Walkers heading up Conwy Mountain on the waymarked official Wales Coast Path, in North Wales

Tony Bowerman has some top tips on when to walk the Wales Coast Path

BRITAIN’S MAIN WALKING SEASON runs from Easter to the end of September. Although the Wales Coast Path is delightful throughout the year, the best walking weather tends to be in late spring as well as early and late summer.

Early summer is ideal for walking

Although the Easter holiday is busy, spring is otherwise a quiet time of year. The days are lengthening and the weather getting steadily warmer. Migrant birds and basking sharks are returning to Wales from farther south. The weather is also likely to be dry.

Early summer is ideal for walking. May and June enjoy the greatest number of sunshine hours per day (the average for May is 225 hours, and for June 210 hours) and the lowest rainfall of the year (average for May is 50mm, June is 51mm). You’ll also have the accompaniment of a spectacular array of spring flowers and the chance to see breeding sea birds at their best.

Spring is a quiet time of year. The days are lengthening and the weather getting steadily warmer…

10 – 15 miles a day?

You should also allow extra time for the unexpected, to rest or to hole up in bad weather. As a rule of thumb, it’s better to be ahead of schedule, with time to enjoy the experience, rather than always having to push ahead to reach the next overnight stop.

The Official Guidebooks in this series break the path down into seven main sections, each of which is then sub-divided into carefully-planned ‘Day Sections’ — usually averaging around 10-15 miles each. These typically start and finish either in, or near easy-to-reach towns, villages or settlements, many of them on bus routes, and with shops, pubs, restaurants, cafés and places to stay nearby.

No matter how long it takes, walking the whole of the Wales Coast Path is a real achievement. For most of us, it would be the walk of a lifetime.