Whilst only covering a small area in comparison to many other Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, The Malvern Hills are not to be overlooked. If you are staying in Great Malvern like we did, the hike up to the hill summit known as the Worcestershire Beacon is a steep but fairly short hike of around 50 minutes. From here you will be treated to views for miles across the rolling landscape and little villages nestled into the side of the hills.

The Malvern Hills form the nine mile spine of the Malverns, with the town of Great Malvern on the north eastern flank, the village of West Malvern looking west across Herefordshire towards Wales, and Malvern Wells / Little Malvern to the south east. The hills comprise of 15,000km of footpaths and 300km of bridleways so there is plenty to explore whilst you are here.

To explore as much of the hills as possible, we rented mountain bikes from town. Getting to the top is hard work but 100% worth it once you're up there and free to explore. See our 'Mountain biking in the Malvern Hills' post for more info on this.

Top Tip:

If the weather is looking nice, plan your trip around sunset. Whilst this is probably the busiest time, there is plenty of space so that it doesn't feel crowded and the views are spectacular. What's more, you may get treated to a show as paragliders fill the sky, making for quite an incredible scene across the glowing landscape.