England
Robin Hood's Bay
Red-roofed cottages tumbling so steeply to the sea even the alleyways need handrails.
The village pours down the cliff in a cascade of red-roofed cottages connected by lanes so narrow you can touch both walls at once. Robin Hood's Bay marks the end of Wainwright's Coast to Coast walk — 192 miles of England compressed into the moment your boots reach the sea.
The name has no proven connection to the outlaw, though local legend places him here as a fisherman dodging the Sheriff. What is proven is the smuggling: in the eighteenth century contraband moved from cellar to cellar through passages so efficient that a bale of silk could cross the village without touching the street. The rock platforms at low tide hold ammonites, belemnites and Jurassic fossils free for anyone to find — the geology spans nearly two hundred million years — and the old coastguard station at the top, kept now as a National Trust lookout, tells the story of a coastline that has already claimed rows of the original village. Coast to Coast finishers dip their boots in the North Sea and sign the walkers' book, a ritual as fixed as the tide.
Solo
For Coast to Coast walkers this is the emotional conclusion: boots in the North Sea, the walkers' book signed, and the quiet satisfaction of 192 miles behind you.
Couple
The walk down from the clifftop builds anticipation with every twist — find a window table at the bottom and watch the tide fill the bay while the village closes in around you.
Family
Low-tide rock pools are a free, self-guided museum of fossils and sea life — children find ammonites while parents drink tea above, a natural-history lesson disguised as the seaside.
- Lanes tangle down the cliff so narrowly that outstretched arms span them.
- Low tide bares ammonites and starfish in pools two hundred million years in the making.
- Wainwright's Coast to Coast ends here — boots dipped in the sea by tradition.
- Smugglers passed contraband cellar to cellar beneath the houses.
Lobster pot pie with sea spray visible through the window glass.
Rock-pool crabbing with the kids, then fresh chips carried to the slipway.
Puerto Deseado
Argentina
Tiny black-and-white dolphins spin through a flooded river canyon meeting the open sea.
Cape Agulhas
South Africa
Africa ends in low fynbos, shipwreck water and a red-striped lighthouse.
Chile Chico
Chile
Orchards and bright glacial water open onto Patagonia's Jeinimeni country.
Grasmere
England
Wordsworth's lake enclosed by fells, where the gingerbread recipe is kept in a bank vault.
Buttermere
England
A mirror lake ringed by fells so symmetrical the reflection is indistinguishable from the real.
Malvern Hills
England
Elgar's ridge, where spring water flows free from taps carved in the rock.
The New Forest
England
Wild ponies drift through ancient woodland where Norman kings once hunted deer.