DAY HIKES · AROUND THE WORLD
Find the trail. Book the day.
Glacier walks in Iceland, levada paths in Madeira, the cliff edge of Pulpit Rock, the summit of Teide. Real reviews of the guided day hikes worth booking, in the places worth lacing up for.
Worth a trip for the trail alone
Three hikes you plan a trip around.
Most trails are a good morning out. A few are the reason you booked the flight: a walk onto a living glacier, a path along the levadas, a slab of rock hung over a fjord. These are the day hikes hikers come home telling everyone about.
Iceland
Skaftafell glaciers
On the edge of Vatnajokull, Europe’s largest ice cap, you rope up with a guide and walk out onto a living glacier tongue: blue crevasses, sink holes and meltwater rivers underfoot, crampons biting the ice. Falljokull has an easy version for first-timers and an advanced route for those who want the steeper ice. Few day hikes put you somewhere this otherworldly.
- 1 Skaftafell National Park: Falljokull Glacier Easy Hike
- 2 Skaftafell National Park: Falljokull Glacier Advanced Hike
- 3 Jökulsárlón: Vatnajökull Glacier Guided Hiking Tour
Portugal
Madeira levadas
Madeira is laced with levadas, narrow irrigation channels cut into the mountainsides, and the paths beside them make some of the most scenic walking in Europe. The classics run from the 25 Fontes waterfalls to the high traverse between Pico Arieiro and Pico Ruivo, the island’s two tallest peaks, often above the clouds. A transfer and a guide handle the logistics of a one-way ridge.
- 1 Madeira: Pico Arieiro to Pico Ruivo Hike
- 2 Rabaçal: 25 Fontes & Risco Levada Hiking Transfer
- 3 Pico Do Arieiro Pico Ruivo Sunrise or Morning Hike Transfers
Norway
Pulpit Rock
Preikestolen is a flat slab of rock that ends in a 600-metre drop straight into Lysefjord, and the four-hour return hike to stand on it is one of Norway’s great days out. The trail climbs through boulder fields and boardwalk before the cliff opens up beneath your boots. A guided group with pickup from Stavanger takes the planning off your plate.
- 1 Guided hike to Pulpit Rock Preikestolen
- 2 From Stavanger: Pulpit Rock Guided Hike with Pickup
- 3 Stavanger: Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) Hike with Local Guide
If you only book one
The day hike more hikers rave about than any other.
Out of every trail on the site, this is the one that sends people home telling everyone they know to go and do it.
The crowd-pleasers
The Most Popular Day Hikes Right Now
Iceland glacier walks, Madeira levadas, the Teide summit, Cape Town at sunrise. The trails hikers are happiest they booked.
Start with a region
The best day hikes, region by region.
Reykjavik for the glaciers, Madeira for the levadas, Stavanger for the cliff walk. Pick the region you are headed to and we will show you the hikes worth booking there.
Iceland on foot
Which glacier do you walk?
Iceland is the easiest place in the world to walk on a glacier, and there are three good ways to do it. Pick the base that fits your trip and how far onto the ice you want to go.
Reykjavik
A whole day on the ice, no car needed.
From the capital you can be roped onto a glacier by mid-morning. The best days out of Reykjavik string a guided ice walk together with thundering waterfalls, a black-sand beach and, when the ground is awake, a steaming eruption site, then have you back in town for dinner. A guide handles the crampons, the transfers and the weather.
See the best Reykjavik hikes →Madeira
Walk the water through the clouds.
Madeira’s levadas are narrow channels cut into the mountainside centuries ago, and the paths that follow them make some of Europe’s most scenic walking: near-level, deep into laurel forest, behind waterfalls at 25 Fontes. For something bigger, the high ridge from Pico Arieiro to Pico Ruivo crosses the island’s two tallest peaks, usually above a sea of cloud.
See the best Madeira hikes →Stavanger
Stand on the edge of Pulpit Rock.
Preikestolen is a flat shelf of granite that ends in a sheer 600-metre drop into Lysefjord, and the walk to it is one of Norway’s great days out: four hours return, climbing through boulder fields and boardwalk before the cliff opens up beneath your boots. A guided group with pickup from Stavanger gets you to the trailhead and reads the weather so you do not have to.
See the best Stavanger hikes →Tenerife
Climb to the roof of Spain.
Mount Teide is the highest point in Spain at 3,715 metres, a volcano that still steams above a sea of cloud. A guided hike crosses old lava flows and thin alpine air to the crater rim, and a permit day takes you onto the final cone above the cable-car station, the part the casual crowd never reaches. Sunrise and stargazing trips run for those who want it quiet.
- 1 Tenerife: Mount Teide Summit Hiking Adventure with Cable Car
- 2 From South Tenerife: Mount Teide Hiking Day Trip & Cable Car
- 3 Tenerife: Anaga Mountains & Enchanted Forest Hiking Tour
By effort
How hard a day are you after?
A near-level levada walk in Madeira. A steady sunrise climb up Lion's Head. A thin-air push to the summit of Teide. Pick the kind of day that sounds like your sort of trail.
Ease in
Madeira, the levada walk.A near-level path traces a centuries-old water channel along the cliffs, through laurel forest and behind waterfalls. Big views, gentle gradient, and a guide who knows which tunnel to bring a torch for.
Earn the view
Cape Town, up Lion's Head.A steady spiral up the peak between Table Mountain and the sea, with a couple of chain-and-ladder sections near the top. Time it for sunrise and the whole city and both oceans open up beneath you.
All in
Tenerife, the Teide summit.The roof of Spain at 3,715 metres, a thin-air climb across old lava to a crater that still steams. A guided permit day gets you onto the final cone the casual cable-car crowd never reaches.
Chiang Mai
Walk the roof of Thailand.
North of the city, Doi Inthanon is the highest peak in Thailand and the trails around it run through dripping cloud forest, past twin royal pagodas and down to waterfalls the day-trippers miss. The Kew Mae Pan nature loop traces a ridge above the treeline with a local guide, and gentler temple walks like Wat Pha Lat climb through jungle to the doorstep of Doi Suthep. Cool air, big views, easy logistics from town.
See all 14 Chiang Mai hikes →By region
Pick a region and start walking.
Reykjavik for the glaciers. Madeira for the levadas. Stavanger for Pulpit Rock. Tenerife for the Teide summit. Chiang Mai for the cloud forest. Marrakesh for the Atlas valleys.
More regions
More places worth lacing up for.
Skaftafell for the ice caves, Vik for the south coast, Zion for the slot canyons, Cape Town for Table Mountain. The rest of the map, ready when you are.
Three parks, three hiking days
Pick a place, plan the day around the trail.
A canyon day in Zion, a glacier day around Vik, a mountain day in Cape Town. Three places, three completely different ways to spend a day on foot.
Just added