We often get asked how we find the places that we explore as part of our ongoing early retirement adventures and the answer is pretty simple. Ever since we purchased our beloved VW campervan Nelson, we were determined to get the very best experiences out of him. We have been travelling and adventuring for the past 5 years, but that freedom to roam has significantly increased since we made the decision to early retire in the summer of 2022.
When we first got our campervan, we bought a brilliant book- The Wild Guide to the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. This became our weekend adventure bible, as we knew when we were in these areas we would always have somewhere to go, somewhere new to find and places to explore that were off the beaten track and pretty much unknown.
Since then, we realised that this was one of a series of books that is ever expanding and we have used a number of the books as a starting point for our adventures and travels. We have found the series far superior to the vast majority of travel guides in the range and quality of information they contain. They really do offer a range of hidden places to explore, and have provided us with a blueprint for many of our weekend and also extended trips both at home and in Europe.
What are the wild guides?
They are a series of regional travel guides that focus on the hidden places that are rarely explored. I believe they were born out of the successful wild swim guidebooks and keep a familiar format. In deed, they maintain a heavy focus on wild swimming spots and water based activities, but they also contain so much more. In addition to all the wild swimming adventures, they also have information on:
Boats & floats- locations for floating around on moving water.
Gills and scrambles- places to have a bit of a climb and to feel rock beneath feet and hands.
Caverns and caves- subterranean adventures that come with a massive health warning.
Sacred and ancient- sites based on the first human inhabitants of the region.
Ruins and follies- remnants of our past including our religious and industrial heritage.
Rocks and tops- places to get up high and look down on the world below.
Forrests, meadows and wildlife- the natural habitats that surround us.
Slow food and accommodation- places to eat that rely on local food sources and accommodation that affords the opportunity to immerse yourself in the local environment.
Wild camping and bothies- places to stay under the stars and to get away from it all.
The books really do focus on off the beaten track sites and rely heavily on local knowledge for their content.
Why do we like the Wild Guides so much?
Clear and concise information. Unlike many more focused travel guides, the information within the Wild Guides is really concise and to the point. At the start of each book, the area is broken down into regions on a map. Each chapter covers each region. At the start of the chapter is a brief introduction to the region and a suggestion for top places to visit. Each chapter has a map with the various locations noted which gives a great idea for what sites are close to one another- particularly useful when planning a day trip out. Each attraction invariably has a photo illustration, a brief description, very clear directions (see below), a post code and a grid reference.
Easy to navigate. As all attractions have a postcode and grid reference, as well as pretty detailed directions written in plain English, it is pretty hard to get lost. We have however got lost on many occasions, but that is just part of the fun! In all honesty, the postcodes in rural areas can cover a huge area, so it is often better to go off the grid references and use an OS Map to help with hard to reach sites. We have a yearly subscription to OS maps which gives full digital access to the entire set of UK maps, as well as a really handy GPS app for use on our phones.
Accurate information for planning- time etc. Many of the sites are pretty close to main roads, but some are significantly more isolated. We have visited a historic Lime Kiln ruin in the Dales close to where we live that was only a 10 minute walk from the road. In sharp contrast, we have walked 4 miles into the remote Sandwood Bay (One of the UK’s best beaches for sure) on the Northwest coast of Scotland that took over 3 hours as a round trip. The books are really clear about the time requirements for each attraction and gives a very accurate estimate of the time required for the adventure.
The excitement of the unknown. The Wild Guides do serve up a variety of adventures in the areas that they cover- some more impressive than others but either way- the feeling of excitement when we are trying to find one of the hidden places is tangible. We have experienced some rather underwhelming discoveries (like the ancient stone circle that we searched for ages in the Dales that was about as far from a stone-henge image as you could get!), and yet at the same time have been absolutely blown away by other discoveries. The excitement is in the journey, not the destination!
