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Company details

  1. Outdoor Activity Organiser

Written by the company

Founded in 1996, Contours Walking Holidays specialises in organising self-guided walking tours across the UK. Along with an enviable wealth of experience, we are proud to offer an unrivalled selection of trails to choose from. We take care of all the details, leaving you free to enjoy your holiday.


Contact info

3.9

Great

TrustScore 4 out of 5

14 reviews

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Replied to 100% of negative reviews

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Walking the Ridgeway

We embarked on our first walking trip with Contours along the West section of the Ridgeway, everything went very smoothly, all luggage transfers to plan, a variety of places to stay which ticked all the boxes including friendly service (3 out of 4 had baths which was terrific at the end of a day's walking), and the information provided was great.

April 5, 2026
Unprompted review
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Reply from Contours Holidays

We're thrilled you had such a great time on the Ridgeway! Thank you very much for writing a review.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

UTTER RIP-OFF

The total cost of our 8-night holiday was £2240, i.e. £280 per night. The room invoices we saw ranged from £80/night to £110/night. The hotels were 1-2star quality at most. It felt like more than a rip-off: a financial fraud. Contrary to their reply, I gave detailed feedback by email if not by their preferred format, and received just £140 refund. So my complaint is not disingenuous as they suggest.

August 2, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Contours Holidays

We understand that two of your accommodations presented invoices to you on check-out, showing how much we had paid for your stay. These do not reflect the costs paid for all the other accommodations booked for your holiday, so it was shame to read the two least expensive B&Bs had provided these receipts to you, which has clearly left this negative impression on your holiday.
Feedback from our clients is gratefully appreciated as it helps us to continue working with accommodations you enjoyed, but also look into areas that didn't work as planned. We regret to read you did not enjoy some of the accommodations. We are grateful for you reaching out to us prior to your review about a couple of the hotels you did not enjoy. We have prompted you a few times to complete our feedback forms or share more details about your holiday so we could learn more about these "1-2 star quality" accommodations. We feel our responses thus far to you have been appropriate given the limited information you have shared with us by email.
It is disingenuous to suggest that we are frauds if you are just taking the cost of two night stays on your walk, and comparing that number to the average cost per night for your holiday. Along with accommodations, we also arranged luggage transfers, taxis from and to the trail, our bespoke holiday pack, and services such as our Out-of-Hours number which is available when our office is closed. There is a lot more than just accommodation that goes into a Contours Holiday.
Thank you again for your review.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Great pre- trip advice on suitable…

Great pre- trip advice on suitable trails for level of experience, varied scenery and time of year. Everything managed very smoothly and good amount of supporting information provided. Would highly recommend.

September 2, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Contours Holidays

That's great to hear! We're so glad you enjoyed your holiday. Thanks very much for writing a review.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Most places to stay overnight were good…

Most places to stay overnight were good or even excellent. One was very noisy and quite off the South West coast path. The transport of the suitcases worked very well. We missed a list of all the accomodation places as soon as we had paid, which was very early in the year. So we didn't know what we would get and there was no room for changement of accomodation. Custumers pay a lot of money without knowing for what.....

August 16, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Contours Holidays

Thank you very much for your feedback on your holiday! We're glad to hear your luggage transfers went flawlessly and that most accommodations were excellent. We'd love to hear about the one that wasn't - our in-depth feedback form is available on our website under the Members Area.

Regarding the full list of accommodations for a holiday, these are produced in strict rotation and sent out four weeks before the start of each holiday, as indicated on our website.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Contours did an absolutely amazing job!

Contours did an absolutely amazing job at organising my Hadrian's Wall Path walk. They did it all very last minute with great ease, were super accommodating and helpful with some last minute changes. The accommodation they arranged was great, baggage transfer was seamless as were all the extra pick ups and drop offs. Could not recommend them more!

August 5, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Contours Holidays

Thank you very much for writing a review! We're thrilled to hear you enjoyed your walk along Hadrian's Wall Path.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Avoid The Tamara Way

I would agree with most people that Contours are brilliant and I have had many enjoyable walks with them. However they have recently marketed the Tamara way walk across the Devon and Cornwall Peninsular. This walk has a large amount of road walking, at one point there were two sections adding to 20 miles where you never left the road. I am speechless, why are you selling this rubbish?

June 3, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Contours Holidays

We deeply regret you didn't enjoy the Tamara Coast to Coast Way, especially after a run of successful walks we'd hoped to continue for you.

We strive to offer holidays along a wide range of trails, aiming to make sure there's something for everyone; the downside of that variety, unfortunately, is that there's the potential for mismatches like this.

The Tamara Coast to Coast Way is indeed heavier on road walking than most, but the trail is also unusual in that we had a huge surge of requests specifically for it - it's on our site due to popular demand. While we definitely appreciate it isn't for everyone, it does have an audience, and we've had broadly positive feedback from our first year of walkers out on this trail.

