Your first long-distance trail? Ten trails beginners actually finish

Most people who dream about a long walk never start one, and a fair share of those who start give up in the first three days. Not because they were unfit. Because they picked the wrong trail for a first attempt, or carried too much, or found out on day two that the next bed was 30 kilometres away and the bus had left in May.

This is a list of trails where that does not happen so easily. Two of them I have walked end to end, one in part; the rest I researched the way I research every trail before it goes into the shop, which is thoroughly and with a grudge against vague numbers. Distances are rounded, and where the guidebooks disagree I say so or leave the figure out.

You do not have to walk any of these in one go. Most hikers I met on the long French and Spanish routes were walking a week or a fortnight at a time and coming back the next year for the next stretch. So for every trail below there is a first-week suggestion, with the town where you can get off.

Five questions to ask before you choose

Can someone carry your luggage? You will always carry a daypack with water, rain gear and the things you cannot do without. Everything else, the spare clothes and the overnight kit, can travel ahead in a big rucksack or a duffel if the trail has a baggage service. It is the single biggest difference between a hard week and a ruined one for a first-timer.

How well is the trail waymarked? A map and a GPS track are not optional on any of these. But a trail with paint flashes every two hundred metres lets you spend your attention on walking rather than navigating.

Where will you sleep and eat? Pilgrim hostels, inns and B&Bs every evening mean no tent, no stove, no food planning. Where that is not the case (the Kungsleden), the question becomes what the fallback is when your own plan fails.

Does the terrain forgive a bad day? Gradients, exposure, and how far it is to shelter when the weather turns. A trail that climbs 1,200 metres before lunch does not care that you slept badly.

Can you leave the trail if you have to? Towns with a railway station or a reliable bus. Blisters, a cold, a weather front, a homesick child at the other end of the phone: a trail with exits lets the plan bend instead of break.

Each trail below gets its five answers in one line, then the rest.

Camino Portugués (Portugal and Spain)

Luggage: yes, several services · Waymarks: yellow arrows, very good · Beds and food: every night · Terrain: gentle, a few hilly days in Galicia · Exits: Tui, Pontevedra, both on the railway

From Porto to Santiago de Compostela it is about 240 kilometres on the Central Route, roughly ten to twelve days; the Coastal Route is longer and flatter and spends a lot of time on boardwalks and promenades. Either way the infrastructure is the Camino's great gift to beginners: a bed and a menu del día at the end of every stage, pilgrims to walk with, and arrows at every junction.

The honest catch: the choice between the two routes confuses first-timers, and the first day out of Porto is a long walk through suburbs. Take the metro to the edge of the city and nobody will think less of you.

First week: Porto to Pontevedra, about six days, train back to Porto or on to Santiago.

To remember it by: Camino Portugués ornament or mug, on the Camino & Pilgrim Ways shelf.

Camino Inglés (Spain)

Luggage: yes · Waymarks: yellow arrows, good · Beds and food: every night · Terrain: rolling, two proper climbs · Exits: the whole trail is a week; Betanzos has a station

This is the short Camino: about 115 kilometres from Ferrol to Santiago, five or six days, and still long enough to earn the certificate at the end. It is the route medieval pilgrims took after landing by ship from England and Ireland, which is where the name comes from, and it is the one I point to when somebody says they want to walk the Camino Francés. The Francés is the famous one, and the fullest; the Inglés gives you the same arrival in Santiago in a single week, with a tenth of the crowd.

The honest catch: Ferrol is a naval port, and the first morning is not pretty. By the afternoon you are on the estuary and it stops mattering.

First week: this is a first week.

To remember it by: Camino Inglés ornament, on the Camino & Pilgrim Ways shelf.

Hadrian's Wall Path (England)

Luggage: yes, well organised · Waymarks: National Trail standard, excellent · Beds and food: every night, book ahead in summer · Terrain: flat at both ends, one rugged middle section · Exits: a seasonal bus runs the length of the central section

Eighty-four miles (about 135 kilometres) from Wallsend near Newcastle to Bowness-on-Solway, six or seven days coast to coast across the narrowest part of England, following the Roman wall where it still stands. The middle three days over the crags are the reason people come; the ends are green, flat and quietly agricultural.

The honest catch: those ends. Two days of fields on either side of the spectacle, and the eastern start is urban. Many walkers skip the first stage; the only price is the first of the seven passport stamps, which sit at Segedunum in Wallsend. Collect all seven between May and October and you can buy the completion certificate and badge.

First week: the whole trail, comfortably.

