European Hiking Trails: Our Guides for Walkers Over 40

The Trails We Have Hiked (and Written Up)

We are Sheila and Bruno, a Dutch couple in our forties who traded the corporate ladder for a life split between the Netherlands and Portugal. European hiking trails is how we reset. This hub is our active log of the European treks we have actually walked, from the Atlantic cliffs of the Rota Vicentina and the granite of the Serra da Estrela to the sandstone gorges of Luxembourg and the lakes of Croatia.

Every guide covers the practical side: how to get there, tickets and timeslots, distances, where we slept, what went wrong, and what we would do differently. No stock photos, no trails we have not walked ourselves.

Hiking Portugal

Portugal is where we spend most of our trail time, and where we are relocating to. These are the routes that shaped that decision.

Loriga Portugal

Loriga Portugal

Loriga Portugal is the kind of place your nervous system remembers before your mind does….

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Hiking Beyond Portugal

Long weekends and road trips from Amsterdam: Luxembourg, Croatia and southern Spain.

How We Choose and Rate a Trail

We are not ultralight athletes. We are two people over forty with jobs, a business and knees that have opinions. So we look at four things: is the route doable in a day or a long weekend, is it reachable by car or public transport, does it need advance tickets, and does it deliver something you cannot get from a viewpoint car park. If a trail fails on the last point, it does not get a guide. Before you go, check the gear and apps we rely on in our Outdoor Equipment reviews, including our comparison of the best hiking apps and our AllTrails subscription review.