WORLDWIDE · ON FOOT
Great trails, guided right, everywhere.
Glacier tongues in Iceland, volcano summits in Bali, levada paths in Madeira, the canyons of the American West and the gorges of Crete. The world's best day hikes and treks, with the guides who run them.
Only here
Three hikes you can't take anywhere else.
Waterfalls and ridgelines exist on every continent. Walking onto live lava, the blue fire of a sulphur crater at 3am, and a path cut into a cliff to carry water belong to three places alone.
Ice and fire
Glacier Walks & Eruption Hikes
Nowhere else lets you crampon across a glacier tongue in the morning and walk out over a still-warm lava field in the afternoon. On Solheimajokull and Vatnajokull you rope up and step onto blue ice riddled with crevasses and moulins; at the Reykjanes eruption sites you hike to ground that was molten rock a season ago. Iceland is the one country where the trail crosses both at once.
- 1 Skaftafell: Ice Cave Tour and Glacier Hike
- 2 Skaftafell: Falljokull Glacier Easy Group Hike
- 3 Reykjavik: Glacier Hike, Waterfalls and Black Sand Beach
Fire before dawn
Ijen & Batur by Night
You start these climbs in the dark for a reason. On Ijen in East Java, sulphur burns electric blue at the crater rim, a flame you can only see before sunrise. On Bali's Mount Batur, you reach the rim of an active volcano just as the sun lifts over Agung and Lombok and the cloud sea catches fire below.
- 1 Bali: Mount Batur Sunrise Guided Hike and Natural Hot Spring
- 2 Bali: Sunrise Mount Batur Hike with Breakfast
- 3 Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring Option
Trails on the water
The Madeira Levadas
Madeira is laced with 2,500 kilometres of levadas, narrow irrigation channels hand-cut into the cliffs over five centuries to carry water across the island. The maintenance paths beside them are now some of the most extraordinary walking on earth, contouring through laurel forest and along sheer drops to the 25 Fontes springs and the peaks at Pico Ruivo.
- 1 Funchal: Pico do Arieiro Sunrise Transfer Self-guided Hike
- 2 Madeira: Pico Arieiro to Pico Ruivo Hike
- 3 Funchal: Pico do Arieiro & Pico Ruivo Hiking Transfer
Start here
The most-walked trail of them all.
Across every region we cover, more hikers book this one than anything else. A safe first pick if you're still deciding where to point your boots.
The classics
The World's Most Popular Hikes
Ouzoud Falls, the Samaria gorge, Etna's craters, the Iceland glaciers. The trails the most hikers book, gathered in one place.
Where to begin
The regions a hiking trip is built around.
Iceland's ice and lava, the Madeira levadas, the High Atlas, the American national parks, Etna's craters and the Canary Island peaks. The handful of places worth flying for, and the best trail in each.
The Iceland question
Glacier, volcano, or both?
Iceland is the one place a single day can put you on a glacier and over fresh lava. Which you choose depends on the season, the road conditions and whether the ground is currently erupting. Three ways to walk the island.
The High Atlas
Two hours from Marrakech, another world.
The road climbs out of the red city into Berber country: terraced villages, mule tracks and the snow-capped wall of the High Atlas. Day-walk the Ourika valley to its waterfalls, or push two days up to Toubkal, North Africa’s highest summit, with a night in a mountain refuge and mint tea at every stop.
Read the guide: the best Atlas Mountains hikes →Trails to falling water
The walk is half the reward.
A waterfall hike is the easiest way into the mountains and often the prettiest: the Ouzoud cascades through Berber country, Skogafoss and the trail up its staircase of falls, the Ourika valley after the spring melt. Mostly half-day, mostly gentle, always pointed at the moment the trees open and you hear it before you see it.
See the best waterfall hikes →Above the cloud line
The view you have to walk for.
Some places only open up on foot. The blue of a glacier where the ice is hundreds of years deep, the crater rim at first light, the moment the trail tops out and the whole valley falls away below. No road reaches them. That last hour of climbing is the price, and it has never once been too high.
Walk on the glaciers →Volcano hikes
Climb something that's still alive.
There is nothing else like standing on a working volcano. Etna vents steam beside the path to its summit craters, Batur and Ijen are climbed in the dark for the sunrise and the blue fire, and the Central American cones glow against the night. Always with a guide who reads the mountain and knows when to turn around.
- 1 Mount Etna: Guided Volcano Summit Hiking Tour with Cable Car
- 2 Etna Volcano: South Side Guided Summit Hike
- 3 From Antigua: Adventure, 2-Day Hiking to Acatenango Volcano
By effort
How hard a day do you want?
Every trail here is graded by what the day actually asks of your legs. A gentle few hours, one long satisfying push, or thin air and an alpine start. Pick the level, then pick the place.
Gentle half-day
Easy trail, big payoff.A Madeira levada contouring the cliff to the 25 Fontes springs, the Ourika valley up to its cascades, the rim walk above Skogafoss. A few level hours and a view that feels earned.
Full day on foot
A proper day, back by dark.The Samaria gorge end to end, the Caminito del Rey pinned to the canyon wall, Table Mountain up the back of Platteklip. One long, satisfying day and a hot meal at the bottom.
High-altitude climb
The summit push.Toubkal from Imlil with a refuge night, Mount Batur in the dark for the sunrise, Etna to the live summit craters. Thin air, an alpine start and the top of something that matters.
First and last light
Set off in the dark. Top out as it breaks.
The best light of the day is worth losing the sleep for. Lion's Head above Cape Town at dawn, Haleakala as the sun clears the crater rim, Batur the moment the cloud sea below catches fire. A head-torch, an early alarm, and a summit to yourself before the heat and the crowds arrive.
See all 19 sunrise & sunset hikes →By region
Pick a corner of the hiking world.
Iceland for ice and lava. Morocco for the High Atlas. Indonesia for the dawn volcanoes. Madeira for the levadas. The US parks for the canyons. Greece for the gorges.
By terrain
Pick the ground underfoot.
Glacier ice if you want crampons. A volcano if you want a summit. A gorge if you want walls on both sides. Waterfalls, sunrise climbs, national-park trails and the rest.
When to go
The hiking year.
Somewhere is always in season. Chase the good weather around the calendar instead of waiting for it to come to you.
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