To remember it by: Hadrian's Wall Path ornament or mug, on the Rivers, Hills & History shelf.

West Highland Way (Scotland)

Luggage: yes, several carriers · Waymarks: thistle posts, very good · Beds and food: every night, scarce in a few places, book early · Terrain: moderate, one long exposed moor · Exits: Crianlarich, Bridge of Orchy and Fort William are on the railway

Ninety-six miles (about 154 kilometres) from Milngavie outside Glasgow to Fort William, seven or eight days along Loch Lomond, across Rannoch Moor to the edge of Glen Coe, then over the Devil's Staircase and two more days to Fort William. This was our first long-distance trail, and it rained for a lot of it. We learned in one week exactly which parts of our kit did not work, which is a thing you can only learn by being drenched for six hours. The luggage transfer saved the trip: whatever happened on the trail, dry clothes were waiting at the B&B.

The honest catch: the rain is not a rumour, the midges in summer are not either, and the stretch across Rannoch Moor has no exit for a long afternoon. Walk it anyway. It is the best introduction to Scotland there is.

First week: the whole trail.

To remember it by: West Highland Way ornament or mug, on the Rivers, Hills & History shelf.

Cotswold Way (England)

Luggage: yes · Waymarks: National Trail standard, excellent · Beds and food: every night, mostly in pretty and expensive villages · Terrain: more up and down than the postcards admit · Exits: buses to Stroud and Cheltenham from the villages along the escarpment

A hundred and two miles (about 164 kilometres) from Chipping Campden to Bath along the Cotswold escarpment, seven to ten days of honey-coloured villages, beech woods and views west across the Severn. It is the trail I would hand to somebody who wants England as it appears in films, with the full set of tea rooms and pubs.

The honest catch: the Cotswold Way follows the edge of the hills, and an edge means climbing up to it and dropping off it, repeatedly. Budget for more effort than the gentle reputation suggests, and for accommodation prices that match the postcards.

First week: Chipping Campden to Painswick, about six days, then a bus to Stroud for the train.

To remember it by: not in the shop yet. Until it is, a custom keepsake from your own photo and map.

Rota Vicentina: the Fishermen's Trail (Portugal)

Luggage: yes, arranged through guesthouses and local operators · Waymarks: green and blue stripes, very good · Beds and food: every night in fishing villages · Terrain: flat but sandy, which is harder than it sounds · Exits: coaches link the villages to Lisbon and the Algarve

The Fishermen's Trail runs along the Atlantic cliffs of the Alentejo and the Algarve, now all the way to Lagos, well over 200 kilometres in twelve or thirteen stages. The classic first stretch, and still the best, is Porto Covo to Odeceixe: about 75 kilometres in four days along cliff paths and beaches, with a different fishing village every evening.

The honest catch: sand. A twenty-kilometre day on soft sand feels like thirty on a forest track, and from June to September the heat on the exposed cliffs is a no-go. Spring and autumn are the seasons.

First week: Porto Covo to Odeceixe, four days, with a rest day in Vila Nova de Milfontes. The coach back to Lisbon leaves from Odeceixe.

To remember it by: Rota Vicentina Fishermen's Trail ornament or mug, on the Coastal Trails shelf.

Via Francigena, Lucca to Siena (Italy)

Luggage: yes, through tour operators rather than a single trail-wide service · Waymarks: good and improving · Beds and food: every night, hostels thinner than on the Camino · Terrain: rolling Tuscan hills, one or two long days · Exits: Lucca and Siena are on the railway, San Miniato in between

The Via Francigena is the pilgrim road from Canterbury to Rome, two thousand kilometres of it, and almost nobody walks it all. The Tuscan stretch from Lucca to Siena is a little over a week and contains the postcard: San Miniato, San Gimignano, Monteriggioni's circular walls, then Siena's Piazza del Campo at the end. Guidebooks give the distance anywhere between 115 and 135 kilometres depending on the variants they follow, so I will not pretend to a figure.

The honest catch: this is not the Camino. There are fewer pilgrims, fewer hostels, and from June the heat in the open hills is punishing with little shade. Go in May or late September and book your beds.

First week: Lucca to Siena is the week.

To remember it by: not in the shop yet. Until it is, a custom keepsake from your own photo and map.

