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Slow Lane Magazine, August 2019
Insights and stories from across Europe and beyond
  • Dancing with the devil on Lanzarote
  • Madeira - six of the best
  • A foodie in 'Sherry Country'
  • Slow Moments 2019 photo competition
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Escape to the South Downs

England’s newest National Park
 
Combine leisurely walks through the rolling chalk landscapes of England’s newest National Park with stays at welcoming country inns and visits to ancient sites, hill-top forts and Petworth – a renowned antiques centre. This self-guided walking holiday includes luggage transfers. 
Escape to the South Downs. 4 nights
Escape to the South Downs. 4 nights
 

Holiday information

 

A walking holiday in the South Downs

Rudyard Kipling described the landscape in this delightfully rural corner of southern England as “blunt, bow-headed, whale-backed downs”; and the rolling, elevated chalk grassland of the South Downs – offering expansive views across the Weald towards the North Downs from its northern escarpment – makes for exhilarating walking country.
You first see the South Downs in the distance from your first country inn, as you head out to explore Petworth, together with its historic country house and surrounding parkland. On the following day you get a leg-up to the escarpment, now on the South Downs proper, where you follow the ancient ridgeway, which today has acquired the status of a National Trail, ‘The South Downs Way’. As your walks unfold, you have opportunities to encounter prehistoric burial sites and hill-top forts, high points with panoramic views, ‘living’ modern chalk sculptures, ancient yew groves, pretty villages with traditional pubs, shady woodland, and grassland with myriad wildflowers and butterflies. Your accommodation, two traditional but well-heeled hostelries providing excellent food, is another highlight of this short but satisfying break.
 
Gallery
 

Itinerary

The key to Inntravel holidays is flexibility. You can start on the day of your choice, and are free to add extra nights.
  • The average maximum daytime temperatures and monthly rainfall relate to the nearest weather station and are intended as a guide only.

    You should always be prepared for wet weather, whichever month you are travelling.
    Average temperatures and rainfall
      Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
    °C 8 8 11 14 17 20 22 20 20 15 11 8
    mm 65 48 47 51 48 45 49 47 43 70 65 67
  • Arrival in Petworth
    Night 1: at Welldiggers Arms (the first of two nights here).
    As your first night’s accommodation is on the day of travel, Day 1 is your first day of walking.
  • Circular route from Petworth: 7.5km (5 miles), 2.5hrs; 170m ascent/descent
    Your first day’s walk is relatively short and easy-going, so makes a good ‘loosener’. It heads through woodland and rolling countryside via a section of the Serpent Trail into the ancient hill-top market town of Petworth, known as the ‘Antiques Centre of the South’ and home to a superb summer music festival (www.petworthfestival.org.uk). After browsing the town’s curio-filled boutiques, you can explore the deer park surrounding Petworth House, an impressive 17th-century National Trust property whose gardens and parkland were landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown. (Admission is free for National Trust members; otherwise an admission fee applies to visit the house, while the park may be explored free of charge.) To return, you can walk the couple of miles cross-country via the hamlet of Byworth; or take a bus, alighting right outside your accommodation.
    Circular route from Petworth: 7.5km
    Route around Petworth
  • Petworth to Chilgrove: 16km (10 miles), 5hrs; 350m ascent/400m descent
    The day begins with a short transfer – a ‘leg-up’ to a viewpoint near the top of Duncton Hill – meaning you are now on the escarpment itself, within a landscape described by Kipling as “blunt, bow-headed, whale-backed downs”. Follow the ancient ridgeway – The South Downs Way – westward, drinking in the far-reaching views before descending through woodland, keeping an eye out for the weathered, spherical Chalk Stones, devised by environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy. Your destination is the White Horse Inn in Chilgrove, where you spend two nights.
    Petworth to Chilgrove: 16km
    Countryside views on the route from Petworth to Chilgrove
  • Choice of routes from Chilgrove: 12.5km or 13.5km

    Circular route via Beacon Hill: 12.5km (7.5 miles), 3.5hrs; 290m total ascent/descent
    This walk is a favourite of ours, with enough – but not too much – of a challenge. From Beacon Hill, on a fine day, views extend from the Weald in the north to the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. There’s also an Iron Age hillfort here (archaeological evidence suggests that the down was first occupied around 3000 BC), as well as a former telegraph station. This was a link in the shutter telegraph chain (1796-1816) which connected the Admiralty in London to its naval ships docked in Portsmouth and Plymouth. After being replaced by a semaphore station, ‘Telegraph House’ was the home of the famous Beacon Hill School run by the renowned philosopher, Bertrand Russell. Also featuring on today’s walk are the Devil’s Jumps – Bronze Age burial mounds whose name owes much to local legend.

