England with HF Holidays

An excellent organization for anyone interested in walking in Britain is HF Holidays (Imperial House, The Hyde, Edgeware Road, London, NW9 5AL, U.K.; phone + 44 [0] 20 8905 9556 or e-mail info@hfholidays.co.uk. . . or book through Teachers’ Travel Service, Ltd., 21 St. Clair Ave. East, Ste. 1003, Toronto, Ont., M4T 1L9, Canada; phone 800/268-7229 or e-mail info@teacherstravel.com).

My wife, Helen, and I have done all sorts of trips to Britain and Ireland in the past 10-plus years, including group tours, a narrowboat trip, touring on our own in a rental car and short walks as described in various books while staying at B&Bs and small hotels, but some of our most enjoyable times have been 7-day walking holidays with HF Holidays.

The concept is to do day hikes over the course of three, five or seven days from a central location, a mansion modified into a small hotel with some double rooms, some single rooms, some rooms with facilities en suite and some rooms with shared bathroom facilities.

Guests eat breakfast together every day and then have their choice of an easy walk (three to five miles), a medium walk (five to nine miles) or a harder walk (nine to 15 miles). Each walking group has a leader who is familiar with the area. Leaders are unpaid but get free room and board. They are usually retired teachers, military or health care workers or just avid walkers.

Everyone orders a sandwich the night before and then after breakfast packs a lunch from a vast array of fruits, vegetables, nuts, crackers, chips, bars, candy, etc., which is laid out on tables along with the ordered sandwiches.

Walks usually begin at 9 or 9:30 and are completed between 3 and 5. Some walks start from the house and end there. On other days everyone is bused to starting points, depending on the walk length, and ends at the same spot, where they are all picked up by the bus.

Everyone returns to the house, where dinner is served at 7; dinner entrées are ordered at breakfast time from a menu that changes daily. Afternoon tea is available, and there is a bar open from 4 to 11 p.m. Evening entertainment is provided by the leaders after dinner until 9 or 10 and may be games, dancing or lectures. The last night, a talent show is usually put on.

The organization has now grown so that there are houses at 18 locations throughout England, Scotland and Wales; they also do long-distance walks and walks on the Continent. We have been to their locations in St. Ives in Cornwall, in Conistonwater and Derentwater in the Lake District and, May 4-21 of this year, at Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight. All were excellent.

Prices run £200-£600 (near $357-$1,072) per person, depending on location, length of stay and type of accommodation. Our trip to the Isle of Wight cost £493 ($880) for an en suite single room.

— FRANK MYERS, Madison, WI