South West England is where dramatic coastlines meet ancient landscapes. It’s a region made for walking — whether you're tracing clifftop paths high above the sea, striding across open moorland beneath wide skies, or wandering through villages built of warm, honey-coloured stone.
This is walking country at its finest, where every step carries the scent of salt or heather, and every turn reveals a view worth pausing for.
England’s longest National Trail stretches 630 miles (1,014 km) from Minehead in Somerset to South Haven Point near Poole Harbour in Dorset. It offers some of the most spectacular coastal walking in the country, with dramatic cliffs, hidden coves, fishing villages, and sweeping sea views.
These two upland National Parks offer a wild and rugged walking experience. Dartmoor is famed for its granite tors, prehistoric stone rows, and free-roaming ponies. Exmoor combines heather-covered moorland, deep wooded valleys, fast-flowing rivers, and a strikingly undeveloped coastline.
Though it stretches into other regions, the western and southern reaches of the Cotswolds AONB lie within the South West. This much-loved walking area offers rolling hills, golden-stone market towns like Stow-on-the-Wold and Painswick, and long-distance routes such as the Cotswold Way from Chipping Campden to Bath.
