Walking and hiking holidays

We have three types of walking holidays: self-guided, privately-guided and small group tours. The majority are self-guided, because this is why The Natural Adventure was founded really. To facilitate people who want to walk independently, from one accommodation to another. We share expertly-crafted walking itineraries, book the hotels or guesthouses en route, transfer your luggage so that it’s there for you when you arrive that evening, and have 24/7 local support if you need it. In short, we do all the organising, and you just have to do the walking. At your own pace, in a wonderful place.

As we grew, and our adventurers started walking far and wide, we realised that there were some trails where people valued the support of a daily guide. Which is why we now have a collection of small group, fully guided tours, as well as some privately-guided. On both of these, you can explore epic trails and just trek without thinking, wander without worrying and saunter along safely. The only difference is that, with privately-guided tours, you have an expert that’s exclusive to you and your walking companions. Examples of these are in Morocco, Bali and Bhutan.

Although the majority of our holidays are walking from one accommodation to the next, we have a growing collection of what we call centre-based walking holidays. Where you’re based in the same accommodation throughout the holiday. These are only possible in places where there are enough terrific trails on that accommodation’s doorstep, sometimes with a taxi transfer to a trailhead. So with no packing and unpacking every day, this gives you more time on the trails. So they’re a win win. Here are some of our favourites.

On the majority of our holidays, your overnight luggage is transferred on walking days to the next accommodation. We request that you keep this to one piece of luggage per person, and maximum weight 15kg. You will, of course, need a daypack, to carry your layers, water, picnic etc on your walks.

On some of our more remote walking holidays, there are locations along the way where it’s simply impossible for our drivers to access, but usually only for a night. This is the case on many of our hut-to-hut tours, where you stay in mountain huts, refuges or chalets. On these holidays, your luggage is usually transported to the next accommodation where delivery is possible, and so you need to carry a backpack with enough supplies for one or two nights. These holidays are in the minority, however, but they are also some of our most popular ones. Because who needs bags when you have the full-on adventure bug?

One of the other aims of our founders was to facilitate financially accessible walking holidays (and cycling now too) for people who want to delve a little deeper into nature and the local community. Lux? Not so much. We have locally-owned accommodation when possible, comfy beds and en-suite bathrooms are the norm, although mountain huts are a whole other ball game of course. 

We have walking holidays starting from under £300, and we are very clear on all our tour pages about what’s included and not included. What’s never included, however, is your transport to and from the holiday. Nor are most of the meals, with the exception of breakfast, although some tours are half-board. On some holidays there is an option to upgrade your hotels, and on others, there are In Comfort options, which have a few more trimmings, but where there is often the option for a standard version if you prefer. Such as this walking holiday in Málaga (standard version), or these Tour du Mont Blanc walking holidays.

Some of our adventures have a short window for walking, especially when at a high elevation, or when temperatures are just too hot. All of our walking holiday pages have a ‘When to go’ section on them, and we also have a collection of Best time to go blogs, in our leading walking holiday destinations. For the most part, it’s best to avoid peak season, although our walking holidays do take you off the main tourist trail of course and to avoid risks of overtourism. It’s also more sustainable to support destinations during less busy periods too of course.

Accommodation varies on our walking holidays, from mountain huts to small, locally-owned guesthouses, and four-star hotels or spa hotels. In general, they are carefully selected, based on a variety of criteria including their location, warm hospitality, fine local food or commitment to responsible tourism. All rooms, with a few exceptions such as mountain huts, have en-suite or private bathrooms. In short, our focus is on the walking trails, and trying to find beds that bring you as close as possible to those. Rather than trying to shoehorn trails around a chi-chi boutique hotel. We list daily accommodations on each of our tour pages, with photos of each and links to their websites too, for full transparency. As mentioned above, there are often options for upgrades, but not on all of our holidays.

We are all for keeping things analogue when it comes to maps and directions, especially on a holiday where you might be seeking to have a digital detox. However, technology is here to help if you want, and it’s very user-friendly and accessible too. The technology in question is in the form of GPS and GPX files, with more details below as to how these can be used on your walking and cycling holidays. If you’re a newbie and you were around to get this reference point, rest assured that you definitely don’t need to be Scully from the X-Files to get your head around our GPX files. Read more in our blog, Getting your head around GPS and GPX files.

We have local experts who support you via phone or WhatsApp 24/7 on our walking holidays. So, if you’re on a self-guided or solo walking holiday, it feels like there’s an invisible hand guiding you throughout. From the moment you engage one of our adventure specialists, you’ll see that no question is ever too stupid, especially when it comes to safety concerns. And when you get there, we have a local partner on the ground around the clock. 

We are all travellers at The Natural Adventure, and we recognise that people can feel vulnerable about all sorts of different aspects. But don’t worry – we hear you, and we’re here for you. And before you go on your holiday, we will send you all the contact details that you need while you’re there. We also advise reading this blog on Hiking safety tips for mountain landscapes, for other good tips.

