INN-to-inn walking tour operator, On Foot Holidays, has a new hiking tour of south-west England showcasing the wild Dartmoor countryside.
Taking in the many castles, abbeys, manor houses and medieval hamlets of Devon, the new route follows in the footsteps of the company's other UK walk in Dorset, which has proved the most popular of all its routes among Australians.
The new walk features a visit to Greenway - the former holiday home of best-selling crime novelist Agatha Christie - and cuts a path through the rugged Dartmoor moors made famous by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, featuring Sherlock Holmes.
The seven-night walk begins in Exeter, with the first day following the river upstream through the deep Teign Gorge, including visits to an Iron Age fort and Castle Drogo which, built in 1930, is the last castle to be built in England.
The walk continues through the moorlands with impressive 360-degree views greeting travellers on fine days.
The countryside slowly transitions into woodland and pastures as travellers tread towards the journey's end, the riverside village of Dartmouth.
Along the way, travellers will stay in traditional country inns and B&Bs. Other highlights include wine and cheese tasting at Sharpham vineyard, visits to the Benedictine Buckfast Abbey, the charming village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, and the sweeping country estate of Dartington Hall.
The route can be walked from April to November, and is rated medium in difficulty, with three to seven hours of walking each day.
The tour costs from about $1245 per person twin share and includes seven nights' bed and breakfast and all luggage transfers, meaning walkers simply carry a day pack. Shorter options, as well as extra nights, are available.