    Circular route via Kingley Vale: 13.5km (8.5 miles), 4hrs; 376m total ascent/descent
    The highlight of this option is undoubtedly Kingley Vale, a National Nature Reserve, which you reach about a third of the way in. You arrive along a wooded ridge intersecting with the top of this horseshoe-shaped dry valley, where first you encounter some Bronze Age burial mounds or ‘barrows’ known as the ‘Devil’s Humps’ (not to be confused with the Devil's Jumps that feature on the Beacon Hill circuit), before descending through magical, Tolkien-esque yew groves with some curiously shaped specimens over 500 years old. The rest of the walk is quiet and very pleasant, passing through the isolated village of Stoughton with its 11th-century Saxon church, plus the Hare & Hounds pub for refreshment.

    Explore Chichester
    A third option, if the weather is poor, is to take a taxi to the delightful small city of Chichester (just 7 miles away), where there is plenty of history, especially Roman (including a modern museum); and a compact, historic centre within the city walls, with an ancient market cross and 11th-century cathedral. You can also stroll to the newly renovated canal basin and wharf.   
    Beacon Hill on the route around Chilgrove
    Circular route via Beacon Hill: 12.5km
    Circular route via Kingley Vale: 13.5km
 

Accommodation

You stay at two high-quality inns – or ‘dining pubs’ – of character, each of which places emphasis on good food sourced from fresh, local produce.
 

Extend your stay

 

Prices for 2020

We are in the process of updating our prices for 2020. If you’d like to book now, please contact us – we’ll be happy to provide a quotation.
Get in touch >
 
Prices & travel options
All prices are in £ sterling (GBP). If you'd like to see what they equate to in your currency, use the converter.
Currency converter

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  • 4 nights: 01 April - 31 October 2019

    Start any day | End by latest date(s) shown above

    Starting Price Single room
    1 - 30 April £385 £270
    1 - 28 May £398 £280
    29 May - 31 August £435 £320
    1 - 30 September £398 £280
    1 - 27 October £385 £270
    3rd & 4th person discount -£25
    Single traveller supplement £25

    Please note: dogs are not permitted on Inntravel holidays

    Add £25pppn (£50pn in a single) if staying in Chilgrove Friday or Saturday

    Included travel: transfer Chilgrove-Petworth to collect car OR from Pulborough railway station / to Chichester railway station

  • Room upgrades (£ per person per night)

    Welldiggers Arms, Petworth
    Luxury: 01 Apr - 31 May 2019 £14
    Luxury: 01 Jun - 31 Aug 2019 £16
    Luxury: 01 Sep - 31 Oct 2019 £14
    White Horse Inn, Chilgrove
    Luxury: 01 Apr - 31 May 2019 £8
    Luxury: 01 Jun - 31 Aug 2019 £16
    Luxury: 01 Sep - 31 Oct 2019 £8

    Extra nights (£ per person per night) in a double or single room

    White Horse Inn, Chilgrove (B&B) Double room Single room
    01 Apr - 31 May 2019 £48 £96
    01 Jun - 31 Aug 2019 £62 £124
    01 Sep - 31 Oct 2019 £48 £96
    Add £25pppn (£50pn in a single) if staying in Chilgrove Friday or Saturday.
  • Prices below are based on 2 people travelling together. If you are travelling solo or as a party of 3 or more and our arrangements include a taxi, please contact us for prices; additional passengers often pay less.

