Dales Way accommodation: map and where to stay each night
There are 357 places to stay within 1.2 miles of the 82-mile Dales Way, 30 of them campsites. This guide orders them stage by stage, with how far each one sits from the trail, contact details and reviews.
First decision
When to book
No fixed booking date. The villages are small, so summer weekends go early.
Book when your dates are set. May to September is the busy part, and the limit is the size of the villages rather than the number of walkers: Dent and Cowgill between them have very few beds.
Prices and season dates checked September 2026. Confirm with the operator before booking.
Oughtershaw (stage 3, 3 places), Cowgill (stage 4, 2 places) have the fewest beds on this route, so book those first and fit the rest of the walk around them.
The gap that shapes the trip
The longest stretch without a bed
5.8 miles, between Oughtershaw and Cowgill. Nothing in that stretch is within 1.2 miles of the path, so it is the section that decides how you split the walk.
Night by night
Where to stay at each stop
Stops follow Traileasy's 7-Day Dales Way, which splits the walk into 7 days. Most walkers take 5 to 7, and the overnight towns change with the split.
Night 3 · from Kettlewell· 10.9 miles
Oughtershaw
Only 3 places here, and the next bed is 5.8 miles further on. Book this one first, or plan to stop short of it.
Night 4 · from Oughtershaw· 11.8 miles
Only 2 places here, and the next bed is 2.7 miles further on. Book this one first, or plan to stop short of it.
Ewegales Farm Campsite
Campsite · on the trail
Night 6 · from Sedbergh· 12.6 miles
Local rules
Camping on the Dales Way
5 of the 6 overnight stops have a campsite within 1.2 miles of the path: Barden, Kettlewell, Cowgill, Sedbergh and Burneside.
England gives you no right to wild camp, and the Dales Way spends almost all of its length on enclosed farmland in a valley, so the tolerance that exists high on the fells does not apply here. Camping means campsites.
They are spread unevenly. The stretch above Dent and through Langstrothdale is the part to plan around rather than improvise.
Carrying less
Baggage transfer
Well served by baggage carriers, and the route is short enough to do without one.
Sherpa Van and Brigantes both cover the Dales Way. At six walking days it is one of the few routes here where carrying everything is a reasonable choice, so the transfer is a comfort rather than a necessity.
Prices and season dates checked September 2026. Confirm with the operator before booking.
Method
How this list is put together
We list published stays within 1.2 miles of the route that have a website or a phone number, and are not permanently closed. Distances are measured from the trail itself, not from the village centre.
Each night leads with the stay our itinerary uses, then any stay we have picked out for that stop, then the places at the stop itself, then the rated ones by review count. The rest of that night's options follow.
Ratings and review counts come from public data and were current when this page was last built.
A further 86 stays sit beyond the last overnight stop, at the finish or on the walk out. They are useful if you split the walk differently.