The world's 50 best walks

From The Sunday Times
September 14, 2008
The world's 50 best walks
The Sunday Times presents the world’s best treks, from a grade-one pub stroll right up to a grade-five yeti hunt

Graded 1-5, with 1 the easiest and 5 the most challenging

1 Highlands for beginners Glencoe Grade 1

All great pub walks should involve a quick hit of scenery, then a slow sup by the fire - and the Clachaig Inn, buried among the man-sized mountains of Glencoe, has a cracker. A mile’s clamber on a pinewood trail brings you to Signal Rock, where, in 1692, government troopers gave the fateful command that triggered the Glencoe massacre. Highland scenery soars on every side, red stags bellow in the autumn rut ... and it’s all yours for barely an hour’s effort. And who cares if you feel a fraud back in the Boots Bar at the Clachaig (01855 811252, www.clachaig.com ), with its granite-jawed climbers and ice-axe decor? They do 160 malts and a tasty line in venison burgers.

2 Storm the ramparts Croatia Grade 1

It took a battering in the Balkans conflict, but Unesco restoration has turned plucky Dubrovnik into the loveliest medieval city under the sun. The hour-long circuit of its old town’s battlements is unforgettable, around an Escher-like collection of sand-castle sentry posts, helter-skelter stairways and crumbling catwalks, all poised on high cliffs against the bluest bit of the Adriatic. Go for sunset, then descend for cocktails at Bar Buza, on a craggy platform between citadel and sea. The ramparts are open 9am-7.30pm; £5.50; www.tzdubrovnik.hr/english/. Original Travel (020 7978 7333, www.originaltravel.co.uk ) has three nights in Dubrovnik from £540pp, including flights.

3 Tropical downpour Venezuela Grade 1

At 19 times higher than Niagara, Angel Falls is a wonder - but getting there is nearly as memorable as seeing it. After a half-day expedition by dugout canoe, it’s an hour’s scramble into the throb and fizz of the jungle. You’ll balance across branches, paddle through creeks - and suddenly it’s there, blasting straight out of the clouds into the lagoon below. All that remains is to cool off under the loftiest shower on earth. Last Frontiers (01296 653000, www.lastfrontiers.com ) has a 12-day Venezuela itinerary, with three nights at Canaima, from £2,339pp, including flights.

4 Stout and stanzas Dublin Grade 1

No city is as rich in pubs and poetry as Dublin, and Colm Quilligan’s literary pub crawl is a genius amalgam of both - a 2½hour stagger with Wilde, Joyce, Behan and Beckett. “Their search for an audience took them from the drawing room to the public saloon,” Quilligan says. His tour visits four favourite “Publin” watering holes, allowing time for internal lubrication between comic cuts of the writers’ work. The guides, all pro actors, begin with a shot of the black stuff - an excerpt from Waiting for Godot. Tours nightly, £10; 00 353 1670 5602, www.dublinpubcrawl.com .

5 Tortoise pace Seychelles Grade 1

On the island of Curieuse, giant tortoises patrol the shore, jacking themselves up on hydraulic legs to greet arriving sailors. The nature reserve here is full of wild wonders, not just the enormous - and enormously friendly - Aldabra tortoises, but giant palm spiders, black parrots and transparent ghost crabs, which blow across the sand like dandelion down. A boardwalk trail takes you through the mangroves and over the headland to emerge on Anse St José, the most beautiful beach in the Indian Ocean. Creole Travel Services (00 248 297000, www.creoletravelservices.com) can arrange your Curieuse excursion; Elite Vacations (01707 371000, www.seychelleselite.co.uk) has sevennight autumn packages from £1,145pp, including flights.

6 Into the underworld Morocco Grade 1

Potentially, Fez’s medina is the world’s longest city walk. The labyrinth of souks is unmatched and probably unmappable, with 9,400 alleyways, some so narrow you have to sidestep through. It’s a magic-carpet ride for the senses: the clang of metal workshops, the stink of the tannery, donkeys brushing past with toppling loads, traders hawking cloth, comestibles and cures for everything from haemorrhoids to a broken heart. A two-hour tour with a guide costs about £20 (Fez Tourism; 00 212 35 62 34 60). Best of Morocco (0845 026 4588,www.realmorocco.com ) has four nights from £595pp, with flights.

