Walk Midlands is a website devoted to day walks in the English Midlands doable without a car.
This means that queries often come my way about how to go off for a day’s walking without a car.
In many ways walking trips and public transport would seem like natural bedfellows.
Not least in our eco-conscious times when everybody even vaguely concerned about the trajectory of climate change is mindful of the need to reduce their carbon footprint.
However, the relative ease of just driving to a beauty spot or a point of interest for someone with access to a car, means that many walking guides are predicated upon the (often tacit) assumption that their readers will have access to their own vehicle.
The following seven tips are aimed anybody whose interested in adopting some top tips and hacks about what to do and look out for when going walking without a car.
1. Ensure that there is public transport avaliable to get you to your starting point
This sounds obvious, but it can be easy (and I’ve done this myself) to have a great idea for a place to walk to, and discover that it is actually really hard to get anywhere near it by public transport.
Conversley – and this ties into point two just below – with a bit of careful route plotting, there are relatively few places which are utterly inaccessible to day walkers setting out without a car.
Walk Midlands walks always start from a railway station or a bus stop, and finish with an entire “Getting Back” section aimed at setting out the options for getting back home by public transport
2. Don’t rely on Google Maps
Google Maps is great for some things when you are on a day-out: e.g. telling you where to eat, when museums and art galleries are open, and bus stop times and locations etc.
When it comes to walking however, unless you intend to stay on main roads for the entire duration of your trip, it is really not up to very much.
Some websites (like Walk Midlands) provide you with handy written walking guides Some sites also provide There are also some good vloggers out there who make videos about how to undertake a walk. There is still a place for the trusty hardcopy walking guide book of leaflets.
Your best bet however, is to get a proper off road mapping service on your phone or another GPS enabled device. In the UK the gold standard for all manner of navigation is the Ordnance Survey Map*.
Since the mid-2010s Ordnance Survey’s Explorer service has offered a web-based version of the classic Ordnance Survey Map covering the entire country. It is GPs enabled and allows you to plot routes which can be followed either in-app or downloaded as GPX files. There is also a function which allows you to find other people’s publicly saved routes and follow them. In short: never get lost anywhere in the United Kingdom ever again.
Walk Midland’s walking routes are always provided as Ordnance Survey Explorer routes making it easy and simple for walkers to follow them.
Ordnance Survey Explore is also an absolute steal at just £28.99 for an annual subscription or £4.99 per month. YHA members can get a 10% discount on new subscriptions. A must have for anyone who regularly goes walking outside of major urban areas.
*In the interests of transparency I will point out that I have an affiliate marketing agreement with Ordnance Survey. However, I could never in good conscience recommend something that I did not think was good, and subscribing to the digital Ordnance Survey Map has really revolutionised my ability to plan and enjoy walks.
3. Check bus and train times to ensure that you can get back from where ever you have walked
Obvious, and clearly connected to the first tip. But this is really important! No different or more stressful really to having to be back at a car park before your ticket expires or they lock it for the evening.
4. Easy ways to save money on train tickets
If you are aged 16 – 30, over 60, travel with children, have served in the armed forces, or have one other person that you often travel by train with, then you are definitely eligible for a railcard entitling you to one third off the price of most rail fares. There are other people who are eligible for railcards as well.
Another dead simple way to save money on your rail fares is to use a split ticketing service like TickeySplit. In exchange for a small percentage of the savings you make, TicketySplit works through all of the mind boggling ticketing options available on the British rail network and finds you the cheapest option.
You can also have a stab at it yourself online, though this is time consuming and fiddly. Station ticket clerks where they still exist, are also now authorised to try and help passengers save money through split ticketing. So, help out your local railway ticket office, make the case for keeping them open by asking the staff to help you save money.
5. One less obvious way to save money on train tickets
Always look to buy a return ticket, unless you are walking or getting the bus home.
This is because it is almost always far cheaper to buy a return of some description on the UK railway network than two singles.
The key thing when travelling on a return ticket is not to start or end your journey further along the route you are travelling than you have paid for. You are welcome to end your journey early or start it nearer to your destination.
In practice this means that if you are ending your walk at a train station you should buy a return from that station, but get off at an earlier stop to begin your walk from there. Many Walk Midlands walks are implicitly designed around this principle.
Alternatively you can get the train further away to begin your walk, and then not use a portion of your return by starting your return journey from a station nearer your destination.
Be careful to check your conditions of carriage, but generally speaking this is completely acceptable in British trains and will save you money.
6. Check your bus home is running that day
This has never caught me out when I’ve been out walking. But I’ve nearly been had by this quirk of the public transport system at the planning stage of a walk. Local councils are obliged to provide transport that enables school children to get to school. In some less densely populated areas this can take the form of subsidies to bus operators to run services that enable children in smaller towns, villages and hamlets to get to school.
Often these services are only funded during term-time. So if you see a handy bus running around about 15:00 in the afternoon be sure to check to see whether in the timetables small print it is listed as a “school service” or “term time only” (this often includes half term holidays…). Sometimes an abbreviation (Sch, TT or Hol are common) is used, but note that there is no standardisation in nomenclature between council areas and operators – so read the timetable carefully…
This tip is also useful for walking at the weekend and bank holidays. Most bus services generally run with a slightly reduced frequency on Saturday, and a significantly reduced service on Sundays. However, some don’t run at all on Sundays or at the weekends.
There are significant variations by council area – as with term time travel – e.g. in Worcestershire funding cuts mean that there are few bus services on Saturdays and in many areas outside major centres like Redditch and Worcester no buses run on Sundays. By contrast in neighbouring Herefordshire in 2021 and 2022 the number of Saturday and Sunday services actively increased as the local council run by a coalition of independent and Green Party councillors introduced free weekend bus travel – boosting demand significantly. Pleasingly, whilst the buses are no longer free, some of the additional services are continuing.
7. Let your train ticket help you pack more into your day out
Sometimes a walk can be completed in the morning or just after lunch, especially if you set out early. Using the same principle as “The less obvious way to save money on train tickets” hack, it is acceptable to break your train journey if you have an anytime return or are changing trains on an advance ticket (with a gap between connections).
This means that if you finish your walk and are heading back through Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester or wherever, and fancy stopping off for some food, drink, shopping or to see an exhibition, you are well within your rights to do so.
Breaking your journey in this way is acceptable and it’s a cost effective way of getting a bit extra out of your day out, especially if you are in a part of the region you don’t visit all that often and there are things which you would like to see.
As ever, do check the terms and conditions of your ticket!