days out, eco gifts, eco travel, enjoy the outdoors, gift guide, gifts for her, gifts for the outdoors, lake district, planning, quiet beaches, travel blog, travel tips, uk travel, UK travel guide, walking tips, yorkshire travel - October 4, 2020

How to Plan a Walk (& Enjoy It!)

Have you been doing more local walks these last few months? Bored of the same obvious (or crowded) paths? Venture a little further with confidence - and even enjoy it!

Here's a some advice to plan walks, and a free checklist (at the end of this blog) to screen shot & save in you favourites (this is included in our Little Book of Walks & Snacks) so you have everything with you, every time. Avoid arguments after driving an hour to a walk only to discover the boots / back pack / lunch has been left behind . . . how many times has this happened to us? Don't ask!

Remember this is only my advice and opinion - you must take responsibility for you own safety. Always stick to public rights of way, don't antagonise or harm animals and take plenty of clothes and food. Check the countryside code if you are a complete newbie to walking.

Deciding where to go

Are you happy to drive, or do you want to walk from home?
If you are driving, decide how far you are happy to be in the car - if its only an hours walk is it worth driving 1 hour each way?

Plan a route

There are so many ways to start looking at walks, here are my preferred options

Obviously googling in the target area - but this will bring up a myriad of options to dredge through
Try local press, these usually have plenty of tried and tested walking routes. For us in Greater Manchester, I use a lot from Lancashire Life, Cheshire Life and similar.
The 'Visit such-a-place' websites are also great - the Visit Manchester website is particularly good - have a look at these great PDFs with routes, maps and information.
Also hyper local to Bury but good walks (and well signposted which is a massive bonus!) are the Village Link routes - we have done most sections and my absolute favourite is between Holcombe and Hawkshaw (if you want to turn this into a circular loop let me know and I'll give you ours).
If you're a beginner to 'wayfinding' or not confident in your sense of direction (especially in a new place) try a route with a specific piece of landscape or landmark - lakes, reservoirs or coastline give the easiest options - if you can see the water you basically know at least which direction you are going in.
Always take a map, and plan the route on the map before hand so you have an idea were you are heading - OS Explorer are the best in my opinion. Sometimes you can find mini local versions in local tourist shops if you are away on holiday which might be useful (and cheaper).
Walking books - we especially like ones with themes e.g. walks with pubs or teashops! Or of course, use your Little Book of Walks & Snacks as inspiration.

There are apps of course, the OS app is great (you can download OS maps you have bought to the app for the full experience), and All Trails has a lot of ideas. Beware however that anyone can upload basically whatever they want to these so routes might not be perfect and one persons 'Easy' is another persons 'Very difficult' .
National Trust is a great resource, the walks are more verified and generally more likely to be within reach of NT facilities such as parking, toilets and cafes.
Only you can know how long a walk will take you, but my rule of thumb is approx 20 minutes per mile or 3 miles (5km) per hour. However for any big hills or mountains halve this pace - the uphill will be slow and you may want to stop for a rest (and enjoy the view!).

What to take

Again, only you will know any specifics you need everywhere you go (like medication), so make sure you have these.

We've added a checklist below which should be a handy phone screen shot size to save to your favourites and check you have everything before you drive for an hour!

Always (and I mean always) take some form of food or drink. Even the bare minimum of water (in a reusable bottle) and sugary sweets. Tired and hungry people are also grouchy people - don't let the hunger rage/despair ruin a lovely day out, it's so easy to avoid!

I recommend taking more than this - snacks such a flapjacks are good for energy and ideally sandwiches (or similar) as well. There are many reasons why the walk might take longer than expected - bad weather, boggy ground or snow (this slows anyone down when walking), nice weather (sunbathing at lunch time!), getting lost, finding rockpools or other wildlife to explore . . . the list goes on.

Although you may plan to go to a pub or café (we often do) they can be closed without warning, especially at the moment, or you could get there after closing time (and have no phone signal to call anyone). Having walked 8 miles in hot weather with only 2 digestive biscuits between us . . . I cannot stress enough ALWAYS take food and water! It doesn't matter if you don't eat it on the walk.