Which hike is worth the four in the morning alarm. And which one is a coach trip with a footpath.
What the Mount Batur sunrise really costs once the hot spring is added. Whether Antelope Canyon can be walked without a guide. Reviews of the hikes and day walks you can book, wherever you are headed.
Most booked right now
Ouzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat Trip
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · from $17
Four walks that make people book a flight.
A waterfall canyon in the Atlas, a volcano rim at first light, a slot canyon in Arizona and blue ice under Vatnajokull. What each one costs, and what the people who walked it said.
01The Atlas dayOuzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat TripA cliff path down beside the falls, a punt across the pool at the bottom, then lunch in the shade. Three hours out of Marrakech each way.
02The 4am startSunrise Mount Batur Guided Hike with BreakfastHotel pickup at two, the crater rim for first light, breakfast cooked over a steam vent. The ridge does get busy, so take the earliest van.
03The canyon hourLower Antelope Canyon Hiking TourSteel ladders down into a slot barely shoulder wide, with the light beams overhead around midday. Navajo land, so the guide is not optional.
04The ice dayIce Cave Tour and Glacier HikeCrampons on, up the tongue of Vatnajokull, then inside a cave the meltwater carved last winter. Winter only, and the cave is different every year.
An American hiking day, from slot canyon to sequoia.
Zion and Antelope Canyon are guide-and-permit country. Yosemite is a long coach day out of San Francisco. Hawaii is a crater before breakfast. Four kinds of day, and what each one starts at per person.
Summits you can walk up between breakfast and lunch.
No ropes, no fixed lines, and a rim you reach before the cloud does. Etna by cable car and 4x4, Batur in the dark, Teide on a permit, Lion’s Head in ninety minutes flat.
Six countries that hand you a trail on the first morning.
Slot canyons and sequoias, Canary volcanoes and a walkway bolted into a gorge, glacier tongues, crater rims before dawn, Himalayan tea houses, and Atlas passes above the Berber villages.
The rim at first light, and the ground still warm underfoot.
Batur before dawn with breakfast steamed over a vent. Etna to three thousand metres by cable car and 4x4. Stromboli at sunset, watching the Sciara del Fuoco throw sparks into the sea. Volcano days are the walks where the forecast decides everything.
The hikes more people book than anything else.
Every hike on the site →The trails at the top of everybody else’s list, and the thing that earns each of them the slot.
1
Ouzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat Trip
Review the Ouzoud Waterfalls day trip from Marrakech, with guided hiking, a boat ride, monkeys, Berber culture, and practical tips.
From · $17
Read our review →
2
Berber villages : Atlas Mountains Day Hike from Marrakech
from $15
3
Sunrise Mount Batur Guided Hike with Breakfast
from $27
4
Mount Batur Sunrise Guided Hike and Natural Hot Spring
from $36
5
Cinque Terre Day Trip with Optional Hiking or Pisa
from $66
6
Atlas Mountains Full-Day Hiking Trip w Lunch
from $26
7
Ourika Valley Trip with Waterfall Hike
from $14
8
Lower Antelope Canyon Hiking Tour
from $94
What a hiking day asks of you before it sells you a ticket.
Altitude is the one nobody plans for. Kilimanjaro and Base Camp need days of acclimatising built into the itinerary; Batur at 1,717 metres does not. Slot canyons on Navajo land are guide-only by law. Glacier tongues mean crampons, a harness and a rope team. Samaria and the Madeira levadas shut when rain makes them dangerous. Read the small print about the descent, not the summit.
What a day on the trail actually costs.
Every hike here, grouped by price. A good number of the best walking days come in under the price of the taxi to the trailhead.
Half-day gorge walks, city ridge sunrises, levada transfers and the Batur dawn run.
Full days out: Yosemite from San Francisco, Etna to the summit craters, glacier walks with the gear thrown in.
Private guides, multi-day treks, and the base-camp trips that take a fortnight.
