This website is not only packed full of information, but it also has lots of new features to help you have a great time walking the South West Coast Path. Here are some of our favourite bits, which you may not spot immediately.
1. Easy ways to find the perfect short walk
There are details of hundreds of short walks on the site, and with such a choice, we’ve developed several ways to help you decide which is the perfect one for you. If you are looking for a walk in a particular area, the easiest way to find these is to use the Walkfinder tool (on the menu bar). Type in a place name, and your preferences and you will soon be given a choice. Or want to see a great view – just click on any of the photos at the top of each page, and it will bring up a map of nearby walks. Alternatively look on our Discovery walk pages, where you’ll find walks themed that will help you find more about the amazing geology, heritage and wildlife found around our coast.
If you’re out on the path, look out for one of our new ‘Digital Fingerposts‘ and you’ll get a walk starting from where you are straight onto your smartphone – and it will still work even if you lose phone signal along the walk!
2. Find a great pub or café
For most of us, a good pub or café can really make a walk, so on each walk page you’ll see all the nearby pubs and cafes marked on the map as tankard & teacup symbols. If you click on any of these, it will bring up a link to a page containing details of the pub or café along with customer reviews.
3. Take the short walk description with you
Once you have decided on the walk you want to do, don’t click print on the browser, instead click on the link on the right hand side to Printer Friendly page (with map), as this will bring up a new page with the walk overlaid on an Ordnance Survey map which is much easier to use than the Google map.
4. See an aerial flythrough of the walk
Below the walk map is the Google Earth plugin. Clicking on this (you may have to click OK to install) enables you to view the walk as if you were in a helicopter flying above it. If at anytime you want to change the viewing angle, click your mouse button and drag it across the image. The left button pans, the right rotates and if you’ve a scroll wheel, this zooms in and out.
5. Find bus and train times
In the same way as the pubs and cafes, clicking on the bus stop & train station symbols on the walk maps will bring up a link for timetable information, and for trains the option to book tickets. So that you don’t have to rush or wait for a bus at the end of your walk, if you can its best to get the bus out and walk back.
The South West Coast Path blog 