Via Podiensis (France)

Luggage: yes, a well-established service covers the whole route · Waymarks: red and white stripes, excellent · Beds and food: every night in pilgrim gîtes, French helps · Terrain: hilly, two hard days early on · Exits: few between Le Puy and Aumont-Aubrac; Aumont-Aubrac has a station, Conques a bus to Rodez

The best-known French route to Santiago starts in Le Puy-en-Velay and runs about 750 kilometres to the Pyrenees, waymarked as GR 65 through the Massif Central and the Lot valley. My husband and I walked it end to end, and it is the trail where I understood what pilgrim routes are actually about: the people. The gîte owners who remembered everyone's name, the walkers from six countries at one table every evening, and the trail angels we met the day after Moissac, along the Canal de Garonne, handing out coffee and snacks, at a time when other villages had not yet even turned on the public taps for pilgrims to refill their bottles. On the Aubrac plateau we had the rare luck of walking through fields of wild daffodils; the year before, at the same date, the plateau had been under snow.

The honest catch: the first two days out of Le Puy are the hardest, the stages between stations are long, and the gîtes work best if you can order dinner in French. None of that stops beginners; it just rewards the ones who plan.

First week: Le Puy to Aumont-Aubrac is a solid first five days with a railway station at the end. If you have nine days, go on to Conques, which is the most beautiful arrival on the whole route, and take the bus down to Rodez.

To remember it by: not in the shop yet. Until it is, a custom keepsake from your own photo and map.

Kungsleden, Abisko to Nikkaluokta (Sweden)

Luggage: no · Waymarks: cairns and poles, good; boardwalks over the bogs · Beds and food: mountain huts a day apart, self-catering, with small shops; camping allowed outside the national park · Terrain: broad valleys, one pass, rough stony stretches · Exits: Abisko is on the railway, Nikkaluokta has a bus to Kiruna; in between, only the huts

This is the odd one out, and the reason it is here is exactly the reason it looks as if it should not be. The northern Kungsleden between Abisko and Nikkaluokta is about 105 kilometres, five to seven days above the Arctic Circle, with no villages, no restaurants and nobody to carry your bag. What it has instead is the most forgiving wilderness in Europe: a staffed mountain hut every day's walk, with bunks if the tent fails you and a small shop if your food calculation was wrong. That safety net is what makes it a first wilderness trail rather than a last one. Every August the Fjällräven Classic sends a few thousand people along this very stretch, many of them carrying a tent for the first time.

I walked the Kungsleden south from Abisko; the first days to Singi are the same ground, and I remember the scale of the valleys and how happy the mosquitoes are to see you.

The honest catch: you carry everything, the mosquitoes peak in July, and the weather can be November in August. Go in late August or early September, when the mosquitoes have hopefully gone and the huts are still open.

First week: this is a week.

To remember it by: not in the shop yet. Until it is, a custom keepsake from your own photo and map.

Coast to Coast Path (England)

Luggage: yes, several carriers · Waymarks: new National Trail signage since 2026, good · Beds and food: every night, book early · Terrain: demanding in the Lake District, gentle in the Vale of Mowbray, moorland at the end · Exits: Kirkby Stephen is on the railway, Richmond has buses, Robin Hood's Bay a bus to Whitby

A hundred and ninety miles (about 306 kilometres) from St Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea, through three national parks, twelve to sixteen days. Since 2026 it is an official National Trail, with proper signage for the first time in its fifty-year history, which removes the one thing that used to keep it off beginner lists.

The honest catch: the whole thing is not a first trail. The western half crosses the Lake District with long, steep, exposed days. The eastern half is a different walk: Kirkby Stephen to Robin Hood's Bay, about 100 miles in eight or nine days over the Pennines, through Swaledale and across the North York Moors. Walk that first. Come back for the Lakes when you know what your feet can do.

First week, or rather first nine days: Kirkby Stephen to Robin Hood's Bay.

To remember it by: Coast to Coast Path ornament, on the Rivers, Hills & History shelf.

Something to remember it by

Nobody needs a souvenir from their trail; the photos and the memories are already there. But if you want one in your everyday life, on the tree in December or in your hand with the morning coffee, this is what the shop does: for every trail that is in it, an ornament or a mug with a watercolor view of the route or your own trail photo on the front, and the route itself on the back. Six of the ten trails above are in the shop today; the others are on the list.

If your trail is not in the shop, I can create it as a custom keepsake from your photo and your map. That is a different piece of work and priced accordingly; how it works is at Custom Keepsakes.

And before you book anything: the questions that decide whether a week on a trail goes well are mostly not about the trail. They are about water, shops, beds and transport, and most beginners do not know to ask them. I wrote them down: Planning a one- to two-week hike: the questions to ask before you go.