Exactly how far, exactly how much up
Every day is measured before you leave — distance, ascent, the honest walking time. No surprise 12th mile at the end of a long stage.
Adventure · Solo-Friendly
Walk it on your own.
Never truly alone.
A short-list of trails we're happy sending solo walkers on — with our live tracking service in the background so somebody is always keeping an eye on where you are.
Nothing left to chance
The confidence
comes from knowing
every detail.
Walking a long trail on your own is one of the best things you can do. The days are quieter, the evenings are your own, and the head clears in a way it just doesn't when you're travelling with somebody else. It's also the bit that puts a lot of first-timers off — the not-knowing-what-happens-if.
So we take the not-knowing away. Before you set off you know exactly how far you're walking each day, exactly how much ascent is in it, exactly which door you're knocking on that night, and exactly who to call if anything changes. We hone all of those details in advance — the stages, the beds, the bag transfers, the taxi that exists in that village and the one that doesn't — so there's nothing left to chance and no decisions to make on the hoof. That's where solo confidence actually comes from: information.
On top of that, every solo booking on this list can come with our live tracking service. You carry a small GPS tracker that fixes your position from satellites — not phone masts — and posts it automatically every 30 minutes for the whole trip. We watch it from the office. If you stop moving where you shouldn't be stopped, drift off route or fall behind schedule in bad weather, we notice, and we get on the phone. If everything is fine, you never hear from us. That's the point.
We also know that female solo walkers can feel vulnerable on the trails for all sorts of reasons, some of them nothing to do with navigation or weather. Our tracking service is there to help you feel more secure: somebody who knows your route is watching your position, and you can share the same live map with whoever you like at home. One of our customers walked the Coast to Coast on her own this year and told us afterwards that the biggest thing wasn't the tracker itself — it was knowing somebody was looking out for her while she was away, on a trail she'd never walked before.
Every trail on this page is one we're confident sending a solo walker on. Well-signed and good underfoot, sensible day lengths, accommodation in the right villages, and — if you want it — a tracker in your pack.
What we hone for you
Solo confidence is mostly
just good information.
The single most powerful thing you can carry on a solo trail isn't a gadget — it's knowing precisely what the day holds. We plan every detail in advance so nothing is left to chance, and you can spend the week walking rather than problem-solving.
Exactly where you're sleeping
Named accommodation for every night, booked and confirmed by us, in villages that actually have somewhere to eat. Bags moved between them.
Exactly who to call
One number, answered by someone who knows your itinerary and the people on it. Not a call centre, and not a form you fill in and wait on.
Exactly what to expect and when
The whole trip in your pocket in the Trail Companion — day by day, with route maps, elevation profiles and offline navigation.
For women walking alone
Most solo worries are shared by everyone — navigation, injury, terrain, weather. But we know female solo walkers can feel vulnerable on the trails for reasons that have nothing to do with any of that. Our tracking service exists to help you feel more secure: your position is on our map all day, the accommodation knows to expect you, and the same live link can sit open on a phone at home.
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Solo-friendly trails
Jump to map
Every trail is walked and re-walked before we open it. We'd rather do four brilliantly than forty badly.
Booking nowEngland
Coast to Coast
309 km · 12–16 days
Wainwright's line across northern England — Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors. The one our customer walked on her own this year.
Booking nowEngland
Dales Way
130 km · 5–8 days
River valleys the whole way from Ilkley to Windermere. Gentle, well-signed and full of pubs — an ideal first solo long walk.
Booking nowScotland
West Highland Way
154 km · 6–8 days
Britain's busiest long-distance path — which is exactly what makes it a good solo choice. You're never far from other walkers or a warm bar.
Booking nowEngland
Cotswold Way
164 km · 7–10 days
The escarpment end to end — honey-stone villages every few miles, a country pub for lunch, and beds in market towns each night.
Booking nowEngland
The Ridgeway
139 km · 6–8 days
Open chalk downland with a view for miles. Easy navigation, easy underfoot, and quiet enough for a proper reset week on your own.
Booking nowScotland
Great Glen Way
127 km · 5–7 days
Fort William to Inverness beside Loch Ness. Towpath-flat if you want it, higher line if you don't — either way, a sociable solo trip.
Booking nowScotland
Rob Roy Way
126 km · 5–7 days
The quietest of the Scottish classics. Drove roads, loch shores and small hotels — a solo walk with plenty of head-space.
Booking nowEngland
Cumbria Way
116 km · 5–7 days
The Lake District south to north through the valleys — the fells at their most concentrated, but on well-trodden paths between villages.
Where you can walk solo
Eight trails we're
happy sending you
on your own.
LiveComing 2026
Lines follow each trail's waypoints — live trail pages draw the full GPX route. Tap a line to see the trail.
How the tracking works
A quiet safety net,
on a trail you'll walk
at your own pace.
The tracker
Pocket-sized, all week
A small satellite GPS unit — about the size of a matchbox — that lives in the top of your pack. Charge it once at the start; it lasts the trip. It fixes your position from the sky rather than a phone mast, so it keeps working in the glens and on the cliffs where there's no signal at all.
The watching
We keep an eye, you don't have to
It posts automatically every 30 minutes — nothing for you to remember. The dot appears on our map in the office from the moment you set off in the morning to the moment you check in at night. If you stop moving where you shouldn't, or drift off route, we notice — and we call.
Sharing
Send the link home
You can share the live map with anyone — a partner, a parent, a friend. They see the same dot we do, updating through the day. It's the bit families tend to appreciate most.
If something changes
A phone call, then a plan
We spot the anomaly, ring you, and — if you need it — talk to the accommodation, the taxi, or mountain rescue on your behalf. You keep walking, or you stop; whichever is right. Either way you're not the one making the calls from a hillside.
Before you go
Our solo library.
Our team has walked and run a lot of miles on their own — and interviewed plenty of people who've done more. Start here.
Guide · By Elise Downing
7 Tips for Your First Solo Adventure
Nobody to consult with in tricky moments, nobody to blame when you get lost, nobody else's snacks to share. Elise Downing — who ran 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain, mostly alone — on how to stay safe and get the most out of going it alone.
Read the guide →Podcast · Notes from Big Trails
Going Alone: The Reality of Solo Hiking
Elise Downing and Kirsty Reade on why solo adventures are worth it, how they each got there from opposite directions, and what actually keeps you safe out on the trail.
Listen and read →Podcast · Notes from Big Trails
450km Alone, in Snow, to the Dolomites
Hannah Campbell ran solo from the Bavarian Alps to the edge of the Dolomites in two weeks — nine days of unexpected snow, and the best hot chocolate of her life at 3,000 metres.
Listen and read →Podcast · Notes from Big Trails
Finding Space on the South West Coast Path
A long coastal trail walked for headspace rather than mileage — what the quiet days on your own actually give you.
Listen and read →From the journal
Notes for solo walkers.
Coast to Coast
Advice From Other Hikers: The Coast to Coast
Coast to Coast finishers on footwear, light packs, rest days, unpredictable food stops and the small practical choices that make a crossing.
13 September 20265 min read
West Highland Way
Advice From Other Hikers: The West Highland Way
We asked our Facebook community of West Highland Way finishers one question: what single piece of advice would you give somebody setting off tomorrow?
20 August 20266 min read
West Highland Way
Someone Has to Carry the Bottles Out
Richard Newsome has been looking after bothies on the West Highland Way for 12 years. This once meant carrying 42 glass bottles four and a half miles back to his car. He moved to Scotland because of the West Highland Way and has never once walked into a bothy and thought about quitting.
12 May 20266 min read