- 1Yosemite National Park & Giant Sequoias Hikefrom $219
- 2Ice Cave Tour and Glacier Hikefrom $165
- 3Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Daysfrom $1,800
Three footpaths with no equivalent anywhere.
Ridges and waterfalls are everywhere. A footpath to the foot of Everest, a maintenance track beside an irrigation channel cut into a cliff, and a flat-topped mountain with a cable car off the summit are not.
Everest Base Camp
The walk in from Lukla climbs to 5,364 metres over roughly a fortnight, with rest days built in so your blood has time to catch up. Nobody summits anything. What you get is the Khumbu icefall at the end of it, the Sherpa villages on the way up, and a flight home off the most alarmingly sited airstrip you will ever use.
- 1Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Days★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,499 reviews
- 2Everest Base Camp Trek★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 842 reviews
- 3Everest Base Camp Trekking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 485 reviews
The Levadas
Portuguese settlers cut channels into Madeira’s cliffs to move water from the wet north of the island to the dry south, and left a maintenance path running beside each one. Walking a levada is therefore flat, long, and occasionally terrifying: a drop on one side, a rock wall on the other, and a tunnel every so often that wants a head torch.
- 1Rabaçal: 25 Fontes & Risco Levada Hiking Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,670 reviews
- 2Levada Caldeirao Verde Hiking Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,071 reviews
- 3PR 9 – Levada do Caldeirão Verde Hike Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 620 reviews
Table Mountain
Platteklip Gorge goes straight up the front of the mountain in about three hours of continuous stone steps, and the cable car brings you down in five minutes for the price of a coffee. The southeaster piles cloud over the top most summer afternoons, which is exactly when the car stops running and the walk down starts.
- 1Lion’s Head Sunrise or Sunset Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,084 reviews
- 2Lion’s Head Sunrise/Sunset Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 921 reviews
- 3Table Mountain Hike with an Expert Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 666 reviews
Four walks that will not wait for you to arrive.
Most walking can be arranged the night before, over dinner. These four run on permits, daily quotas, narrow seasons and airstrip timetables that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 013 Days gorilla trekking Safari tour in UgandaRwanda and Uganda cap the permits sold per gorilla family per day, and high-season dates go months ahead.
- 02Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 DaysThe Lukla flight is weather-dependent and the trekking windows are narrow: roughly March to May, then October into November.
- 038-Day Small-group Lemosho Kilimanjaro Summit TrekkingPark fees are charged per day on the mountain and built into the price, so the route is fixed when you book rather than when you show up.
- 04Lower Antelope Canyon Hiking TourLower Antelope sits on Navajo land and entry is by permitted guide only, in timed groups. The midday slots, the ones with the light beams, go first.
The best walk of a city trip usually starts with a minibus.
Tirana runs vans up to a reservoir under Gamti Mountain. Seville and Malaga both reach the Caminito del Rey, a metre-wide walkway bolted a hundred metres up a gorge. Chiang Mai gets you to Doi Inthanon and a waterfall before lunch.
Every guided day hike →
By kind of walking day
Six trekking regions, and how many days each one wants.
Tanzania
PeruThe newest hiking reviews.
Everything else that just landed →
From Kanab: 3-Hour Peek-a-Boo Slot Canyon Hiking/Photo Tour
Read our review →
From Jökulsárlón: Vatnajökull Easy Level Glacier Hike
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From Kalkan: Saklikent Gorge and Gizlikent Waterfall Trek
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From Kalamata: Polylimnio Waterfalls Guided Hiking Tour
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From Jujuy: Salinas Grandes, Purmamarca & Los Colorados Hike
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From Kalabaka: Authentic Meteora Hiking Tour – Local Agency
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Ninh Binh Boat Ride, Mua Cave Hike, Temple Visit
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Sapa Trekking 2 Days 1 Night – Sleeper Bus from Hanoi
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