Happy trails!
TAKE HOLIDAY 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 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
Hear the crack, crack of ever-shifting glaciers, whose crackles and snaps are carried on the wind across bright blue Lake Louise on this trail which 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.
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. There are more than 100 types of butterflies, over 375 species of birds and at least 8,000 types of creepy-crawly.
There’s a good chance of spotting scarlet macaws, squirrel monkeys, Baird’s tapirs and maybe even a jaguar in the park’s dense rainforest and along its black-sand beaches, where palm trees reach out to the frothy surf.
FIFE COASTAL PATH Kincardine to Newburgh, Scotland
The peninsular region of Fife juts out into the wild North Sea. 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. As you head north along glorious golden beaches, you pass 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 before arriving at the ancient town of Newburgh.
LEVADA DAS 25 FONTES Rabacal, Madeira, Portugal
The volcanic island of Madeira has a subtropical climate with year-round sunshine. 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 hills.
OTTER TRAIL Storms River to Nature’s Valley, South Africa
Hugging a 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 set off, with a stroll across the 253ft-long suspension bridge that spans the mighty mouth of Storms River. You can pretty much bank on seeing seals and dolphins while migrating whales join in between June and October.
■ Extracted by Jane Memmler from Hike: Adventures on Foot (DK Eyewitness), £20