Looked for a hiking thread but we don’t seem to have one specifically for it so have created this one for people to post their views/suggestions/plans etc for hiking trips.
Can be short hikes or multi-day hikes. What gear/shoes/clothing is best for the area given weather constraints etc.
I find that I really value getting out of the office and into nature for hikes as I get older, so have been doing a lot more hiking in UK & Brazil over the last year or so.
Just completed a short one here in Brazil at the Ibiti Project near Rio in Brazil which was quite nice (about 10k). My wife and daughter came with me (with a guide) and they also completed it (I was quite impressed that our daughter lasted for the 10k. Quite the stamina for a 6 year old).
Plans for UK hikes over 2026 (if time and life stuff allows)
• West Highland Way (Scotland 7 day hike) • Hebridean Way (Scotland: Outer Hebrides 7-10 day hike)
Nothing too crazy in terms of pace (10-20k/day tops) and will be using small hotels and B&Bs to stay overnight. I also use AllTrails to track my hikes.
I recently spent some time in the Cinque Terre in Italy. There are several trails around the area with various lengths/difficulty. I picked one if the towns and found an Airbnb, then did a bunch of day hikes.
Most of the trails start/end in a small town on the rail line. There was 1 longer hike I did where I had to make sure I finished in time because there was no train, only a ferry.
For West Highland Way (WHW), they do have companies that carry your luggage from point to point along the trail if that is what you need (vs carrying your own gear). Probably the most popular of the Scottish multi-day hikes at this point so the infrastructure supporting it is quite good.
For the Hebridean way, I have not heard of a company that does this yet (maybe a local outfit can do this for someone for a fee but it would be on an ad hoc basis) The Islands are quite remote, so you usually get a lot less people doing it.
I have not done a multi-day hike, but have been enjoying the ~20km or so day hikes retuning back to the start. The UK is a great place for this with many of the mountains perfect to climb up and back, many with multiple paths to the top so you can often create a nice loop to avoid doubling back.
Good waterproof hiking boots are a must. I would also recommend getting a set of poles - they will help you save your knees on any steeper descents where you will otherwise use your ligaments to slow down your pace. They are also good insurance on slipping over wet rocks and other obstacles. Nothing worse than just losing a slight bit of your footing and pulling some random muscle in your back that makes life miserable for a week. And it can get worse from there.
I see WHW ends at Ft. William - are you planning to go up Ben Nevis? The views at the top are great, but perhaps nothing unique for Scotland. The tourist route to the top is an unremarkable slug.
I’m a long-time lurker (since the old AO), but a first time poster as I really love hiking and have lots of thoughts.
I’d highly recommend checking out Cassandra Overby’s books. With the little one, you might prefer “Home Base Hiking”, but my husband and I just did King Ludwig’s Way in September and are planning to do part of the Alsace Wine Route next fall based on her book “Explore Europe on Foot”. She suggests using Gaia GPS which we did for our Germany trip and it worked out really well.
“Explore Europe on Foot” gives lots of suggestions for packing and prepping, so rather than bore you with details, I’ll just continue to plug her book. I will say that my husband and I are light packers and took no more than 20L of luggage apiece for our 10 day trip, 5 of which was hiking the roughly 75 miles between Starnberg and Fussen; the rest of the trip was travel days and exploring Munich including Oktoberfest (we did not dress in traditional costume, as you might imagine based on our packing).
I just hiked to Franklin Falls (in the Cascade Mountains, near Snoqualmie Pass). It’s a shorter hike in the summer, but the access road is closed in the winter, so it was about 7 miles today. There was snow on the trail, but it was packed down, so microspikes were sufficient.
I find that 10-12 miles, 16-20km is a good distance for a day hike. I’ve done a few that are closer to 18 miles, but those just feel brutal for the last hour, especially on my feet with the uneven paths and rocks. Maybe i need better hiking boots.
Agree on the distance. There was another section of the hike that could have added another 5k or so, but that would have been a bit too much (my feet were already suffering a bit as I had to walk on rocks/uneven ground for quite some time).
Wasn’t able to grab a quick bite either at the National Trust Cafe (Seven Sisters and Birling Gap) because of the crowds, so I pushed on instead of taking a break for a bit of food.
I’ll get sharp stabby pains in my feet due to nerve inflammation. Its usually fine on dirt trails and taking a 5 minute break will give me a bit of relief for maybe 20-30 minutes, but stepping on the smallest of rocks across an uneven surface at the end of a long hike will give me a good 8/10 shooting pain through the middle of my foot. Give me 12 miles and 4k-5k feet of elevation - no problem other than that.
Well, as long as there is not significant exposure - not a fan of that either. I have found that to be much more common on trails in the UK than in the US. Your tree line is very low compared to the lower 48.
I am also a fan of hiking. I have knee issues. If you do, I highly recommend getting some hiking poles. It takes a great deal of strain off your knees, and are also very helpful if there are any traction issues on the trail.
I do mostly day hikes. The only multi-day hikes I’ve done were hut hiking in Europe, and that’s a great way to do it. You get meals and a bed there, so you can travel super light. Sometimes you can even get a shower.
I have started researching these (I have seen people use some collapsible ones you can travel with) as while I don’t have knee issues, I definitely feel more joint pressure now that I’m older (specially going downhill).
