Thames path in England

[trainhopper]

I have been looking into hiking the Thames path in England so I can see both rural and urban areas on a fairly low budget. I am guessing hiking there is different than hiking on the A.T. Does anyone have experience with doing such trips? Can you just hike the path and camp out at night or do you have to stay at hostels or B&B's? Any help would be great.

[Feral Bill]

Walking in Britain, From Lonely Planet press is full of information. I do not know the latest edition.

[fiddlehead]

I haven't done much trekking in England.
I did some in Ireland and travelled around much of western Europe and stealth camped in many places.
In Ireland, we would go to a bar and drink a few and then ask if we could pitch a tent in their yard. We were always welcomed.
In France, we slept in farmers fields (stealth) and patches of woods here and there. Never had a problem.
In Spain, we camped on beaches and one night, the police came and gathered some firewood for us so that we could have a bigger fire.
In Germany, I got chased by a farmer out of his field about 5 am. (i wasn't hidden good enough)
In Lichtenstein, we slept in a closed up hostels cellar-way.
In Switzerland, I found a girlfriend and slept at her house.
In England, I would think finding a suitable hiding place would be the problem as it is not a big or wild country. But, you can always find a hiding spot if you try hard enough.

In all of the above, it was a great adventure.
Have fun!

[BrianLe]

I hiked the Coast-to-Coast trail in northern England this past September, a 192 mile trail.
My wife arranged things so that we stayed in B&B's and Youth Hostels each night, but there were camping places, albeit pretty much always (if I recall correctly) places where you would pay a bit to camp in a designated space and have access to port-a-potties, that sort of thing. There are some places (at least on that trail) where you can just camp in the more wild bits, but for the most part I think you would have a hard time.

Best is to seek out and buy a good guidebook for the trail you're looking at and see what it has to say about camping possibilities.

Note about youth hostels: don't assume that these are particularly cheap, I found them more expensive than I expected --- but also nicer than I expected on the whole.

[HockeyGirl]

Finally a post I can answer!
An English person here to answer your question....

While the UK can be a wonderful place to walk, the serious downside is that wild camping here is illegal (except in Dartmoor National Park and area in Scotland) and finding well spaced accommodation on National Paths can be a problem.
Some people will stealth camp, but as most land in this country belongs to private people, farmers etc can get pretty narky if they find you in their fields or hedgerows!
It is possible but to do but you have to be careful and be prepared to possibly be approached and challanged by someone.

This website http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/thamespath/ will give places that you can stay along the way, hostels, B&B and legal campsites.
Hope it might help?

Any other help you need give me a shout and I might be able to give some assistance?

:)

[fiddlehead]

Finally a post I can answer!
An English person here to answer your question....

While the UK can be a wonderful place to walk, the serious downside is that wild camping here is illegal (except in Dartmoor National Park and area in Scotland) and finding well spaced accommodation on National Paths can be a problem.
Some people will stealth camp, but as most land in this country belongs to private people, farmers etc can get pretty narky if they find you in their fields or hedgerows!
It is possible but to do but you have to be careful and be prepared to possibly be approached and challanged by someone.

This website http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/thamespath/ will give places that you can stay along the way, hostels, B&B and legal campsites.
Hope it might help?

Any other help you need give me a shout and I might be able to give some assistance?

:)

How about asking at a pub (after a few drinks) like we did in Ireland?
Will that work?

[WalkinHome]

My wife and I tried a bit of the Thames path a few years ago (can't remember which piece) but it was alot of urban walking, marinas, joggers, etc. I think stealth camping would be quite difficult and as the UK native remarked, most camping is only allowed in campgrounds. I don't know about the asking permission thing. It might be better for you to go hostel to hostel and use public transport to get to start points and end points to your next hostel. Of course the B&B option is "very civilized". Some pubs also offer overnights. There are many options. Good luck.

[BrianLe]

One nice thing about staying in B&B's and hostels was that many B&B's and I think all hostels had drying rooms. I can get by in wet weather camping multiple nights in a row, but I have to admit that it was quite nice each night to be able to get everything dry, stuffing old newspaper in shoes did a good job with those as well.

Hanging out with other hikers in pubs and the like was marvelous too, a great part of the overall experience is definitely the people.

And the food. Don't tell me that English food is bad. Maybe at one point in the past that was true, but I was in serious danger of gaining weight while hiking in England, with not just great meals in general, but also things like clotted cream and various pastries (savory and sweet).

I don't think one has to spend a ton of money, but I wouldn't want to do it on the really cheap, if only to feel free to stop for tea and the like more often along the way.

[HockeyGirl]

Fiddlehead is right, no reason you can't ask around to stay in a pub garden field, and I once asked to stay on the edge of a farmer's field and the lady was nice about it.

But also there are some nicer parts of the country here to explore, Pennine Way, South West Coast Past, North and South Downs Way....