    Connecting travel options - out via Pullborough, home via Chichester

    Outward route Price per person Latest train
    arrival time
    taxi Pulborough station to hotel (0h15) included flexible
    Homeward route Price per person Earliest train
    departure time
    taxi hotel to Chichester station (0h20) included flexible
What is included
  • 4 nights
  • 2 picnics
    4 breakfasts
  • luggage transported
  • route notes and maps
  • transfer on day 2
  • taxi to/from local railway stations or to collect car
 
Reviews

If you've experienced this holiday first hand, why not write a review?

We are keen for as many customers as possible to review their holiday. To make it easier to do so, we include a specific review section on our post-holiday questionnaire, and this is what we publish here, unedited. Read our full review policy >

 

FAQs

If you have any questions relating to this or any other Inntravel holiday, our friendly travel experts will be happy to help. You might also find our General FAQs section helpful.
  • We’ll send you route notes and maps 2-3 weeks before your holiday. The route notes not only contain directions to get from hotel to hotel, but also include practical information about places of interest and eateries along each route, plus cultural information about the area. If/when you are moving between hotels, you leave your luggage in reception as you leave, and it will be transferred ahead to your next accommodation, meaning that all you need to take with you are a camera, sun cream, drinks, food and waterproofs.

    For more detailed information, see our walking holidays in Europe page.
  • We can book a wide range of airlines and routes from the UK. As well as being more convenient for you to book all elements of your holiday together, it also means that we’ll accept liability for your travel arrangements, so if things go wrong, such as the airline going bust, we’ll make suitable alternative arrangements for you. For Europe and Morocco, there’s a £30 booking fee per person (£15 for children aged 2-11). For India and Nepal, the booking fee is £50 per person. More information on flights >
  • We can’t book flights that originate outside the UK, but if you wanted book your own flights to London (or elsewhere in the UK), we can make all onward travel arrangements (including flights) from there. Alternatively, if you are booking your own flights to an airport in continental Europe that’s appropriate for your holiday, we can book onward rail travel and/or taxis. More information about how we can tailor holidays for customers outside the UK >
  • Since our holidays are self-guided, we recommend calling us for a chat about your plans before making a booking, especially if it’s the first time you’ve booked with us.
    The price panel shows the supplement for a single room and also the single traveller charge (this covers (luggage) transfers and other costs which are usually shared between two people).
  • Once you’ve decided on your exact itinerary (our travel experts will be happy to offer advice), you need to provide us with your party’s details, either by phone or via our booking form. At this point we also ask you to pay a deposit so that we can secure a room for you immediately on confirming availability with the hotel(s). If it turns out that we can’t secure the accommodation for the holiday you’ve requested, or offer an acceptable alternative, we’ll refund your deposit promptly and in full. After booking your accommodation and other key elements, we'll then book your travel (or you can do so if you’re making your own arrangements) and send you a Booking Confirmation and Invoice.
  • Yes, it’s something we insist on, even for holidays in the UK. The vast majority of holidays go smoothly, but when things go wrong, it can be expensive to put them right. Buying a new pair of walking boots after your suitcase is stolen mightn’t seem so bad, but the bill for being airlifted down from a mountain with a broken leg or flown home while still recovering from an illness or accident can cost tens of thousands of pounds.

    You don’t have to buy our policy (if you live outside Europe you’ll definitely need to make your own arrangements, as the policy is only for UK and EU residents), but you do need to make sure that you’re covered for medical emergencies and repatriation. We also recommend that you are covered for other eventualities, such as cancellation and loss of luggage and passports.
  • Even in the event of a no-deal Brexit, it’s been confirmed that flights will continue as normal and that you won’t need a visa to go on holiday (the limit on stays is 90 days). What you will need if there’s no deal is a passport that is valid for at least 6 months beyond the date of your arrival (extra months added because you renewed your passport early do not count) and adequate travel insurance to cover you for accidents and illness in case reciprocal health deals are suspended. If you are driving while on holiday, you will probably need an International Driving Permit (plus a Green Card if you are taking your own car to Europe). More information >
  • The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) provides up-to-date, country-by-country travel advice, as well as information on security, local laws, passports and visas for UK citizens.
    If you live outside the UK, see our essential travel information page for a list of relevant websites.
Last fetch time is : 9/18/2019 1:21:07 PM