7 See the skulls New Orleans Grade 1

The cult of the dead is very much alive in New Orleans, and nowhere embodies the sultry strangeness of the city like St Louis Cemetery Number 1, the spookiest graveyard in the world. A guided walk invites you to meet its shrivelling citizenry, all of whom are buried above ground – some in temple-sized vaults, others barely covered by crumbling brickheaps. New Orleans Spirit Tours (£11; www.neworleanstours.net ) will show you around, and adds a visit to a modern voodoo temple. Bon Voyage (0800 316 0194, www.bon-voyage.co.uk ) includes the tour in a Louisiana fly-drive: nine days start at £599pp.

8 Woozle hunting East Sussex Grade 1

The most eye-boggling walk in southeast England? Easy: across the clifftops of the Seven Sisters. But the most cockle-warming? An “expotition” with Pooh and Piglet in the real-life Hundred Acre Wood. The magic of AA Milne’s universe owes much to the richly reimagined landscape of Ashdown Forest, the Sussex oasis of pine stands, gorse bushes and high, heathery places where Christopher Robin played. Grab a child as an excuse, collect a Pooh Country map from East Grinstead tourism (01342 410121, www.eastgrinstead. gov.uk ) and drive to Gills Lap car park.

9 Sydney-on-Sea Australia Grade 1

Everyone’s heard of Bondi Beach... but what about Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly, Gordon’s Bay? The two-hour promenade from Bondi along Sydney’s eastern seaboard must be the world’s best walk you can do in your Speedos – it’s one knockout strand after the next. First up is Tamarama, known as Glamorama because of its rich and famous habitués; then picturesque Bronte, a good place for brunch; and Clovelly, the best spot for a swim. After 3½ miles, you’re at Coogee, for a milkshake and the bus back to Circular Quay. To print the trail, visit www.waverley.nsw. gov.au. Bonzer.

10 Snail trail Italy Grade 1

Siena is like a pop-up page from a storybook, all Rapunzel towers and medieval alleyways. What clinches its appeal for kids, however is thecontrade: the 17 neighbourhoods that compete in the biannualpalio horse race. Each has its totem – dragon, unicorn, giraffe, panther ... caterpillar. This turns a city walk into an I-spy trail, as each district has its fountain and its flag, as well as nameplates and knockers adorned with the sacred symbol. You can download a children’s trail at www.terresiena.it . ATG Oxford (01865 315678, www.atg-oxford.com ) includes a Siena stroll on its self-guided Tuscan walking holidays. Four nights start at £355pp, excluding flights.

11 Gilded prison Snowdonia Grade 1

With the imminent return of The Prisoner to our television screens, Portmeirion will soon be back in the limelight. It’s the supreme monument to British eccentricity, a high-camp Italianate village assembled in the 1920s using abandoned monuments and bits of scrap statuary, painted in zany colours and tattooed onto a remote headland overlooking Cardigan Bay. A walk there is relentlessly enchanting. You can tunnel through 70 acres of exotic clifftop gardens to find bricolage temples and lighthouses, then blink out across the expanse of Black Rock Sands. Open daily; £7, children £3.50; www.portmeirion-village.com

12 Eat the Apple New York Grade 1

The way to a city’s heart is through its stomach: at least, that’s roughly the premise of Addie Tomei’s belly-busting gastro-walks in the Big Apple. They take you a million miles from the staple tourist fodder of Broadway and Bloomingdale’s into neighbourhood New York – the steamy pasta kitchens of Little Italy and the fragrant bagel bakeries of the Lower East Side – sampling copiously as you go. Addie is the ideal brassy Brooklyn guide, but do bring your appetite: the Chinatown and Little Italy combo trip should come with a free high-colonic. Tours start at £60 with Savory Sojourns (00 1 212 691 7314, www.savorysojourns.com ).

13 Village of the damned Derbyshire Grade 1

Death, pestilence and gruesome graveyards – the horrible history of Eyam is a winner with kids. In 1665, this bucolic Peak District hamlet went bubonic, as the plague arrived in a parcel of cloth from London, and villagers pledged to quarantine themselves. By the time the disease abated, 269 had perished. A 20p leaflet from Eyam Museum (01433 631371, www.eyammuseum.demon.co.uk ) sets you off on a tragic treasure hunt among the cottages where the story unfolded; or buy Making Tracks, which lists Peakland walks for children (£10.95; www.walking-books.com).

