Planning a one- to two-week hike: the questions to ask before you go

These are the questions, not the answers. The answers depend on your trail, your season and your legs, and you can get them from your AI assistant, a guidebook or the trail's own website in an afternoon. Or two. What you cannot get there is the list of things to ask, because nobody tells a first-timer what they don't know yet. That list is below. Work through it before you book anything.

Before you commit to the trail

Is the trail actually walkable in the weeks I have?
Trails have seasons that have nothing to do with the weather forecast. In some mountain areas the footbridges are taken down for winter and go back up late. Snowfields linger into July on north-facing passes. Forest access can be closed in dry summers, which happens regularly in the south of France and all around the Mediterranean countries. And outside the main season, the problem may not be the path but the fact that every hut, guesthouse and café along it has shut.

What does the trail turn into after rain, and what are my alternatives?
A path along a river that is pleasant in the dry becomes a mud channel or an impassable ford after two wet days. Slabby rock gets slippery. Some creek beds have risk of flash floods. Some pleasant mountain trails turn into slippery slopes or even creek beds in rain. Ask which stages are affected and what the detour is, so you can decide at breakfast and not at the ford.

How much daylight will I have, when I'm going?
In the far north you can walk at midnight in summer. In the south the summer days are noticeably shorter than a northern European expects, and in autumn they shrink fast. Your stage lengths have to fit the light, with margin.

How do I get in, how do I get out, and what if I have to leave halfway?
Find the public transport points along the trail, not just at the ends. A reliable train is the most pleasant way to reach a trail or leave it, so look for railway stations first. Some rural branch lines have been brought back to life in recent years; others are still dying, and those need a close look at when the trains actually run. Then ask the awkward follow-ups about buses: do they run on a Sunday, is it a dial-a-ride service that needs booking the day before, and is there a taxi number that actually answers?

Stages and pace

How far per day, honestly?
As a starting point for someone with no experience in that terrain: around 4 km an hour on the flat, 300 m of ascent an hour going up, 400 m of descent an hour coming down. Then adjust for the ground. A wide forest track and a root-and-rock path can be the same distance and two very different days.

Where do the afternoon thunderstorms put my daily finish line?
In the mountains in summer the question is not how far you can walk but where you need to be by early afternoon. Plan the stage so the exposed part is behind you before the sky builds up.

Where is my rest day, and where is my half day of buffer?
For anything over a week, one full day off per week lets small aches heal before they become real problems. A half day per week absorbs a slow stage, a broken strap or a bad morning without wrecking the plan. If nothing goes wrong, you get an unplanned afternoon somewhere nice.

Which stages can I shorten if I have to?
Know in advance where the escape points are. A plan with no give in it is a plan that breaks at the first problem.

Water, food and shops

Where exactly can I refill water, and how far apart are those points?
Tap water in huts, bars and guesthouses is the reliable answer in most of Europe. Everything else needs checking. Village fountains can be switched off in a dry summer. Mountain streams can be dry by midsummer, or cut so deep into the rock that you cannot reach them, or running so hard that they take the bottle out of your hand. In farmed lowland, a filter does not remove what agriculture has left in the stream. Know your gaps before you start. And always carry enough water to last you until the source after the next one. Especially in summer.

Which days are the shops closed, and when do they close for lunch?
Sunday is the obvious one, but in France Monday often follows, and in much of the south the shutters come down for a long midday break. Rural shops keep shorter hours than the trail website implies. A few countries have the odd exception that saves a Sunday, but you need to know about it on Saturday.

Does the place I sleep serve food at all, and if not, what is nearby?
Not every guesthouse or hostel feeds you. If it doesn't, you need the alternatives in that village, with their hours. And for the days in between: where are the food shops and supermarkets along the stage, and when are they open?

When is breakfast, and when is dinner?
Dinner in Spain rarely starts before eight, often nine. Huts serve at a fixed time and not after. Breakfast matters just as much: if the guesthouse serves at eight and you want to be walking at six to beat the heat, you either arrange something the night before or set off without it.

Will I arrive in the one week when everything is shut?
Most places have a dead fortnight between seasons, when the summer staff have left and the winter ones have not arrived. Check your dates against it.

Beds and huts

Book ahead or walk in: what is the custom on this trail?
Some trails run on reservations, and the morning is calm because everyone knows where they sleep. Others run on first come, first served, and the day starts at five because everyone is racing for the same bunks. Both work; you just need to know which one you are in. In the main season on a popular trail, book. In the off season, booking two days ahead is often enough, but more places are closed.

If beds are given out on arrival, where is my fallback for each night?
On walk-in trails every stage end needs one or two alternatives, with the track and the distance to get there, and a way back to the trail the next morning.

