UK ranks third in the best European countries for hiking

Scenic walking and hiking have seen a huge spike in interest during the pandemic all around the globe, and with more people looking for outdoorsy getaways and open-air activities SaveOnEnergy.com/uk set out to find which European country is the best for hikes.

To do this, they used AllTrails.com, which has over 200,000 trails on their app, to discover hiking trails in Europe and their reviews. They then calculated an average rating score out of 100 for each country based on the reviews of all of their hikes.

Ring Road Iceland - photo credit Nido Huebl Shutterstock

The UK’s Results

SaveOnEnergy.com/uk can reveal that the European country with the third highest rated hikes is the United Kingdom. The UK’s hikes received an average rating of 86.5/100, are an average length of 11,041 metres long (7 miles) and incline by 307 metres.

The best rated European countries for hiking are as follows:

The UK’s longest hikes:

The UK’s longest hike is Monarch’s Way, starting in Worcester which is an incredible 931,808 metres (579 miles). The second longest hike is the Greenwich Meridian Trail (starting in East Sussex) which is 466,387 metres (290 miles), followed by The Pennine Way (starting in Derbyshire) coming in at 391,874 metres (243 miles).

The Pennine Way - Photo credit Colin Ward Shutterstock

The UK’s shortest hikes are Reffley Temple (King’s Lynn, Norfolk) and Peveril Castle (Hope, Derbyshire) which are both 644 metres (0.4 miles). The UK’s second shortest hikes are Hill Holt Wood Walk (Lincolnshire), Walton Common (Staffordshire), and Bowerhill Park (Staffordshire) which all 805 metres (0.5 miles), followed by 10 hikes including Limehouse to Canary Wharf (London) and Kingmoor North Nature Reserve Circular (Cumbria) which are all 966 metres (0.6 miles).

The UK’s steepest hikes:

The UK’s hike with the largest incline is also Monarch’s Way with an incline of 16,930 metres. The second steepest hike is The Pennie Way which inclines by 7,878 metres, followed by Bob Graham Round starting in Keswick, Cumbria with an incline of 7,652 metres.

The UK’s flattest walk is Limehouse to Canary Wharf (London) with an incline of just 3 metres. Their second flattest hike is Reffley Temple with an incline of 6 metres, followed by Fobney Island Nature Reserve (Berkshire) with an incline of 7 metres.

Skellig Michael, County Kerry, Ireland - photo credit Shutterupeire Shutterstock

SaveOnEnergy can also reveal the worst European countries for hiking:

For more information on the worldwide rankings, please see SaveOnEnergy’s blog post here: https://www.saveonenergy.com/uk/best-hikes-in-europe/

See also Iceland turns your lockdown sweatpants into hiking boots