14 Rat run Paris Grade 1

Finding the entrance to the Paris sewers is easy – head for the Eiffel Tower, then follow your nose. The sewers have been, well, fundamental to the city’s cultural history, from Les Misérables to Delicatessen, and at the Musée des Egouts (93 Quai d’Orsay; £3.30), you can penetrate several hundred yards of tunnels. The ramshackle gangways make the walk an adventure, encouraging the sneaky suspicion that you might slip into the slop below. For a guided tour, contact Paris Walks (£8; 00 33 1 48 09 21 40, www.paris-walks.com).

15 Love Valley Turkey Grade 2

Out on the eastern edges of Europe, there’s a place where cavemen live inside strange stone spires shaped like huge phalluses. Sorry to be blunt, but the so-called “fairy chimneys” of Cappadocia are the fruitiest obelisks on the planet. Men have been hollowing their hobbit houses into the soft tufa rock since biblical times, and exploring here is a mythic experience – especially the Love Valley walk from Goreme, with 400 Byzantine churches chiselled into the rock. HF Holidays (0845 470 7558, www.hfholidays.co.uk ) includes it on an easy-going Caverns of Cappadocia trip; nine nights start at £1,435pp, with flights.

16 Chateau-hopping France Grade 2

The picture-book Château de Chaumont is France’s Chelsea, host to the Festival International des Jardins (www.chaumont-jardins.com ), and you could devote all day to a wide-eyed wander around the extravagant plots laid out by “landscape artists” from across the globe. But do it in half a day, then strike out on a bosky seven-mile meander along the Loire valley to the British-run Domaine du Prieure (www.les-metamorphozes.com ) for a taste of the Touraine wines – andchambre d’hôteif you decide to make a weekend of it. You’ll need Blue Series map No 20220 Ouest; alternatively, the route is offered by Belle France (01580 214010, www.bellefrance.co.uk ) as part of its Chateau to Chateau walking holiday. Eight days start at £801pp, including car ferry.

17 Subaqua scramble Thailand Grade 2

You don’t need a machete or a Tarzan chest wig to climb Erawan Falls, but they might just help. The cascade plummets through seven sensational tiers of tropical rainforest in Kanchanaburi province, northwest of Bangkok. The mile-long scramble to its summit gets more adventurous by the minute, as craggy pathways draped in lianas give way to rickety bridges and tree-branch ladders. Stopping to have a swim is irresistible – and, by the time you reach the top, you’ll be soaked anyway. Intrepid Travel (020 3147 7777, www.intrepidtravel.com ) has an eight-day Taste of Thailand tour, which takes in Erawan, from £915pp, including flights

18 Fat Duck Waddle Berkshire Grade 2

The Thames Path must be the world’s laziest long-distance footpath: all downhill from source to sea, no map-reading necessary, just stick to the river. The stretch running from Henley-on-Thames to Bray makes the perfect foodie weekend. The first day is a well-heeled six-mile wander along the rowing river of Jerome K Jerome and The Wind in the Willows. Stay at the Olde Bell, in Hurley (from £150, B&B; www.theoldebell.co.uk ), which has a scrumptious new restaurant, then press on via Marlow and Cookham to Bray, and the Fat Duck (www.fatduck.co.uk ), the ultimate gastronaut’s reward. Altogether you’ve pounded 18 miles (and gained 18lb, probably); www.nationaltrail.co.uk/thamespath .

19 Secret Eden Costa Rica Grade 2

Five hundred types of tree, 220 kinds of butterfly and more bird species than the whole of North America put together: the Corcovado National Park, in Costa Rica, is the most biodiverse place on earth. As you walk the beach trail from Sirena to La Leona, scarlet macaws wheel overhead, pelicans plunge into the waves, white-nosed coatis shovel for crabs and monkeys howl from the rainforest canopy. The jaguars and tapirs are tougher to spot, as are the deadly crocs and bushmaster snakes. You’ll be safe enough with a guide from Corcovado Adventures (www.corcovado.com ); or book a 17-day trekking tour with High Places (0845 257 7500, www.highplaces.co. uk ) for £2,190pp, including flights.

