Mickledore Travel Traveller Reviews

This is a brief summary of the adventures of Tom and Ed and their ten-day walk on the Cotswold Way National Trail. First and foremost, we successfully completed the entire 103-mile trail in ten consecutive days from Tuesday, May 8th and finishing by walking into Bath on the afternoon of Thursday, May 17th. When I say, we walked into Bath I really mean we limped into Bath. Ed suffered from nerve issues in his toes and an injured knee. While I suffered from multiple blisters on my left foot. In addition, while the official distance of the Cotswold Way is 103 miles, Ed and I managed to walk it in just over 130 miles. Some of the extra miles were due to our bed and breakfasts being off the official Cotswold Way trail. However, most of the extra miles were due to my lack of navigational skills. We experienced highs and lows on our ten-day walk. Some of the highs were the beautiful scenery. We walked through ancient Beech Wood forests, through fields of bright yellow canola plants, and acres of wild garlic plants, blue bells & cowslip. I can still smell the garlic. We walked through valleys and pastures filled with wild flowers in full bloom. The colors were like a rainbow. We watched and talked with men sheering sheep, a stonemason building a traditional dry stonewall, and the owner of an estate near Ullenwood who shared some local history of the involvement of the area in the World War II D-Day invasion. We walked through battlefields, golf courses, and past historic monuments. We visited Abbeys, churches, and graveyards. Ed and I marveled at the ancient burial mounds like Belas Knap. We walked through miles and miles of sheep and cow pastures. Which means we walked through miles and miles of sheep and cow manure mazes. Ed managed to avoid stepping in the gifts left by the sheep and cows. I was not as lucky. On the tenth and final day of our walk, I stepped into a very deep and wet cow “pie”. While Ed failed to warn me about my pending mishap, he did support me after the fact by laughing uncontrollably for hours after my accident. We walked past outstanding examples of Cotswold sandstone architecture in the form of quaint stone farmhouses with thatched and stone roofs, beautiful Abbeys, and small town buildings. We stayed in Bed and Breakfasts in rural villages with marvelous hosts. We were served full “English” breakfasts and provided daily packed lunches for our walks. One of the greatest highs was meeting and getting to know other walkers. We met and came to know Nick and Lesel and Dr. Richard and Sally both couples from England, and Dr. Richard and Melinda from the USA. They out walked us nine of the ten days (passed us each day finishing early). However, Ed and I beat them to Bath on the tenth day entering the city like conquering heroes. While our highs greatly outnumbered our lows, we still had a few of the later. During our journey, Ed managed to lose his eyeglasses, his passport, his wallet, and his boots. While we never found his eyeglasses, Ed did find his passport and wallet in different pockets of his pants other than the pockets where he had originally placed them. After almost destroying his bedroom looking for his boots he was informed that he had left them, like all the B&B guests, in the foyer of the B&B. Another low was my left foot. Early on the walk, I developed some horrible blisters on my left foot. With the help of the doctors, we met on the trail and with Ed’s engineering skills; I managed to walk most of the trail with a bandaged left foot in moderate pain. Ed came up with the plan to cut holes in my shoe to relieve the pressure on the multitude of blisters on my left foot. The plan was much like drilling a hole in someone’s skull to relieve the pressure on the brain. It worked. However, this did precipitate the development of a reputation on the trail as the Alabama boys who had cut holes in their shoes. The walk on the Cotswold Way National Trail was one of the greatest experiences of my 66-year-old life. Ed and I completed a journey that will probably never be topped, at least in my life.

Mickledore handled all of our in-country travel arrangements. They did an outstanding job arranging our accommodations, daily packed lunches, and the transporting of our luggage from B&B to B&B.

Cleveland way coastal walk. All planned by Mickledore. A great experience packed by professional support. Wherever we stayed we had warm welcomes, comfortable rooms and great breakfasts. Out luggage was transported for us so we had a worry free holiday. All we had to do was concentrate on walking each day.

Helpful, efficient, quality.

We walked St Cuthbert's Way, it was a GREAT hike and wonderful experience!

All of our communications were quickly and efficiently answered.

7 Nights accommodation and 6 days walking path. Different accommodation each night on the path with luggage transfers. Lucky to have no rain on thee path with glorious views. We both enjoyed ourselves. Accommodation picked by company were all excellent and welcoming. Luggage transfers worked very well. We had packed lunches every day which were adequate but overall were of good quality.

Everything was arranged perfectly from detailed directions to accommodations and parking and luggage transfers . Good directory of places to eat. Easy web site and pleasant response to telephone call. The accommodation picked were excellent and knew we were coming.

I did the coastal path walking holiday along the Northumberland coast. The B&Bs were fantastic, all hosts were very friendly and made me feel at home. Luggage transport was really convenient and well organised, too. The maps, trip notes and the guide book I had got from the operator were very helpful too. I never had any issues finding my way (even if I left the official path and took a different route).

I booked with Mickledore travel agency. They are very professional and everything was perfect. I can't find a single thing to criticise.

We walked in four days from Alnmouth to Bamburgh, one of the finest sea side walks in England. Four days to go no great distance, but with many diversions and resting and loitering points on the way. The sun shone all the time, the sea glistened, the castles and the sands were perfect each in their own way, we both agreed the company was perfect, and everything went according to plan. Life was as good as it gets.

Their planning was faultless, their standards exceeded even our own, and not a single thing went wrong.

My son and recently contracted with Mickledore Walking Holidays to trek the Herriot's Way in Yorkshire, England. Our circular route began and terminated in the village of Aysgarth with overnight stays in Bainbridge, Hawes, Keld and Reeth. The trail was at times steep, challenging and also easy as it traverses the Yorkshire Dales and it's varied terrain. The weather was beautiful, the villages charming and picturesque and the arranged accommodations were excellent, in large part because the owners of the various B&Bs were so gracious, accommodating and went out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable.

Mickledore Travel, Keswick UK is an excellent booking company that I would highly recommend for any walking holiday. I have booked two walking trips with them (the South Downs Way and the Herriot Way) and their attention to every detail from providing excellent maps, eating recommendations, travel tips and links, enroute tourist information, medical and emergency facilities along the various routes and even the often hard to find public toilets is as thorough as any traveler could want. Their choice and booking of accommodations on each of the walks is exemplary. Each B&B was a delight and was obviously carefully chosen to assure a pleasant and restful overnight. If a question arises during one's walking holiday (as it did during our Herriot Way trip) Mickledore was immediately available to answer and clarify a query I had about part of the route. My experience with Mickledore has been excellent.

We walked from Wallsend in Northumberland to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria. Our luggage was tranported for us by Micheldore. They also bokked all the B & Bs en route. From my first visit to their office in Keswick to reporting back on the holiday they were fantastic. No problems that were not of our own making, good B & Bs, delightful hosts, efficient transport and wondeful weather!

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Just comoleted 9 day holiday walking the South Downs Way. Booked accommodation and onward transfer of baggage through Mickledore. Very pleased with the quality of bed and breakfast/pubs with rooms they chose for us and baggage transfer. It was great just concentrating on the walking and not worrying about carrying heavy rucksacks and what accommodation might be waiting for us.

This is second time we have used Mickledore to book a walking holiday. Very pleased with the standard of accommodation chosen and the organisation of baggage transfers.

Mickledore was very courteous and attentive from my first email to the days following my holiday. The holiday was well organized, I only had to pay attention to enjoy the scenery. As they were alway quick to respond and I had many ways to contact them I felt sure that if something had gone wrong they would have helped me swiftly.