What time does the hut expect me, and when does it lock the door?
Mountain huts have kitchen times and curfews. Arriving at nine in the evening is not an option on most of them.

What do I need to bring to sleep there?
A sleeping bag liner and indoor shoes are standard in huts across the Alps and beyond. Some places expect you to bring a towel. It is a small thing to find out and an annoying thing to discover on arrival.

Who has my booking list, and how do I cancel?
Keep every reservation with its phone number in one place, and cancel the moment your plan changes. A bed held for a no-show is a bed a tired walker was turned away from.

Money, power, signal, and what happens when the phone dies

Cash or card, and where is the last cash machine?
Card payment is normal in cities everywhere. In rural Italy, Portugal and parts of Ireland, cash still carries a lot of the day, and a village restaurant may only take notes. Ask where the last cash machine is before the trail leaves the towns behind.

Where will I charge, and how many nights without a socket?
Full hostels have fewer working sockets than beds. Some mountain huts have no electricity at all. Count the nights between reliable sockets and size your power bank to that, not to the brochure.

Do I need a plug adapter?
Continental Europe shares a plug. The UK and Ireland do not. Ireland also has sockets with a small switch on them, which look dead until you flip it.

Where is there no signal, and what do I do if the phone itself fails?
Offline maps on the phone are the minimum, downloaded and tested before you leave. Know also that in areas with weak signal a phone hunting for a network drains its battery far faster than it ever does in a city; find out how to stop it searching. Then ask the harder question: what if the phone is lost, soaked or simply stops working on day four? A second device with the same maps, or a paper map of the area, is the difference between a problem and the end of the trip.

Getting there with your kit

What can't I take on the plane, and where do I buy it at the start?
Gas canisters and stove fuel do not fly. Trekking poles may have to go in the hold. If you fly, find the shop at the start that sells what you had to leave behind, and check its opening hours against your arrival time.

If I use luggage transfer, what are the cut-off times?
Booking deadlines, the time the bag has to be at reception each morning, and what happens when you change a stage. Luggage transfer is a service with rules, and the rules differ by trail.

Have I walked a full day with the packed bag?
Put your kit together early and carry it on a proper walk, weeks before you leave. This is when you find the missing item, the strap that rubs and the bag that is three kilos too heavy, while you can still do something about it. A final packed test a week before departure is the very last date for that, and by then it should only be settling details.

What is the weather actually doing there, a week before I leave?
The climate tables told you what to expect; a week out, the forecast tells you what you will get, and the two can disagree badly. Unusual weather is the thing to look for: a heatwave in a region you packed rain gear for, a cold snap or early snow in the wrong month, a storm system on its way, or a summer so dry that forests are burning, which can hit Scandinavia and catch people out who only associate fire with the Mediterranean. Start watching the regional forecast at least a week ahead. That still leaves time to change kit, shift stages or change the plan altogether.

The things nobody mentions

Is there a festival or an event on my route that week?
A village fair fills every bed within ten kilometres. A big organised hike or trail race puts hundreds of people on your path at once, in the opposite direction, for days. Either is fine if you knew. Neither is fine as a surprise at the trailhead.

What is the emergency number here, and does mountain rescue have its own?
112 works across the EU. The UK uses 999. Several Alpine countries have a separate number for mountain rescue, and that is the one you want to have saved before you need it.

Who pays if I have to be carried off the mountain?
A helicopter rescue is billed in many countries, and ordinary travel insurance does not always cover it. Check what your policy says about mountain rescue. Membership of an alpine club, the DAV, the CAF or your own country's equivalent, usually comes with at least partial rescue cover and, as a bonus, cheaper beds in member huts across the Alps. And one thing the insurance question hides: rescue teams are people in helicopters and on foot, and in fog, storm or at night they may not be able to reach you at all. Plan the day so that you don't need them.

Who at home has my itinerary, and when do they raise the alarm?
Leave your stage plan with someone who is not coming. Agree when you will check in, how much silence is normal in an area with no signal, and at what point they call. Then remember to check in, even when you are exhausted.

What is worth stopping for along the way?
You are not only walking a line on a map, you are passing through a region. Find out beforehand what is there: a dish or a drink that only exists locally, a place of real historical weight, a thermal bath for an afternoon off, a museum worth the detour, whatever fits your own interests. Knowing in advance means you plan the time for it instead of walking past it.

The trails these questions are already answered for

For the trails in the Milestone Keepsakes collection, most of these questions have a known answer, because people have been walking them for decades and the trail websites, huts and guidebooks are mature. If you walked one of them, that is where your keepsake is: Milestone Keepsakes.

If your trail is not in the shop, I can make it as a custom keepsake from your own route, which is a different piece of work and priced accordingly: Custom Keepsakes.

Still choosing a trail? There is a separate article on trails beginners actually finish, all of them in the shop.