20 Port to port Portugal Grade 2

When is a wine tour not (quite) a wine tour? When it gambols among the sunshiny port estates of the Douro valley, in northern Portugal. This is a pointillist landscape of hill-hung vineyards staircasing steeply into the river - bizarrely evocative of the rice paddies of China. The circular walk from Pinhao up to Quinta do Noval, the Château Lafite of the port lodges, is vintage stuff: a seven-mile circuit, bits of it taxing, but worth every step for the outdoor tasting en route. Arblaster & Clarke (01730 263111; www.winetours.co.uk ) offers it as part of a week’s Douro ramble; from £1,399pp, including flights.

21 Heidi highs Switzerland Grade 2

Kandersteg is classic Switzerland: cuckoo-clock houses, blinding-white peaks and flower-pricked meadows full of cowbells and yodelling. It’s the starting point for the loveliest day walk in the Alps, around a luminous mountain lake called Oeschinensee. A hill-beating cable car from town cuts the circuit to seven miles, and the views are mind-altering. The Victoria Ritter (00 41 33 675 8000, www.hotel-victoria.ch) has high-summer family apartments from £144 per night - and does a mean fondue. Inntravel (01653 617906, www.inntravel.co.uk ) offers a sevennight walking package, based at the hotel, from £609pp, excluding flights.

22 The Postman’s Path Mallorca Grade 2

The dove-grey peaks of northern Mallorca are chunky with sea-view strolling. The Pilgrims’ Path is the loftiest, the Archduke’s Trail the maziest, but for a family-friendly flavour, base yourself in Soller, catch the bus to Deia, the artists’ enclave beloved of Robert Graves, and stride back en familleon the eight well-marked miles of the Postman’s Path, a panoramic mule track through olive groves and orange orchards. Holiday Walks in Mallorca (Sigma Press £9.95) has the route; Andalucian Adventures (01453 834137, www.andalucian-adventures.co.uk ) offers a week’s guided walking from £1,010pp, excluding flights.

23 Tomb raiding Jordan Grade 2

Even at 9am, tourist high tide, nothing dents the drama of a visit to Petra, the wondrous, whittled-out canyon city of the ancient Nabateans. What clinches its status as a New Wonder of the World, however, is the walk that gets you there - almost a mile between the sky-busting sandstone bulwarks of the Siq, a thin gulch etched with 2,000-year-old carvings and echoing with the clatter of ponies and traps. However hot you are, don’t miss making the extra hour’s climb, beyond the fabled treasury and the painted tombs, to explore the city’s immense mountaintop monastery, etched into its crag. For a rather longer trek to Petra, Walks Worldwide (01524 242000, www.walksworldwide.com ) has a 10-day Jordan Gorges holiday for £1,495pp, including flights.

24 Lilies and damsels Pembrokeshire Grade 2

If Monet had hailed from Pembrokeshire, he wouldn’t have needed to spend so much time gardening. Bosherston Nature Reserve (01646 661359) is a fairy land of lily ponds and woods squirrelled behind Broad Haven beach; and, come June, thousands of floating flowers explode into bloom, illuminating the most romantic evening walks imaginable. It’s a seven-minute stroll from Bosherston village, or an elementally gorgeous seven-mile circular hike across gull-draped cliffs from Stackpole Quay, where the National Trust rents cottages from £255 per week (0844 800 2070, www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk ).

25 Mr Henderson’s Railway Spain Grade 2

The British influence on the Costa del Sol is a chequered one: fish and chips, flamenco nights, but also Mr Henderson’s Railway, built in the 1890s to link Gibraltar with the pueblos blancosof the Andalusian high country. It’s a stunner, and it makes an afternoon ramble out of Ronda excitingly easy. Alight in the snoozy hamlet of Benaojan and follow a crisscross track down through the Guadiaro valley, through almond groves and limestone ravines, to still sleepier Jimera, home to Restaurante Quercus (00 34-952 180041). There’s a station to whisk you back. For route details, visit www.andalucia.com . On Foot Holidays (01722 322652, www.onfootholidays.co.uk ) offers a version of the walk on its sevennight White Villages of the Ronda trip; £525pp, excluding flights.

