Accommodation for walkers

Along the coastline of Devon, Cornwall Dorset and Somerset there are lots of places to stay within easy reach of the Coast Path. Most walkers either camp or stay in Bed & Breakfast accommodation. In many places you have a wider choice ranging from luxury hotels to budget hostel accommodation.

If you are planning a multi-day trip along the path the best place to start your search for places to stay is the accommodation listing maintained by Luggage Transfers (who move walkers' bags between overnight stops) in partnership with the South West Coast Path Association. This lists hundreds of places to stay close to the path that are willing to take walkers for a single night.  As many of these establishments are small, they are not all inspected or graded by an official tourism organisation, but if complaints are received, there is a system for removing the establishment from the website. As well as the link button to the right, you’ll also find links to this list from each of our section guide pages. Most of these establishments are also listed in the Annual Guidebook published by the South West Coast Path Association.

Particularly in peak season (July, August & Bank Holiday weekends), some accommodation providers are reluctant to take bookings for a single night stay, as they’d prefer to have a room booked for at least 2 or 3 nights.   If you encounter this problem, one way to get around it is to stay in one of the larger towns and then get a bus to the start & finish at each end of the day’s walk.

If you want to camp, there are plenty of good campsites close to the path. You can find details of these in the accommodation finder. During peak season, many of these campsites state on their website that they will only accept bookings for 3 or more nights. However, this is based on their typical customers who turn up with a car and a huge tent. If you give them a ring, they will almost invariably happily to make an exception and find a somewhere for Coast Path walkers to pitch a small tent overnight.

There is no right to wild camp beside the path and you should ask the landowner before pitching  your tent (sorry, we can’t help you find out who that is!). However, it is normally tolerated if you have a small tent, discretely pitch it in the evening, pack up early in the morning and leave no trace of your stay (and definitely no open fires).