Hidden gems- even in places you think you already know. We thought that we knew the Yorkshire Dales like the back of our hands. I grew up close by and since we have had our campervan, we have been regular visitors for many years, and yet the guides still serve up places that we had no awareness of. As mentioned earlier, we only just found a massive Lime Kiln that is literally a few miles from our house. We have also discovered so many little gill scrambles, secret swimming spots and great places to eat in an area that we now live. The local knowledge that these guides collate is priceless.
A range of different activities. The guide books have something for everyone, every season and every weather. If you are looking for physical challenges, or prefer something more sedate, you will find something that suits your needs in the guides. If you love your food and fine dining, there are recommendations that are really impressive. Looking for somewhere to stay? There are options from the finest boutique guest houses, to luxury self catering accommodation, to bunk houses and bothies and to options for wild camping under the stars. Where we have used the guides a lot is when the weather has turned foul on us. We love our hill walking, but sometimes the weather is not conducive to this, so when we are in an area we tend to revert to the books for guidance for different things to do and discover whilst the weather sorts itself out.
How we use the Wild Guides?
It is probably best to illustrate how we have used the different guides over the years and how our travels have evolved by giving you some concrete examples of how we have used particular books.
Our second book was the Wild Guide-Wales. Living in Cheshire at the time, we felt that we knew the Snowdonia area quite well, but knew little about the rest of this beautiful country. Our kids were both at university in Cardiff at the time and we spent a lot of time traveling south through Wales, but had no idea of what was available to us. We used the guide as a basis for one of our first real road trips in the van, travelling down the coast from Anglesey all the way round to Cardiff. This was a journey of discovery- finding places that we had vaguely heard of but had never visited. We also used the guide extensively to explore the less well known mid-Wales and all it’s hidden gems- particularly some fantastic wild swimming spots for on hot summers days. More recently, we spent a couple of weeks exploring the Gower Peninsular and Pembrokeshire- only two chapters of the books but in 2 weeks we hardly scratched the surface- we will return again!
Much to our embarrassment, we knew little about Scotland apart from the fact that it was a campervan friendly country. The Wild Guide-Scotland has been a real life changer for us and has changed our travel habits for ever. We have used the guide a a number of really specific ways:
As a guide to the Scottish islands- each island has a chapter in the book and this has proved a great starting point for our adventures. Arran and Mull are close to home, but we absolutely love the extended road trips to the Outer Hebrides that the guide has inspired us to take. You really do feel like you are at the ends of the earth in these wild places.
As an insider guide to our NC500 winter road trip that helped us realise that a campervan can be used for 12 months of the year- even in the storm season!
It has helped us discover some of our favourite (and hidden) places in the highlands to escape to and hide out.
More recently it has inspired us to plan a bucket list trip to the Shetland and Orkney Isles to discover and explore the historic Viking culture within our own country.
We based our latest summer road trip to the French Alps on the Wild Guide by the same name. However, unlike previous alpine road trips where we had been tempted to travel far and wide, we decided to limit ourselves to just a few chapters of the book to fully immerse ourselves in each particular area that we visited. There were so many hidden gems, we cannot start to list them from that one trip, but rest assured, we had an amazing 3 and a bit weeks in the Alps and only covered 3 regions from the guide.
Having had success at planning extended road trips in Wales, Scotland and the Alps from the Wild Guides, we are still looking to this series of books for inspiration for future trips. One of the biggies from our bucket list is Scandinavia, but we know that to do a trip like that justice, we need to devote as much of the 90 day Euro window that we can. For a number of different reasons, this is not something that we can commit to in the short term, but we are using the Wild Guide- Scandinavia to get to know the area and get a feel for what areas we would like to visit.
As you can tell, we are firm advocates for the Wild Guide series of books. This is absolutely not a sponsored blog post- it is us sharing our experiences with you. If you are interested in any of the books, please have a look at the links below- full disclosure- if you follow these links we do earn a small commission from Amazon, but the books remain the best price for you.
Wishing you all the best finding the hidden places,
Richard and Jackie
Wild Guide Early Retirement Wanderlust Amazon Links
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