milngavie to Drymen We left Milngavie after a perfect full Scottish breakfast to gear us up for today’s 12 mile adventure. The weather was surprisingly sunny whilst we walked through the outskirts of Mugdock Country Park. We then passed Craigallian Loch and had beautiful views of Dumgoyach which is a very distinctive circular hill. We even spotted some highland cows…
Glorious Gower
This article was written by Hayley Finn during their time with Mickledore and reflects their first-hand experience of the route. This August I walked the Gower Peninsula with my wife Anna. I chose this walk as it is one of our easiest walks and we have a great local taxi firm for transfers and connections. My wife has long-covid and so we wanted to find a route she could try walking with Nordic poles to assist her, but also she could skip days and rest if she was struggling. This route has a rating of “two boots” on our website, meaning it is “easy to moderate” it is quite flat and has itineraries that offer shorter walking days so was perfect for our needs. Pen-clawdd to Llanmadoc The first day leaves Pen-clawdd via its industries, taking you past commercial fisheries with the remnants of cockle shells littering the salt marsh. Be careful to check the tides as at high tide and for roughly an hour afterwards the salt marsh road is flooded and a less pleasant diversion by road is needed. Along salt marsh road we met the semi wild ponies, one of whom stole our snacking apples when we…
Sue & Mike’s Speyside Adventure
This article was written by Sue Williams during her time with Mickledore and reflects her first-hand experience of the route. For this year’s Fam Trip I opted for another Scottish adventure with my husband Mike. I chose the Speyside Way this time as I liked the idea of walking from the coast into the highlands, absorbing the changing scenery of the journey. The opportunity to sample a whisky or two was also a bonus! The Speyside Way is generally walked from Buckie to Aviemore. You can add additional sections to include a circular walk to Dufftown from Craigellachie and the Tomintoul spur. Our walk included both of these optional sections. Without the spurs the walk is about 65 miles roughly following the river Spey. We added a further 12 miles for the Dufftown circuit and 15 miles for the Tomintoul spur. These take you away from the river Spey for a wider adventure. For the latter option Mickledore provide a taxi to Tomintoul and you walk back to Ballindalloch. We had a lovely meal at our accommodation on the evening of our arrival and a fabulous breakfast with some locally smoked fish the following morning. There was plenty of choice…
Our Amazing Week on the Isle of Wight
This article was written by Charlotte Briggs during her time with Mickledore and reflects her first-hand experience of the route. I’ve been lucky enough to do the Hadrian’s Wall previously with Mickledore, which I really enjoyed however this time I wanted to head south! I suppose the main reason I wanted to do the Isle of Wight is because of the sunshine – and it certainly delivered! I’d also been discussing doing a walking holiday with my parents for years since I’d started working with Mickledore (four years ago). We felt this trail would be a good first experience with consecutive days walking. My parents are relatively fit already with access to the Lake District fells on their door step so we picked the IW7, 6 days, 7 nights itinerary as they felt it was the most comfortable. I hope you enjoy reading about my experience along the Isle of Wight trail. Sunday: The Journey There The Red Funnel is surprisingly fast – the speediest catamaran I’ve ever been on! Within 30 minutes we were on the island and were lucky enough to be visiting during Cowes week! The regatta was filled with stalls of music, drink, local produce and…
Spotlight on Cowes
Our Isle of Wight Coastal Path holiday is a 70 mile circuit of the island starting and finishing in the seaport town of Cowes. As is the nature of circular routes, Cowes will feature heavily in your holiday. The anticipation of arrival and your introduction to the island. The place you return to, circuit complete, ambition achieved, a time for reflection no doubt. Finally, sadly, all too soon, the place from which you have to say farewell to the island and head for home. Each of the locations around the island will undoubtedly have its own unique appeal. Memories will be made every step of the way, friendships forged, however perhaps none more so than in Cowes. Now I was preparing myself to tell you much more about Cowes and the truly amazing Isle of Wight, however who better to do that job than some of the Cowes residents themselves, our accommodation providers. We begin with Mandy from Holly Tree House “I love Cowes because there is always something going on, from International Sailing Events such as Cowes Week and Round the Island to our very own Isle of Wight Proms featuring major stars from the West End and Classical…
Can I Bring My Dog?
Can I bring my dog? is a question we are often asked. For solo walkers, their dogs are their companion, and for couples, their dogs are quite simply part of the family and it wouldn’t feel right to leave them behind. After all, dogs, like people, contribute to making memories that will last a lifetime. Whatever your situation, we have a wide selection of dog friendly holidays on popular routes such as Hadrian’s Wall, a coast to coast journey following the most extensive Roman remains in the world. The Herriot Way, visiting the Yorkshire countryside associated with the much loved vet and author James Herriot. The Cleveland Way, a combination of wild moorland and dramatic coastline, and here in the Lake District we have dog friendly itineraries on the iconic Cumbria Way as well as the Inn Way to the Lake District, a 90 mile circular walk passing no fewer than 40 traditional inns. There’s much to consider when taking your dog on a walking holiday and we’ve tried to cover this on our page Walking With Your Dog, please take a look. You can link through to the various holidays and make your booking online. As always, if you…
Paul Titley tackles five Mickledore holidays in 18 months!
