From England's new coastal path to the world's greatest long distance trails, here's why committing to a big walking project is worth it and how to approach your first section.
A day walk is a fine thing. You go out, you come back, you feel better for it. But a long distance path is a different kind of commitment, and a different kind of reward.
When you pick a trail and decide to walk the whole thing, even if it takes you years of weekends and long weekends to get there, something shifts. You are not just going for a walk. You are working through something, mile by mile, section by section. Each trip picks up where the last one left off. The landscape accumulates in your memory in a way that a scattering of separate day walks never does.
It is one of the most satisfying things you can do on foot. And right now, the options in the UK have never been better.
England now has the longest coastal path in the world
In March 2026, the King Charles III England Coast Path opened. When complete, it will be the world’s longest managed, signposted coastal walking route, at around 2,700 miles circling the entire coastline of England: from the Solway Firth in the north-west to the Humber in the east, from the White Cliffs of Dover around to the Bristol Channel.
The scale of it is genuinely hard to picture. Natural England estimates it would take around a year to walk start to finish, getting out every weekend. Around 1,000 miles of the route is entirely new legal access. Before the path opened, parts of England's coast that you could see were simply not walkable. Field edges, private land, blocked cliff tops: all of it is now part of the network.
The trail is divided into five regions, each with distinct character.
North-East (Berwick-upon-Tweed to Skegness): Castles, seabird colonies, fishing villages tucked into sheltered coves and long stretches of open beach. A coast that still feels remote.
East (Skegness to London): Working harbour towns give way to Essex marshland and the wide Thames Estuary. Quieter, stranger, and underwalked.
South-East (London to Southampton): The White Cliffs of Dover, the wartime remains of the Kent coast, the South Downs meeting the sea. The most historically layered section on the whole route.
South-West (Southampton to Aust near Bristol): Cornish headlands, the Jurassic Coast, Exmoor to the Bristol Channel. The hardest walking and the most dramatic scenery.
North-West (Queensferry to Gretna Green): The Solway Firth, Lake District fells visible from the shore, Morecambe Bay, Merseyside and the longest dune system in England at Sefton. Two short gaps remain in Cumbria, where the train connects Arnside to Grange-over-Sands.
You could spend years on this path and still not repeat yourself. That is the point.
Great long distance trails: a sense of scale
Long distance paths are not new. The world has some extraordinary ones. Putting the King Charles III England Coast Path alongside them helps explain what makes it remarkable.
The Pacific Crest Trail in the United States runs 2,653 miles from the Mexican border to Canada through the Sierras and the Cascades. It is arguably the most celebrated long distance trail in the world, and the England Coast Path will be longer. The Appalachian Trail, the AT, covers around 2,190 miles through 14 states on America's eastern seaboard. Also shorter.
In Europe, the traditions differ. The GR20 in Corsica covers 180km of granite ridgeline and is considered one of the toughest trails on the continent. The Camino de Santiago draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year along roughly 800km of the main French route. The Via Alpina links eight countries and 5,000km of mountain terrain from Monaco to Trieste. Each of them is a different kind of undertaking.
England already had exceptional long distance walking. The South West Coast Path, at 630 miles, was the country's longest National Trail before the coast path opened. The Pennine Way, the West Highland Way, Hadrian's Wall Path, the Norfolk Coast Path: serious routes, all of them. The King Charles III England Coast Path builds on and extends this network into something with no real equivalent elsewhere.
Why coastal walking is a different kind of adventure
Coastal paths ask something different of you than hill routes do. The terrain is more varied: cliff descents, sand, rock, river estuaries, harbour walls, tidal paths, stretches of farmland high above the sea. You are rarely going straight. The path follows the edge, which means every headland is a new reveal and every bay has its own weather.
The light on the coast is particular. Low, wide, changing fast. Seabird colonies in spring are extraordinary. Gannets, puffins, guillemots nesting on ledges within arm's reach of the path. Wildflowers appear on cliff tops earlier than anywhere inland. Winter sections carry a proper bleakness that is its own reward.
There is also the sense of progress. Walking a coast path, you always know where you are in relation to the whole. The sea is there, the land is there, and you are moving along the edge between them. It is an orienting feeling that inland routes rarely give you in the same way.
You do not have to do it all at once
The most practical thing about long distance paths is that nobody expects you to walk them in one go, including yourself.
Section walking is the normal approach. You pick a 40 to 60 mile stretch, plan the trains in and out, book somewhere to sleep midway if needed, and you walk it. Then later in the year, or next year, you come back to the next section. Over time, the whole route builds up. Some people keep a log. Most just remember.
A long weekend covers a substantial section comfortably. Three or four days on the North Yorkshire coast, a stretch of Cornwall, a section of the Thames Estuary, whatever you have not yet done, gives you 40 miles of new ground and a proper sense of the route. There is no pressure to finish. The path will be there in summer, in autumn, next year. The only commitment is to keep coming back to it.
For inspiration on planning a multi-day walking trip, our spring hiking guide covers the thinking behind day walks and overnight missions.
Footwear that goes the distance
Coastal paths are harder on footwear than most people expect. The terrain changes constantly: rock, clay paths, sand, gravel, tarmac through harbour towns and steep descents on chalk and sandstone. Conditions can shift in an hour. Salt air and wet grass accelerate wear on anything that is not properly looked after.
Getting your boots right before a multi-day section is not a small decision. A boot that fits poorly at mile three is a serious problem at mile fifteen. The fit, the break-in and the support all matter more on long days than on a single outing.
- How to choose walking boots, waterproofing, sole construction, fit and weight: all covered
- How to break in walking boots, get them trail-ready before the long days start
- How to use walking poles, why poles earn their place on long coastal stages, particularly on steep descents and loose ground
Pick your route, pick your section, sort your boots. The rest works itself out on the path.
The paths you walk were won, not given
The paths we walk exist because people fought for them. Read about that fight and the next chapter at Trespass 94 in Hayfield.