26 The goat track France Grade 2

The 2,000ft plunge from La Turbie to the sea distils the best of the Côte d’Azur into five breathtaking miles. A short bus ride from Nice, this Tuscan-class hill town teeters on the Grande Corniche, and it’s all downhill into the cliffhanging village of Eze, skewered on its limestone spike. If you’ve the cash, and a change of shoes, the Golden Goat (www.chevredor.com ) beckons, with a Michelin-starred meal served before vivid views of the Med. The Grill du Château is a tasty cheaper option. Then it’s a knee-trembling descent on Sentier Frédéric Nietzsche to Eze-Bord-de-Mer, where you can bus back to Nice. Landscapes of Eastern Provence (£12.99; www.sunflowerbooks.co.uk ) has the route, or book a guided week in Nice with Ramblers Holidays (01707 331133, www.ramblersholidays.co.uk); from £368pp, excluding travel.

27 Smugglers’ haunts Cornwall Grade 3

At 630 blistering miles, the South West Coast Path has more ups and downs than Everest. That’s a lot of tramping, but on the 16-mile, two-day stage from Helston, on the suntrap Lizard peninsula, you can scoop off the cream. Among the highlights: smugglers’ tales and crab platters at the Halzephron Inn; heartbreakingly romantic Winwalloe Church, half buried in sand; harbour views from the Mullion Cove Hotel (01326 240328, www.mullion-cove.co.uk ; doubles from £120, B&B); and rock-pooling and ices at Kynance Cove. The Truronian bus (no T34) will whisk you from Lizard village to Helston. Buy a trail guide for £12.99 at www.aurumpress.co.uk .

28 Curry country India Grade 3

Cookery courses come no more organic than on a hike through the foothills of the Kumaon region, beneath the icy frieze of the Tibetan Himalayas. Lodging in village guesthouses along the trail, you’ll get stuck in with harvesting chillies, peppers and pomegranates from the terraced plots, and maybe even help tend the buffalo. Then you can help the Kumaoni women prepare aloo, parathaand raita, garnished with mint chatni. Best of all, you’re helping to bring a livelihood to a threatened mountain community, as part of the Village Ways project. A 12-night trip with six half-day walks starts at £678,excluding flights;01223 750049, www.villageways.com .

29 Nature’s hot tub Dominica Grade 3

The giddy peaks and steaming jungles of Dominica are built for adventure: next year, the island will open the Caribbean’s first long-distance trek, the 125-mile Waitukubuli Trail. In the meantime, the six-hour hike to the Boiling Lake, 3,000ft up in Morne Trois Pitons National Park, packs a mighty punch. The lake is a flooded fumarole, superheated to 92C by gases seeping from the volcano beneath. The route is packed with incident: you’ll begin with a swim through the cavern complex at Titou Gorge and end by simmering your calves in the sulphurous pools of the Valley of Desolation. It’s strenuous, and you’ll need a local guide (contact Dominica Tourism; 00 1 767 448 2045). Motmot Travel (01327 830918, www.motmottravel.com) has a 10-day Dominica Adventure Tour from £1,099pp, excluding flights.

30 The big melt Iceland Grade 3

The Vatnajokull icecap is Europe’s heftiest glacier, and, come spring, it sends blasting sheets of meltwater into the Jokulsa River, which has chopped a 300ft canyon deep into a desert of lava. Cataclysmic stuff, and you can feel the spray on a hike through the canyon to 150ft Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Iceland - a country that offers quite a bit of competition. It’s a full day’s hike on a superlative scale, and High Places (0845 257 7500, www.highplaces.co.uk ) offers it as part of a two-week Iceland Contrasts holiday; from £1,620pp, excluding flights.

31 Footsteps of Apollo Crete Grade 3

Samaria Gorge is Europe’s original and best canyon descent - not to mention the longest (10 miles), deepest (4,000ft) and just plain awesomest. Clamber down at dawn from the Cretan highlands over titanic boulders and tinkling streams, feeding fig leaves to the kri-kri goats and urging each other on with tales about the trolls that might lurk among the 1,600ft walls of rock on each side. It’s where Apollo came on holiday after murdering Python, and it makes a great first trek for older kids, with a beach at the end for bathing. Buses run daily from Chania, round trip £20; gorge fee £4. Samaria is featured on an eight-day West Crete hiking holiday with Cretan Adventures (00 30 2810 332772, www.cretanadventures.gr ); from £678pp, excluding flights.

