You Already Travel This Way

Most travelers walk more in a single day abroad than they do in a week at home, and it never feels like exercise because the walking is the trip. Anyone who has spent a day like that already knows the appeal of moving through a place under their own power. A hiking or cycling trip takes the part of travel you already enjoy and plans the whole trip around it.

Scott Monaco travels at both ends of this scale, walking cities for hours with a camera or renting a bike to move around town on some trips and, on others, riding more than 300 kilometers in a day or hiking the Liechtenstein Trail across an entire country. Planning these trips comes down to a few things that hold true everywhere. Be honest about your fitness when you choose a route. Get the season right, because a trail that is easy in October can be closed in July. And in most of the longer journeys below, the trip works better with a local operator, someone to handle the logistics of a cycling tour, or a guide who knows which villages along a trail take guests.

The reward of trips like these is that it stays with you. Years later, these trips that test your endurance and connect you more intimately with your surroundings and nature are those that people can describe day by day. To Scott Monaco, that is a good enough reason to consider traveling this way at least once.

Stories from Scott Monaco

In Across a Country on Foot, Scott Monaco hikes the full length of the Liechtenstein Trail, 75 kilometers across the entire country. Crossing a whole nation on foot in a few days in a trip format that exists almost nowhere else.

In It’s Possible, Scott Monaco cycles the island of Bornholm in the Danish Baltic, passing medieval round churches and smoked herring houses. The island is compact enough to take on in a single ride, although Scott’s journey ended differently.

In What We Should Expect to See Is What We Will See, Scott Monaco travels through Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands, the mountainous region along the Mozambique border. The Highlands hold some of the most underused hiking access in southern Africa, and the piece shows what is waiting there.

A Few Routes And Trails Worth Building A Trip Around

The Liechtenstein Trail, Liechtenstein — Seventy-five kilometers across the world’s sixth-smallest country, from the Swiss border to the Austrian one. The trail opened in 2019, and it remains one of the few places where a hiker (or biker) can cross an entire nation in a few days.

Trekking in Yunnan Province, China — Tiger Leaping Gorge is among the deepest river canyons on earth. The routes around Shangri-La and Lijiang extend the trekking for anyone who wants more.

The Jordan Trail, Jordan — A 675-kilometer route from Um Qais in the north to the Red Sea at Aqaba. The Dana to Petra section is the most walked stretch, and hikers on it arrive at Petra through the mountains behind the ancient city.

The Congo Nile Trail, Rwanda — 227 kilometers along the shore of Lake Kivu, open to hikers and mountain bikers, passing through hillside villages and coffee country. Cyclists cover it in about five days and hikers in about ten.

Cycling in Madagascar — The classic route runs south from Antananarivo through the central highlands toward the coast, past rice terraces and the sandstone country of Isalo National Park. Guided cycling tours cover the full route, and a supported trip solves the logistics in a country where independent travel is slow.

The Waitukubuli National Trail, Dominica — The Caribbean’s first long-distance hiking trail runs 185 kilometers across the island in fourteen segments that can be walked individually or as a full crossing. Most of the route passes through rainforest, which covers the majority of the country.

Trekking to Ala-Kul, Kyrgyzstan — The trek out of Karakol climbs to an alpine lake at 3,500 meters in the Tian Shan mountains. Community-based tourism offices in most Kyrgyz towns arrange homestays and horse support at prices that make the country one of the most affordable trekking destinations anywhere.

The Huayhuash Circuit, Peru — A roughly 130-kilometer loop that many mountaineers consider the finest high-altitude trek in the Andes. The route circles Siula Grande, the peak at the center of Touching the Void, and every pass on it sits above 4,600 meters.

Cycling Colombia’s coffee country — Colombia treats road cycling as a national sport, and the climb from Mariquita to the Alto de Letras runs more than 80 kilometers of continuous ascent, often called the longest paved climb in the world. The towns of the coffee region offer gentler riding for anyone not chasing the climb.

Hiking in the Lesotho Highlands — The entire country sits above 1,400 meters, the highest low point of any nation on earth, and the Maloti range offers multi-day trekking between mountain villages and guided routes pass sights like the 192-meter drop of Maletsunyane Falls.

Where To Go Next

New stories from Scott Monaco are published weekly.

If a route or a trail is driving your next trip, tell Scott Monaco what you are looking for.

More Ways to Travel

Explore how Scott Monaco travels: Food & Cuisine · Safari & Birding · Cultural Immersion · Photography · Cycling & Hiking · Solo Travel · Art & Artisan Craft · Books & Bookstores — or see all Ways to Travel.