From walking a rarely travelled section of Nepal’s Great Himalaya Trail, to collecting stamps in your Pilgrim’s Passport on Spain’s Camino de Santiago, we have rounded up our top 10 favourite walking holidays which take you to the best sections of famous long-distance trails. The Inca Trail, Great Jordan Trail and the length of Corfu to name a few. 

The ‘O’ trek in Patagonia

The 120km+ ‘O’ trek is a complete circuit of the Paine massive in Patagonia’s Torres Del Paine National Park. This route encompasses the more popular ‘W’ trek too but before joining that section of the trail this circuit route takes you north, anti-clockwise, into a wild and remote part of the park without roads or phone signal and where you can safely drink the natural water. KE are one of the few UK companies to offer this full circuit to hikers who are up for the challenge. When you complete the trek, we’ll plant a tree in Patagonia on your behalf!

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The Great Himalaya Trail

The Great Himalaya Trail stretches from India to Bhutan with the aim to bring tourism and socioeconomic benefits into lesser-known mountainous areas in the Himalaya. One such area, close to Kathmandu and yet rarely visited by Western trekkers, is the Ganesh Himal, a region of timeless valleys, quiet trails, sleepy traditional villages, luxuriant forest and carefully tended terraced farmland. We spend two weeks walking fantastic trails in this area and as the itinerary only goes as high as 4,000m, we’ve graded this trip at grade 5.

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The Camino de Santiago

The Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, or Way of Saint James, ends at the Santiago de Compostela in Spain which is said to hold the remains of Saint James. There are many Camino routes dating back to the Middle Ages and people trek these routes now for many reasons. Along the scalloped marked Camino routes across Europe, you’ll find like-minded walkers, accommodation and churches to welcome you. We have several trips along various routes including the French Way, Portuguese Way and St James Way.

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Sweden’s Kungsleden Trail

Far north in Sweden, above the arctic circle in Lapland, the long-distance trail of the Kungsleden or 'King's Trail' extends for 440km from Abisko in the north to Hemavan. The northern part of this maintained track runs as far as Kebnekaise (the highest peak in Sweden, 2,104m) and provides an excellent summer trekking route, as well as a classic hut-to-hut ski tour in the winter.

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The Corfu Trail

Complete the challenge of a long-distance trail on this spectacular 10 day self-guided Corfu Trail holiday. A trail which takes you from bustling tourist towns, over rugged mountains to charming hilltop villages and to dreamy secluded bays.Your trail begins in the south of the island from where you make your way north along the coast before heading inland to sleepy hilltop villages and over the highest mountain on the island, Mount Pantokrator (906m). From the top of the island you wind your way through olive groves and along rugged coastal paths to your final goal, Kalami, unveiling secluded coves as you go. We’ll take care of all your logistics, baggage transfers and all your accommodation is booked for you.

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The Jordan Trail

Running the length of Jordan from north to south, the Jordan Trail measures around 670km. Many Bedouin tribes are helping to develop the trail sections between Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba. At KE, we offer a number of holidays that make the most of the best sections of the trail through Wadi Rum. Our Jordan to Petra trek follows the route for 85km finishing through the back door into lesser-known Little Petra.

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Laugavegur Trail

The Laugavegar Trail, in southern Iceland, weaves across the dramatic volcanic region of the Fjallabak and National Geographic named this as one of the best 20 treks in the world. The route passes rocky gorges, steaming hot springs and ancient lava flows. The weather can be as wild as the landscape but when the mist clears, the scenery is as dramatic as it could possibly get on earth.

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An alternative Inca Trail

The route now known as the Inca Trail was discovered by the American explorer Hiram Bingham in 1915. He had "found" Machu Picchu during an earlier trip to Peru in 1911 and was returning to uncover the ruins. Although the 42km long “Inca Trail” is the classic way to reach Machu Picchu, there are thousands of Inca trails that criss-cross the Peruvian Andes and one fantastic alternative route is from the lesser known Inca citadel Choquequirao to Machu Picchu.

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Via Dinarica Trail

This is a route that snakes it’s way through the Balkan countries of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo. There are a few different route options (Green and Blue are in development) but it is the White trail that is the most established at around 1,250km in length. Some of the most beautiful sections of the route are through Croatia which you can experience on our Walking Croatia’s Coast and Mountains trips, or experience the highest peaks of the route on our High Peaks of the Balkans adventure.

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The GR20 in Corsica

The GR20 is one of the finest, most spectacular but toughest mountain walking routes in Europe from Calenzana in the north to Conca in the south of Corsica. The ‘Complete GR20’ covers a total of 180km with approximately 12,000m of ascent and descent in 13 days of trekking. At KE you can choose to trek the full route over two weeks, or for one week, you can trek the most dramatic section from the midpoint of the island to close to its northern finish point.

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 If you would you like to know more about any of the above holidays, then give us a call on +44 (0) 17687 73966 or USA/Canada toll-free 1888 630 4415. We offer trusted holidays with financial protection and flexible booking conditions.