Our walking holidays are all categorised with regards to their difficulty levels, or you can just click on the following links for a shortcut: Easy, Easy/Moderate, Moderate, Moderate/Strenuous, Strenuous. These guidelines feature on each tour page, and aim to give you a general idea of what to expect from your holiday in terms of daily distance and times of your walks. Of course, hiking times and distances vary according to the type of terrain and elevation changes. For example, a 10km easy hike may take 3h along a fairly flat route, but a 10km moderate hike over steeper terrain may take 5-6h. 

It’s always a good idea to read both our suggested times and distances on each tour. Please remember that these are only guidelines. The whole idea of a self-guided holiday is that you do things at your own pace. And, if there’s a day that you want to skip while you’re there, because you want to chill, it’s your holiday. You do you!

No one is going to force you to do anything on a walking holiday! This is your well earned break and so, you can always take a rest day. There are times when weather conditions mean that you have to skip a walk anyway, and then you take the transfer to your next spot with your luggage. When you’re booking the holiday, we can nearly always build a rest day into the itinerary and, in many of our more strenuous holidays, they are automatically built in anyway. With guided, small group holidays, you just need to chat with your guide to organise a transfer, if you feel like skipping a day, but everything is possible.

Of course, and as many families embrace slow travel in their plans, we have some bespoke family holidays. However, many of these holidays mix things up a bit, with one day of walking, followed by a day kayaking or something like that. In addition to these bespoke holidays, it’s worth checking out our easy/moderate level walking, to see if they appeal to all family members. And if you have older teens who have walking experience, you may want to explore more moderate level hiking holidays. Our adventure specialists are here to cater for your needs, and we can often adapt a day’s itinerary if you think it’s going to be too hard or too easy. For more information, see our blog on family adventure holidays.

You most certainly can and indeed escaping on your own can feel like a spa for the mind, body and soul. We have a wide array of holidays that are suitable for our solo travellers and, like all of our holidays, we provide 24/7 support on the ground, a carefully crafted itinerary that guides you safely throughout your journey, and welcoming hosts to greet you at the end of the day. Please do remember, however, that a supplement will be charged as the cost of rooms and also luggage or private transfers (when applicable) is not shared. 

Whether you’re an epic-seeking empty nester or a solo parent travelling with a baby on your front and a pack on your back, we have something for everyone seeking a solo sojourn. You may also enjoy the following blogs: Our top holidays for solo travel, Overcoming your fear of solo travel and Solo travel at Christmas, Hiking the Calanques solo and Solo walking in the Lake District.

We aim to make as many of our hiking holidays as possible work for adventurers who love to travel with their canine companions. Which is why we have a growing number of dog-friendly holidays, whether you want to adventure in Andorra with your adored one, bring Rover on the Rheinsteig or explore Via Francigena with your favourite companion. You may also enjoy our blog, Top dog-friendly trips.

Of course, this depends on the country or region that you are visiting but, as with most of our adventures, you may be exploring remote terrain where weather conditions may be unpredictable. For that reason, we have some detailed blogs on packing, which may be of help: What to pack for a hiking trip and Camino de Santiago packing list. When you book, we will also send you a recommended packing list to suit the place you are walking.

Our holiday pages list all the items that are included or not included in the price of your walking holiday. Breakfasts, luggage transfers and some taxis to and from airports or train stations are included too. So, you need to budget for lunches and dinners, although some holidays also offer half board options, especially in remote areas, such as on this Finnish adventure, Walking in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, or our Tour du Mont Blanc circuit. 

On the Camino de Santiago you often get pilgrim discounts along the way, where you can get, on average, a three course dinner, including wine, for about €14-18 per person. With other holidays, it will depend on the country you’re travelling in, of course. So do read our tour pages carefully to see what’s included and what isn’t. On our guided holidays, we also recommend tipping your guide at the end of the holiday. Read more in our Guide to tipping around the world.

There are too many to list really, and also it depends on whether you’re talking about for you as guests, or for local people in our host countries. For our adventurers, walking holidays are a way to switch off from the world, practise mindfulness, take time to bond with friends and loved ones, or just have some precious time to yourself. They are a great way to stay fit, while immersing yourself in new landscapes and local cultures. For many, they also help you, literally, step out of your comfort zone. 

With regards to our hosts, responsible tourism has been at the heart of what we do since the get go, and we aim to respect and work with the main pillars of responsible tourism on all our holidays. We call these pillars the four Ps of people, profit, place and philanthropy – and we walk the talk whenever we can. You can read more here, but we also have a bevy of blogs on the subject to show ways in which you can also support this ethos of doing the right thing by your host nations on your travels. It’s fundamental that we support the stewards of precious places where we walk, by putting money into the destination and respecting and supporting local people while we’re there.