Once upon a time, the thought of a hiking holiday would have been unheard of. After all, the big trend has historically been sun, sea, and sand – and most of us were just happy to get away for the purposes of relaxing.
Well, things are changing. The holiday landscape has turned on its head over recent years and while beach holidays still top the leaderboard in terms of popularity, “active” holidays are becoming more normal. Suffice to say, ones of the hiking variety fall into such a category.
Related Read: How To Increase Lung Capacity for Hiking
However, there are right and wrong ways to go about these holidays. Through today’s post, we will take a look at some top tips to help you along your way.
How to Hike Pain-Free?
It all comes down to location
Contrary to popular belief, there isn’t just one type of hiking holiday. A common misconception is that this has to be based in the countryside, in the middle of nowhere.
While this is of course picturesque and the most popular way, let’s not forget that you can go completely urban as well. Even in London, hiking across the city and taking in the various parks can be an option, and means that you can quickly break off for refreshment or just a change of scenery.
Pick your accommodation wisely
Following on from the previous point, make sure that you plan your accommodation wisely.
One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to a holiday of this ilk is doing it “ad hoc”. By this we mean just deciding when you arrive. While being spontaneous is completely suitable to some holiday types, for hiking it doesn’t work.
You need a rough idea of a route, so you can plan your hotels accordingly. Take Leeds for an example. This is one of the largest cities in the UK, and booking a hotel on one side of the city when you are planning to hike in the country just isn’t going to work. The two need to tie-up, otherwise it’s going to be frustrating, tiring and you’re just not going to enjoy proceedings.
Some hikes aren’t for the faint-hearted
In some ways, hiking holidays are open to the masses. After all, as long as you can walk, there’s nothing stopping you from engaging in such a holiday.
Of course, there are limits, and this is where you need to be careful. For some people, these limits might be a mile, while for others it might be twenty miles.
Suffice to say, you need to plan this accordingly (and this relates to your choice of hotel as well). It’s not just about the distance either, and some particularly hilly hikes are going to be very difficult for some people to overcome – even if they seem relatively short on paper.
Always take the above into account, and ultimately make sure you are in shape before you decide on such a holiday.
Recommended Read: 8 Essential Hiking Tips for Beginners
Your equipment can matter as well
Most of today’s article has focused on UK hikes, and for this reason, there is always going to be a major point about the weather to consider. It means that unless you are traveling in the peak of summer, at least make sure waterproofs are packed so the whole trip isn’t a washout.
Your equipment considerations might not end there. You might have decided to conquer one of the country’s mountain ranges, which again looks great on paper. It’s in these cases that you will need the appropriate shoes and maybe even hiking poles. Without these, you can succumb to blisters and have great difficulty in tackling the hills that you’ll come across. In other words, your hiking trip can be over just a mile or so into proceedings.
Having the right backpack can also avoid a lot of back pain.
