Brilliant benefits of a walking holiday

You’ll bring home more than just happy snaps and souvenirs, as founder of Wild Women On Top, Di Westaway, explains. Her company creates life-changing hiking adventures for women.

Improved physical health. Walking holidays ignite your desire to be fitter and healthier in a really compelling way. Usually, when you’re walking with a group, you don’t want to let the team down, to be the weakest link, which inspires you to train beforehand, hopefully integrating physical activity into your daily life.

Spending time in nature. Japan coined the term “forest bathing” for walking slowly through nature, and studies around the subject find it really has deep benefits for you. As a bonus, when people start to value nature, they are more likely to preserve and protect it.

Meditative element. Not all hikes are meditative. However, some, like the Kumano Kodo and the Camino, were very deliberately designed to create time to clear your head and sift and sort through the bigger problems in life.

Great sleep. In our daily lives, we’re tired but wired. But after a full day’s hiking, you sleep like a log. I always ask before a trek for a show of hands if you snore. Of course, nobody puts their hand up but, when you do hike, you really are tired! If you need more sleep, go on a hiking holiday.

That great sense of accomplishment.

Finishing a trek that takes you outside your comfort zone is a confidence-building exercise. It might be really arduous at high altitude, with plenty of “OMG, what was I thinking?” moments, but that exhilaration and achievement afterwards is a huge personal lift. Visit wildwomenontop.com.