32 Sunny side up Bali Grade 3

Off to Bali? Don't forget to pack your fleece and head torch. You’ll need them on the night climb to Mount Batur, the island’s sacred (and still active) volcano. The idea is to start at 4am and reach the summit in time to watch the sun rise over the crater - but what you’ll remember is the moonlit ascent across steaming black lava slopes, pimpled with temples and staked out by apes.Up top, your guide will boil an egg for breakfast to demonstrate the fieriness of the volcanic pools. It’s a fun hike for fit children and features on a 14-day Volcanoes and Elephants family tour with Explore (0844 499 0901, www.explore.co.uk ); from £1,500pp (£1,335 for under12s), including flights.

33 Saruman’s lair New Zealand Grade 3

The Milford Track gets all the press - and, by gum, it’s good-looking, especially that whopping great fjord at the end - but it’s also rainy, fly-bitten and often overcrowded. The Kiwi cognoscenti favour the Routeburn Track, a trail with all the majesty for half the effort. A three-day, 20-mile tramp, it treads the snow-capped alpine saddle between Fiordland and Mount Aspiring national parks, with views into the Dart valley - which starred as Isengard in The Lord of the Rings. To download trail notes, visit www.doc.govt.nz . All Ways Pacific (01494 432747, www.all-ways.co.uk ) offers guided treks from £429pp.

34 The green cauldron Madeira Grade 3

Don’t look down! That’s the first rule of walking in Madeira, as you sneak along the slender parapets of the levadas - irrigation channels hacked into the suicidally steep mountainsides by workmen in wicker baskets two centuries ago. They now make brilliant catwalks into the subtropical island interior - so long as you’ve a head for heights. Don’t miss the Levada do Caldeirao Verde: it’s well railed and has monster views, with the 330ft Green Cauldron waterfall as a target. An 11-mile route features in Landscapes of Madeira (£12.99; www.sunflowerbooks.co.uk ); Sunvil (020 8758 4722, www.sunvil.co.uk ) offers a shorter version as part of a one-week walking holiday; from £939pp, including flights.

35 The edge of Europe Ireland Grade 3

Endless skies, emerald hills, whales and dolphins popping up to say hello . . . the Dingle Peninsula is the Ireland you’ve seen in all those glossy television commercials, and a gripping eight-mile yomp across the Three Sisters traverses the best of it. The Sisters are a trio of clifftop pinnacles crashing out into the surf, and the circuit from Dun an Oir via Sybil Point and along the switchback ridge requires a head for heights and good binoculars - southwest Ireland is the best place for land-based whale-watching in Europe. You’ll need OS of Ireland Discovery map 70.

36 Sacred steps Brazil Grade 3

Few city walks are more intrepid than the climb through the bairrosof Rio to the toe-tips of Christ the Redeemer. It starts with pure hedonism on sexy, surfy Ipanema beach; pauses for lunch on the chic streets of Lagoa, Rio’s lagoon district; then rises ever heavenward, fully 2,000ft, on the forested flanks of the Corcovado mountain. Five hours later, you’re at the feet of Cristo, soaked in celestial views and sweaty satisfaction. Or, of course, you could do it by coach. With Jingando (020 8877 1630, www.jingandoholidays.com), a week in Rio starts at £659pp, including the guided walk, but not flights.

37 Up in the gods Italy Grade 3

The Sentiero degli Dei, the Pathway of the Gods, is heavenly all right - but it’s not so much a path as a shelf, chiselled into the limestone cliffs high above the Amalfi coast. It offers balcony views of a shoreline of operatic grandeur: steepling white crags, azure ocean and pastel-shaded harbours twinkling 2,000ft (and 1,700 steps) below. Tiptoeing from Praiano to Positano along the vertiginous trail takes about four hours - or more if you pause for Europe’s most panoramic lunch, at the utterly delicious Trattoria Santa Croce, in Nocelle (00 39 089 811260). Lonely Planet’s Walking in Italy (£12.99) has the route, and it’s the highlight of guided and self-guided seven-day Amalfi itineraries from Headwater (01606 720199, www.headwater.com); from £1,099pp, including flights.

