The Story of Walk the Trail

How we began offering the best value self guided walking holidays in England and Wales. 

2009
My friend Ben came up with the idea of Luggage Transfers, and from around his dining room table the business began.  Originally with just 3 people Ben, myself and Sue (my mum) we started moving walker's bags around a small area of the South West Coast Path.  During this first season, we had a few enquiries from walkers wanting us to also arrange their accommodation, which we happily assisted with.

2010 
We decided to expand the Luggage Transfers business to cover the whole of the South West.  From the original 100 miles between St Ives & Falmouth, we were now covering all 630 miles of the South West Coast Path as well as the the land mass in between.  We needed a proper base, so set up in a small office in Helston.  We also took on another member of staff, as the time was right to offer self guided walking holidays.  Budget Walking was born.  It started off as a no frills accommodation and luggage transfer arrangement service.  Over the course of the season, we began adding to it, to include guidebooks and maps.

2011
This was our first proper season as Budget Walking, offering accommodation, luggage transfers, maps, guidebooks as well as a detailed holiday pack.  We had itineraries for the South West Coast Path, Dartmoor & Exmoor.  At this point we had 2 staff working full time on the holidays with all the bookings processed by hand and large card files for each client.

2012 
We expanded our service to offer tailor made holidays anywhere in the South West and Linda moved from Luggage Transfers to help with the expansion.  It quickly became apparent she was excellent at booking accommodation and spent nearly all her time doing that as the booking came in.  Derek also joined us, who took on the role of creating the individual holiday packs for each walking party.  We also moved to The Old Stable, which is a 20th Century stable building in a little cobbled courtyard almost directly opposite our old office.

2013
Our bespoke booking system was completed.  This allowed us to manage booking a lot more environmentally friendly, reducing printing by 95%, streamlining the booking process meaning our small experienced team could help even more people find their perfect holiday.  We also began offering itineraries in Pembrokeshire.

2014
Linda was promoted to manage Budget Walking on a day to day basis.  Mike began looking at new routes, as well as a new website.  We also decided a name change was in order.  Budget did not do justice to the accommodation we used or the service we offered.  We still provide excellent value holidays as we always have, but now you add activities along the way, or remove items that are not needed to make the holiday even better value for money.

 

2015
Walk The Trail became the new name for Budget Walking/BW Holidays. Our business had changed considerably over the past 5 years, and calling our services budget was an understatement to the quality holidays we provide. We continued to offer great self guided and tailormade holidays throughout the South West of England, but at the end of the season, doubled the number of routes we offered to include Wainwright's Coast to Coast, The Dales Way, Cotswold Way, South Downs Way and Hadrian's Wall.

So, if you want the best value self guided walking holidays in the South West of England or Wales, give us a call, use the chat, or send us an email.  We promise that your reply will come from a member of our small dedicated team.

Nothing is too much hassle.

 

Linda King - Manager
Walk the Trail