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Walk the West Highland Way

By day three your feet have opinions of their own, and by day five you stop caring what you look like arriving at the pub in wet gaiters. The route runs ninety-six miles from Milngavie to Fort William, waymarked with a small white thistle that becomes strangely reassuring after ten hours in mist on Rannoch Moor. Most walkers give it six to eight days, timed for May to September when the light lasts until eleven and the midges are merely bad rather than biblical. The Devil's Staircase sounds worse than it climbs. What you remember afterwards isn't the scenery so much as the specific ache of putting boots on for the seventh straight morning.

Practical

Cost
$600–1,000
Best time
May to September, before autumn rain and after the worst of winter closures
Difficulty
Moderate
Time it takes
6–8 days of walking
What people get wrong
People underestimate how much a full pack wears down knees and shoulders over consecutive days, and skip booking accommodation early enough for the busy June–August stretch; many also walk without midge repellent and regret it within the first wet evening at camp.
With
A group

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