Paul Titley and his wife Dawn are great travellers with our sister company KE Adventure Travel, also based in Keswick. They’ve used the last 18 months to tick off some long-standing UK walking ambitions and already have done five Mickledore trips! Paul, who owns a B&B in Keswick and was formerly the mayor of our town, is a passionate photographer, creating amazing photobooks of his holidays. He meticulously takes a photo every mile of each day’s walking. He’s been kind enough to share these with us and we’re delighted to be able to show you just a few of the highlights. Here’s what Paul has to say about his walking holidays with Mickledore, accompanied by his pictures, of course: “We decided to stick to walking in England and not bother going abroad this year, probably the first time in 10 years we haven’t travelled overseas. Our recent ‘career’ with Mickledore started off fairly locally, walking along Hadrian’s Wall. It was so good, we booked another couple of holidays immediately afterwards. What we like about Mickledore is that the accommodation is always reliably first class – with a previous company we have actually been given a barn! No kidding! We also…
Tales from the Trails – Maggie and the Isle of Wight Coastal Path
Maggie and Jane from Devon recently embarked on their very first Mickledore walking holiday. This was their chance to see if long distance walking holidays were really for them. Would it be a one-off or the way forward? Maggie takes up the story. “This was our first Mickledore holiday. We felt that Isle of Wight Coastal Path would be more of a straight-forward one and thought it would give us a good idea of whether or not we enjoyed it. As a first-timer, it was brilliant. The weather was very kind to us, the only time it rained was overnight. The coastal path is very well signposted with fantastic directions and the way the map is laid out, it’s all so clear. In a number of places the coast has eroded and you are diverted but you can’t lost. To stride out along Tennyson Down was marvellous, one of my favourite days. Our absolute favourite however was on the way to Shanklin where we got crab sandwiches and paddled in the sea. Each day was very different, it’s not at all similar countryside. You get estuaries, the downs, some climbing, the seafront at Cowes, it’s all very different. There was…
Tales from the Trails – Ann tackles our Dales and Moors holiday
Ann Hudson from Cheshire completed our Coast to Coast: Dales and Moors holiday which follows the famous long distance trail 110 miles from Kirkby Stephen to Robin Hoods Bay in May of this year. It was her, and her friend Lesley’s, very first long distance trail. Ann took a lot of fabulous pictures and we’ve included as many as possible in this article. Keep taking the photos, Ann, we loved them and it’s great to share with everyone! Ann on the Coast to Coast, Dales and Moors “This was our very first long distance trail so we thought we’d give ourselves a challenge – we’d highly recommend it. We very much enjoyed it and we’re proud to say we did the whole trail without one blister! I went with my friend Lesley who I worked with years ago – we were both District Nurses until I retired in 2018 and set up a little walking group in Derbyshire where I live. I’d always loved walking when I was working but now I do even more and it’s absolutely fabulous. Lesley’s keen on walking too so a walking holiday seemed a perfect choice. We had originally chosen the West Highland Way…
Tales from the Trails – Northumberland Coast Path
In the first week of August 2020 regular client Jim Mattinson blazed a trail along the Northumberland Coast Path as our very first walker to hit the trails since March. Jim and his walking companion chose the hardest itinerary, completing the Coast Path in just 4 days of walking. He kindly took the time to tell us what the new normal looked like, and by the sounds of it, it’s almost completely normal! “There’s nothing better than walking in the middle of nowhere. Nothing. And one thing I did notice straight away was that on the footpaths there weren’t many people about at all. We hardly saw anyone when we were walking on the trails although there were plenty of holiday makers enjoying the beaches. That’s one of the things that makes this path so good – there’s some really lovely coastal walking. Cresswell to Amble is very pleasant with some lovely beach walking. Beyond there is Warkworth Castle and after that Alnmouth to Seahouses which is a real favourite. It’s a stretch of coast that we’ve walked before but because it’s so lovely it was no chore to walk it again. In fact, on this occasion, we managed to bag…
Family Time on the North Devon Coast
This article was written by Katie Armitage during her time with Mickledore and reflects her first-hand experience of the route. Last August my sister Bethany and I walked from Minehead to Woolacombe on the first section of the South West Coast Path. We’d just launched our North Devon holidays and I was very excited to share my adventures with you all … let’s dive in! Day 1: Minehead to Porlock We arrived into Minehead late afternoon yesterday which meant we had just enough time for a quick paddle in the sea before dinner in the sunshine! After a delicious breakfast this morning we made our way to the official South West Coastal Path starting point. The trail started fairly flat as we left Minehead along the quiet coast path. We then reached a woodland and began the climb up North Hill. This was quite steep in sections and was rather tough going as it was 27 degrees today! From the top of North Hill we were treated to stunning views across the moorlands of Exmoor and could even see Wales across the water. We came across a group of wild Exmoor ponies grazing on the tops where the trail then…