A stepped footpath climbing between moss-covered sandstone walls in a beech forest
Hiking at OutdoorAdept

Hiking Guides Backed by Field Testing

Skills, foot health, navigation, and the trail maths that stops a day going wrong. Every guide here was written by someone who has done the thing, not summarised from the internet.

Start With the Complete Guide See exactly how we test ›
  • Never sponsored, ever
  • We buy our own gear
  • Real names on every guide
  • Thousands of trail miles
New to hiking?

Start here: three guides before your first big hike

In order. Read these three and you will have covered nearly everything that goes wrong on a first real hike.

  1. 1

    The Complete Guide to Hiking

    Everything you need to know to hit the trail, in one place.

  2. 2

    28 Essential Hiking Tips for Beginners

    Collected from hikers who learned every one of them the hard way.

  3. 3

    What to Pack for a Day Hike

    A packing list built on 14 years of day hikes, including what we stopped carrying.

Foot health & training

Hike pain-free

Sore knees, flat feet, and shin splints end more hikes than bad weather does. These guides pair field experience with input from named medical professionals, and they feed straight into our footwear fit guides.

Hiker with flat feet on a trail

Hiking With Flat Feet

Arch support, footwear, and training that actually help. Reviewed by Dr. Ashley Katzenback, PT.

Hiker treating shin splints on a trailside rock

Hiking With Shin Splints

Treat them, then keep them from coming back. Built with a physical therapist who had them herself.

Where a guide crosses into treating an injury or fuelling a long day, we take it to someone qualified, name them in the guide with their credentials, and cite the research inline. Our editorial standards ›

Hiking 101

Skills that keep you moving

From reading a topographic map to purifying water on the trail. Written from miles walked and wrong turns taken, so you can skip both.

Browse all Hiking 101 guides ›

Stories

From the trail, not the desk

First-person accounts and hard-won lessons. This is where we make the mistakes so you do not have to.

All stories ›

Free tools

Work the numbers before you walk them

Three calculators we built because we wanted them ourselves: no signup, no app, they just run in the page.

Elevation Grade CalculatorTurn distance and elevation into the gradient you will actually feelOpen the calculator → Hiking Calorie CalculatorWhat a day on the trail really costs you, by pack weight and gradeOpen the calculator → Trekking Pole Height CalculatorSet your poles to your height and the terrain, not to the defaultOpen the calculator →

All free hiking calculators ›

Gear that carries you

Whatever else you get wrong, get the footwear right

Footwear is where our testing runs deepest, and the wrong pair undoes every other decision on this page. Start from your feet, not from a bestseller list.

Every model we test lands on one leaderboard, with our verdict and the community rating side by side.Bought anonymously at retail, worn for weeks, scored on 20+ factors.

Explore the Footwear Hub
Quick answers

Hiking questions we get most

How do I start hiking as a beginner?

Start with short, well-marked local trails and build up distance before elevation. Our Complete Guide to Hiking covers planning, safety, and etiquette in one read, and the 28 beginner tips fill in the details most people learn the hard way.

What should I pack for a day hike?

Water, food, navigation, extra layers, and a small first-aid kit are the core. The full list, including what we stopped carrying after years of day hikes, is in What to Pack for a Day Hike.

How do I get in shape for hiking?

Legs, lungs, and feet all need mileage before the mountains do. See How to Get In Shape for Hiking and the physio-reviewed knee strengthening guide.

Do I need hiking boots, or are trail runners enough?

It depends on terrain, load, and your ankles, not on tradition. We test both side by side; start with the footwear leaderboard and the fit guides in our footwear hub.

Who writes these guides?

Named hikers, every time. OutdoorAdept is a team of writers, testers, and editors who walk the trails they write about, and where a guide crosses into medicine or nutrition we bring in a credentialed specialist and name them in the piece. See About and our editorial standards.

Trail dispatch

Hiking tips, news and giveaways

One email a month: hiking tips, trail news, giveaways, new guides, footwear verdicts, and what we learned outside. No spam, no sponsored picks, unsubscribe anytime.

We never share your address.
Where to next

Keep exploring

GearHiking FootwearEvery model we test, ranked in one place GuidesCampingShelter, sleep, and cooking, from first pitch to backcountry GuidesMountaineeringWhere hiking ends and ropes begin Behind the scoresHow We TestWhere every verdict on this site comes from

Or jump straight to a topic: Hiking 101, the hiking terms glossary, Trails, Stories, our original case studies, or the free hiking calculators.