Inn to Inn Hiking

This page lists our multi-day hiking trips that do not involve camping, typically staying at B&Bs or similar on the route.

Janet and I fell in love with inn-to-inn hiking after our first experience doing England’s Coast to Coast in July 2022. We both already loved walking, and the inn-to-inn opportunities along England’s National Trails enabled a comfy bed, hot shower, and yummy dinner each night. As a bonus, there are companies that will transfer your luggage, so you only need to carry a day pack while hiking.

Since that first trip, we have completed at least one walk each year. We quickly learned that we preferred planning the accommodation ourselves. This saved a lot of money, and empowered us to choose each day’s mileage and make our own choice when there were accommodation options. We tried using a basecamp model one trip, where we used transport to and from the trail each day, but we prefer the inn-to-inn concept. There is something special about starting each day on or near the trail and finishing the day by crossing the threshold of that day’s destination.

So far, we have always used a luggage transfer company, but we plan to move away from that, carrying everything ourselves. The challenge that we have set our sights on, Lands End to John O’Groats (LEJOG), covers the full length of Great Britain. LEJOG does not follow a specified route and no luggage transfer covers all of it, so we will have to carry everything ourselves for three or more months. This will force us to pack much lighter. Coupled with the independence of always having everything with you, this will be liberating!

We particularly like doing this type of walking in Britain. The combination of the beautiful countryside, the quaint villages, the plethora of inns, tremendous variety, combined with the Public Footpath system, perfectly suits our spirit for adventure and nomadic instinct. So far, similar activities in other countries, such as the Caminos in Europe, have not interested Janet and I. Perhaps we’ll consider other countries when we have walked all of Britain’s paths!

We have also greatly enjoyed sharing the path with family and dear friends. We have loved “hosting” others and helping them have unique experiences. We also love doing this by ourselves and are thankful that suits us so well.

After aiming for 10-mile days on the South West Coast Path, we have learned that our sweet spot is 12-15 miles a day. Often, accommodation determines a day’s length. We finally realized that the journey itself is the destination. We have little interest in exploring the towns or villages we stay in more than where our path takes us. After a very satisfying walk, it is ideal if we can wash, relax, enjoy dinner on-property, sleep well, and head out again the following morning. We are never sure what each day will bring. We need to get to the next town regardless of bad weather. Each route, village, inn, and meal is different and frequently unlike what was expected, which is a big part of the draw for us.

There is a lot of information linked below. Do you want to know what adventures like this are like? Read my Highlights of the Coast to Coast post. Do you want to do an inn-to-inn hike? I suggest you start by looking at what Macs Adventures offers on UK’s National Trails.

When	Route	Who	Length	How	Route Highlights
July 2022	Coast to Coast	With Bailey and Samuel, and Dean and Tracy Townsend	18 days, 192 miles	Booked through Packhorse who arranged accommodation and did our luggage transfer.	Amazing scenery through three national parks. Walking across England. The challenge of “day 2”. Hiking with our kids.
August 2023	Northern Cotswold Way	The two of us	5 days, 54 miles	Booked ourselves. Used a basecamp hotel and shuttled each day.	Amazing scenery.
September 2024	Hadrian’s Wall Path	The two of us	8 days, 101 miles	Booked through Macs Adventures, who arranged our accommodation and booked our luggage transfer with Hadrian’s Haul.	Historical route. Isolated location. Walking across England.
June-July 2025	Southern Cotswold Way	With Dean and Tracy Townsend and Max and Stephanie Sems	5 days, 60 miles.	Arranged our own accommodation and booked Carry-a-Bag for luggage transfer.	Great scenery and historical tidbits. Hiking with the gang.
September 2025	The Thames Path	With Eric and Keesha Tondera	11 days, 108 miles	Arranged our own accommodation and booked Walk the Thames for luggage transfer.	Different perspective of hiking along a river, experience it widen and get tidal. Walking through London.
Aug-Sept 2026	South West Coast Path – South Cornwall section	The two of us	20 days 175 miles	Arranged our own accommodation and booked Luggage Transfers Ltd. for luggage transfer.	Wild coastal scenery, with few other people and quaint fishing villages.

Planned:

When	Route	Distance	How
June 2027	The Cumbria Way	78 miles, 7 days	Arranged our own accommodation, carrying our own packs.
April-July 2028?	Lands End to John O’Groats (aka LEJOG)	~1200 miles, ~100 days	Arranging everything ourselves.