38 Migration route Tanzania Grade 3

The Ngorongoro Crater is the most compelling wildlife enclosure on earth: a natural bowl 2,000ft deep, brimming with 25,000 snarling and scarpering beasts, including the complete fistful of Africa’s Big Five. Standard safaris drive into the crater, but on foot you can escape your own species completely, apart from the Masai who guide you around the north rim, with a fair chance of glimpsing zebras, wildebeest and elephants behind every bush. Audley (01993 838500, www.audleytravel.com ) has a three-day tent-based trek that takes you miles off the beaten track; from £3,500pp as part of an eight-day Tanzania safari, including flights.

39 Here be dragons China Grade 4

It’s said that a tiger once hurdled Tiger Leaping Gorge to escape a hunter, but you won’t want to try it. It’s at least 100ft across - and 3,000ft down into the boiling Yangtze River. The High Trail shimmies along the precipices above. Walked by the stocky, smiley Naxi villagers for generations, it is two days and 15 miles of stupendousness, menaced by the steepling peak of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The trek features on a 21-day Journey Across China itinerary offered by Imaginative Traveller (0845 077 8802, www.imaginative-traveller.com ); £1,099pp, excluding flights.

40 On the Edge Cumbria Grade 4

There’s lots of competition in the Lake District, but Helvellyn is the most characterfulhill climb in Britain. It’s all about the mile to the summit: Striding Edge, a crazy series of dagger-sharp pinnacles that makes you feel you’re clambering along the spine of a stegosaurus. The full circuit from Glenridding, descending via Swirral Edge, takes about six hours (www.lakedistrictoutdoors.co.uk); you need OS Explorer mapOL5. Heart of the Lakes (015394 32321, www.heartofthelakes.co.uk) rents cottages across Cumbria; Dodd’s Lee, at Dockray, sleeps eight and starts at £555 per week.

41 High wire France Grade 4

Fancy a hike up a vertical cliff face? You’ll need avia ferrata - a network of iron cables, ladders and bridges allowing weekend strollers to reach parts usually reserved for mountaineers. Harnessed on the main cable, you can shimmy up the tricky sections without fear of falling. A spectacular first climb is the Rocher du Vent, in French Savoie, involving a hulking 2,400ft Alp, views of Mont Blanc and Lake Roselend, and a spine-tingling high-wire crossing between the twin summits. Essential Montagne (00 33-613 833 970, www.e-montagne.com ) can take you there from Bourg-St-Maurice:a guided day hike costs £50, or it’s £220pp for a four-day adventure package.

42 The ice man cometh Argentina Grade 4

Hikes don’t come more thrilling - nor chilling - than a once-in-a-lifetime crunch across the Perito Moreno glacier, in Argentina. It’s the most spellbinding ice cube anywhere -15 storeys high, three miles across and perpetually chucking vast icebergs into the Lago Argentino. You can view the show from the panoramic balconies, but to feel its full sound and fury, pay £50, pop on your crampons and follow your leader out into the white, dodging sinkholes, water slides and true-blue crevasses. Footloose (0845 330 6095, www.footloose.com ) has a 19-day Patagonia Adventure from £1,510pp, including the trek, but not flights.

43 Into the volcano New Zealand Grade 4

The best day walk on earth? Probably the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, over the smoking summit of one of New Zealand’s more temperamental volcanoes. It’s a hallucinogenic experience, crunching across spiky lava between boiling mud pools, sulphurous steam vents and crazy-blue crater lakes, and takes seven hours — longer if you attempt the tricky side scramble to Ngauruhoe, aka Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. Local operators can bus you in and out (www.thetongariro crossing.co.nz). A seven-day itinerary starts at £1,995pp, including flights and a guided hike, with Bailey Robinson (01488 689700, www.baileyrobinson.com).

44 The Executioner Skye Grade 4

The Black Cuillin is Britain’s movie-star mountain range, the only one with the jagged rawness of the Andes or the Alps. You need ropes and a faraway expression to tackle the full seven-mile traverse, but not for Bruach na Frithe, an eight-mile up-and-down hike from the Sligachan Hotel. There’s steepness and scree, but no vertigo, and your reward is a big-screen panorama of the whole ridge, with Am Basteir, “the Executioner”, looming largest. For route notes, visit www.walkhighlands.co.uk . Wilderness Scotland (0131 625 6635, www.wildernessscotland.com ) includes the ascent on a seven-day Skye trekking tour; £825pp.

