At one with nature
Take inspiration from five of the world’s top hikes
Can you beat the satisfaction of travelling on foot? Settling into a steady rhythm, surrounded by incredible scenery, with the freedom to stop wherever takes your fancy.
Compiled by a team of eager outdoor enthusiasts, Hike: Adventures on Foot, features 125 spectacular walking trails across the globe. Here are our top five...
Plain Of Six Glaciers Trail Banff National Park, Canada
Crack. Crack. The sound coming along the trail ahead isn’t the noise of hiker boots scuffing over rocks and boulders. No, it’s the sound of ever-shifting glaciers, whose crackles and snaps are carried on the wind across bright blue Lake Louise.
The trail takes in the ice tongues, point-perfect peaks and polar-blue lakes of Banff National Park. It starts with an easy lakeside stroll then shifts up a gear ascending past a log cabin teahouse into a natural mountain amphitheatre.
The glacier views are immense, as is the panorama over a landscape of ice and rock from Abbot Pass Viewpoint.
Corcovado National Park La Leona to Sirena, Costa Rica
Rugged and remote, the lush Corcovado National Park stretches across the southern section of the Osa Peninsula. National Geographic called it “the most biologically intense place on Earth”. There are more than 100 types of butterflies, over 375 species of birds and at least 8,000 types of creepy-crawly.
It’s hot and much of the trail is on energy-sapping sand, but there’s a good chance of spotting the most hard-to-see inhabitants here – scarlet macaws, squirrel monkeys, Baird’s tapirs and maybe even a jaguar.
This cornucopia of wildlife swoops, swings and stalks its way through the park’s dense rainforest and along its black-sand beaches, where palm trees laden with coconuts reach out from the forest fringes for the frothy surf.
Fife Coastal Path Kincardine to Newburgh, Scotland
The peninsular region of Fife juts out into the wild North Sea. This walk along the coastline is full of variety, from rugged rocky remoteness to thriving towns and villages.
Setting off from Kincardine, the trail wends its way along the edge of the
Firth of Forth. At Torry Bay, large flocks of wading birds can be seen on the artificial lagoons. The wild ruggedness only increases as you approach Fife’s easternmost point where rough, narrow paths will challenge your footwork.
Things ease as you head north along glorious golden beaches passing puzzling geological formations such as the pink sandstone Buddo Rock, and the Rock and Spindle, as well as St Andrews, the home of golf.
On the final stretch, you’ll pass through fields and pine woods with the mighty Tay narrowing westwards, before arriving at the ancient town of Newburgh.
Levada das 25 Fontes Rabacal, Madeira, Portugal
The volcanic island of Madeira has a near-perfect subtropical climate with year-round sunshine and verdant forests blanketing its mountainous interior. The Portuguese isle is also the land of the levada – a complex irrigation system that channels water from the upper mountain slopes to the parched lowlands.
Hiking along these levadas is one of the best ways to experience the island’s beauty. This path follows a moss-covered stone channel from the 1800s, passing through tunnel-like clusters of high-altitude heathers and dense forest, before skirting along wildflower-fringed ledges and down fern-covered hillsides.
It ends at a tiny emerald-hued lagoon, fed by tricking waterfalls.
Otter Trail Storms River to Nature’s Valley, South Africa
Hugging a wonderfully wild stretch of South African coast known as the Garden Route, the Otter trail allows only 12 walkers on the 23-mile route each day.
The adventure begins before you even set off, with a stroll across the 253ft-long suspension bridge that spans the mighty mouth of Storms River.
Steep inclines, rocky scrambles, several river crossings and possible rain year-round mean the Trail is far from a casual undertaking.
Opportunities along the way include ocean and waterfall swims, photographing rare blooms and dramatic seascapes, and spotting myriad marine life. You can pretty much bank on seeing seals and dolphins too. Migrating whales join in between June and October.