I mean this more as an explanation for why the Tamara Way exists as a Contours holiday, certainly not to undermine your personal misgivings with it, and we are very sorry this wasn't the right walk for you.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful West Highland Way

We've just completed the West Highland Way and Great Glen Way. Contours organised all our accommodation and baggage transfers. All worked seamlessly. All the accommodation was great. Another lovely holiday with Contours.

May 7, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Contours Holidays

We're pleased to hear you enjoyed your latest holidays! Thank you very much for leaving a review - and for trusting Contours with multiple walks.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Cotswold Way Walk

My wife and I embarked on a wonderful pre-wedding journey along the Cotswold Way with Contours Holidays, and it exceeded all expectations.

We walked from Painswick to Chipping Campden, taking us through charming villages and picturesque landscapes. We were blessed with beautiful weather, and enjoyed breathtaking countryside views, golden fields, and quaint stone cottages, all straight out of a fairytale.

Contours Holidays arranged cozy accommodations in charming inns and B&Bs, offering relaxation and locally sourced meals. The self-guided walking tour allowed us to set our own pace and explore along the way.

In short, our Cotswold Way experience with Contours Holidays was romantic and rejuvenating. It provided the perfect pre-wedding retreat. We're grateful for their meticulous planning and support. If you seek a memorable Cotswold walking holiday, we highly recommend Contours Holidays. This journey will forever hold a special place in our hearts.

August 21, 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Great customer service and support for our first walking holiday

We booked our first walking holiday with Contours to walk Hadrian's Wall in May 2022 - the website was clear and easy to navigate, and adding additional nights at various points in our journey was intuitive. I'm not sure why other reviewers are complaining that they didn't find out where they would be staying until a few weeks before, this is stated clearly on all correspondence and we found it well timed to help us start to get excited for our trip!

The accommodation was great throughout, it's not 5* all the way but everywhere we stayed was easy to find via Contours directions, clean and friendly. That's all you need... it's about the walk after all :)

We did have a blip on the first night as we were unable to get hold of the taxi company to take us to our starting point the next morning. Despite being out of hours, we received a fast reply via text from Contours to confirm they had been able to contact them and sort a collection time - perfect! We really felt like they had our backs.

Otherwise the trip was incredibly smooth sailing, all helped by the pack Contours provide. I would advise looking at dinner options before your trip, and booking in advance, as some areas do not have much choice (although this will obviously depend on where you are walking!)

We are now looking at booking our next trip with them, so would not hesitate to recommend to others :)

May 9, 2022
Unprompted review
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Reply from Contours Holidays

Thank you very much for your feedback, Emily - we are delighted to hear you had a great time on your holiday and we hope you have made many happy memories! - Melody. :)

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Been on great walks with this company

Been on Adrian's wall walk and now doing legs of south west coast walk it is absolutely stunning.
Hotels have all been decent accomodation
With pubs nearby to get refreshments and luggage transfers are never an issue after talking to other people on the trail who booked with contours they also have been happy. Can't understand rating at 50-50
Of course you can't always get accomodation within 100mtrs of coastline but that is to be expected it is wild coastline. north Devon is a hard slog beware if your not ready for it.
Would recommend this tour company to any one and have done so many times with no comeback.

April 24, 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Horrible experience

Booked us overnight at pubs that were not serving supper (a disaster at the end of a long day's walk) and failed to book lodging on the second night of our rest day (though indicated in our schedule). Will never use again.

May 21, 2018
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

A really good holiday company

I've used Contours for the last 3 -4 years on about 12 walking holidays across the country from Berwick to Penzance and they are by far the best multi base walking company I’ve found. I've looked at, and used other companies and Contours are my favourite.I can genuinely say I haven't had a single problem with them in all those trips (and that equates to probably well over a hundred or so pubs/hotels and b and b's and a similar number of luggage transfers) Not a single luggage transfer missed or damaged the standard of accommodation and hosts is excellent and having regularly compared prices with other walking companies I’ve found them to be very competitive.

If you want a walking company that delivers precisely the walking holiday you want, when you want it and is unlikely to let you down I can recommend them.

May 10, 2018
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Great Walking Holiday with Contours

My friend and I walked the Bob Graham Round, organised through Contours.
Absolutely Excellent.
Initial contact via website/email and phone - 10/10
Quality of information provided - 10/10
Maps provided (including hoghlighted route + wet-eather alternative) - 10/10
Accommodation - 10/10
Bag transport - 10/10
Many thanks

May 25, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Let down

You need to be aware that contours will book a walking holiday for you take your money upfront, but not inform you of any details for the route until 3 weeks before you go ! All well and good if everything goes to plan.
However if you don't like the route / accommodation etc it's too late and contours have your money, then you are at the mercy of the booking / cancelation policy.
My advise stay away, there are plenty of good walking companies out there that communicate with you and treat you well, contours don't care about your holiday they just want the booking. Very poor.
Ian W

April 3, 2015
Unprompted review

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