45 Cross country England Grade 4

The Hadrian’s Wall Path may be stuffed with roaming Roman history, but if you’re after epic English landscape, the Coast to Coast Walk takes the laurels. Mapped out in 1973 by professional grump Alfred Wainwright, it’s a two-week, 190-mile meander across the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. That’s three national parks — the best three. And there are frothing pints and sustaining breakfasts to fuel your progress. Plan it yourself with Martin Wainwright’s guidebook (Aurum Press £12.99) or hire Coast to Coast Packhorse (017683 71777, www.cumbria.com/packhorse ) to book your B&Bs and move your bags; a 12-night self-guided tour starts at £670pp.

46 Grand traverse America Grade 5

Millions of tourists have brought their boots to the brink of the Grand Canyon, gazing down to where the Colorado River spins its silver thread 6,000ft below. Rather fewer have been down and dipped in their toes. The rim-to-rim traverse of the planet’s biggest hole in the ground is only 24 miles, but it’s iconically tough. There’s a 10-mile descent on the Bright Angel Trail, through a tumble of crimson towers, pink ravines and blasting waterfalls to the river, then it’s 14 zigzagging miles up the other side. You’ll finish smiling broadly through a coating of deep pink dust. The American operator Discovery Treks (www.discoverytreks.com ) offers assorted hikes in the chasm. Ramblers Worldwide Holidays (01707 331133, www.ramblersholidays.co.uk ) offers a two-day traverse on its epic 18-day Canyonlands tour; from £2,562pp, including flights.

47 The cradle of gold Peru Grade 5

A lost Inca city, pristinely preserved, panoramically located and accessible only on foot. No, not Machu Picchu. . . Choquequirao. The “new” Inca Trail is a rugged eight-day camping hike across the Apurimac canyon to the “Cradle of Gold”, its silver-grey temples and terraces looming enigmatically on a 6,500ft ridge. With the (original) Inca Trail becoming overrun and over-regulated, Choquequirao will get busier, so discover it before the hordes. Wilderness Journeys (0131 625 6635, www.wildernessjourneys.com ) has a two-week trip from £1,965pp, including flights.

48 Moon river Namibia Grade 5

Until there are package tours to the moon, we’ll have to make do with Fish River Canyon, an eerie, echoing gash through the Namib desert. Gullies plunge, buttresses fly, cobras hiss and spires and pinnacles of naked rock blush pink, ochre and bronze in the shifting sunlight. It’s a big-league backpacking trek through the ravine — 40 miles in four days if you go with Exodus (0845 863 9600, www.exodus.co.uk ), which combines the canyon trek with a walk on Sossusvlei, the world’s highest dunes; 15 days start at £1,699pp, including flights.

49 The big loop Alps Grade 5

The Tour du Mont Blanc is Europe’s highest hairy-chested hike, a 105-mile circuit right around western Europe’s tallest peak, as well as a few of its satellite summits. Marching out from Chamonix, the trail conquers three countries (France, Italy, Switzerland), dips into archetypal Alpine resorts and tops out at the Fenêtre d’Arpette, at nearly 9,000ft. A good starting point is the Tour of Mont Blanc trekking guide (£12.95; www.cicerone.co.uk ). If you don’t have a Brian Blessed beard and calves like a sucking pig’s, never fear: KE Adventure (017687 73966, www.keadventure.com ) has put together a guided hotel-to-hotel version, with meals and baggage transfers thrown in; 11 nights start at £1,295pp, excluding flights. You’ll still need to be fit, though.

50 Find that yeti Bhutan Grade 5

The yeti is the ultimate cryptozoological enigma: zero confirmed sightings, 15m search results on Google. While there are many mammoth Himalayan hiking adventures (Everest Base Camp, the Annapurna Circuit), on the Lunana Snowman Trek, you feel like a proper pioneer. It involves a month’s hardcore mushing across the snowbound 17,000ft passes of Bhutan, where the yeti, or Dredmo, is sacred. Himalayan Kingdoms (01453 844400, www.himalayankingdoms.com ) plans a super-tough Snowman Trek for October 2009; £5,895pp, including flights.