The best hiking destinations for nature lovers
The first crucial question when hiking is: where should you hike without encountering so many other hikers that you feel like you're in a packed subway on a narrow hiking trail or find an overcrowded parking lot on the way there? First of all, it's quite simple: not in places that many other people also know or find beautiful. The Alps, the Brocken, the Saarschleife and the Hermanndenkmal monument are all conceivably bad hiking destinations on a long, sunny weekend in May. But how do you find alternative yet beautiful hiking destinations?
First of all, you should look close to home. This is environmentally friendly and saves you a long journey. Just enter "hiking" and your "place of residence" into Google and you'll get a bunch of hiking suggestions in your region via the outdooractive or komoot portals. And then simply try out a tour that you don't know yet. In a place you've never been before.
Another option, of course, is to ask at the numerous tourist offices in the country. The tourism experts know best which trails are too popular and which ones are still secluded in the forest. For example, the Rheinsteig is the most popular long-distance hiking trail in Germany. Perhaps it's not such a good idea to go there at Whitsun. But on the other side of the Rhine, you can hike along the Rheinburgenweg, which is less crowded. A good recipe against overcrowded paths is to always look for alternatives to the usual walking routes.
In my forest around the corner, I observe that 90 percent of hikers and walkers take the wide, well-trodden paths. But time and again, smaller paths branch off from these main paths, and after a few steps you are in a different, magical world. Alone. Let your next hiking adventure begin!
And always remember: #esgehtBÄRGAUF