Join our Festival of Walking

YHA’s Festival of Walking is our annual celebration of walking from hostels - and everyone’s invited. 

It takes place each autumn with a packed programme of free guided social walks and a wide choice of mapped self-guided walks for your own adventure. And there’s also a generous discount on overnight accommodation at participating hostels throughout the festival period.

The festival will help you learn new walking skills, boost your health and wellbeing, and connect with nature and the outdoors. It’s put on in association with BMC, the Ramblers, Ordnance Survey and Cotswold Outdoor with support from Sport England and Pilgrim Trust.

We hope to see you there!

Ways to join in

Group of people reading a map

Plan your own walk

Social walk from YHA Hartington Hall

Join a social walk

YHA Festival of Walking banner outside YHA Hartington Hall

Save 20% on hostel stays

Upcoming social walks

These walks are free, open to everyone and designed to help you enjoy and explore the outdoors - you even get a free cuppa and cake at the end!

Self-guided walks

Plan your own walk

Go walking at your own pace by staying at one of our participating hostels, downloading a self-guided walking map or choosing from range of accessible routes that are close to YHA hostels.

Ways to explore

People looking at a self-guided walking map

Plan a self-guided walk

Download free maps and route instructions for walks across England and Wales. All our self-guided walks start and end at a YHA hostel.

View self-guided walks

Walkers outside of YHA South Downs

Book a hostel stay

Many of our hostels are hosting activities for YHA's Festival of Walking and are ready to welcome tentative trekkers and hardened hikers.

View participating hostels

Group on an accessible walk in Malham

Explore accessible routes

Accessible means different things to different people. We have identified a range of accessible routes from and near our hostels.

View accessible routes

Email sign up

Keep up to date on walking with YHA

Sign up for festival updates

Be the first to hear about new YHA walking activities including special offers, mapped routes and our annual Festival of Walking. View our Privacy Notice.

Special offers

Get exclusive discounts at a range of YHA hostels during the Festival of Walking

Ways to explore

Walkers looking over a field out towards the sea

Get 20% off for walkers this autumn

Throughout the festival, we’re offering 20% off stays at selected hostels to encourage as many people as possible to get out walking.

View offer

Group walking near YHA Hartington Hall

Get 20% off stays for walking groups

Get your group together and enjoy an unforgettable YHA experience for less. We’re offering 20% off group packages at selected hostels to encourage as many people as possible to get out walking.

View offer

Festival news

Social walk from YHA Hartington Hall during festival of walking

Why YHA and walking are a perfect match

There are some things that just go together. Fish and chips, rock and roll, YHA and walking. There’s no need to travel far and wide, or break the bank, for a stunning walking how...

Festival partners

To support us in our mission to get more people involved in recreational walking, we partnered with some amazing organisations to deliver this year’s Festival of Walking.

Partner logos

BMC

Cotswold Outdoor

Ordnance Survey

Pilgrim Trust

The Ramblers

Sport England

Opportunities for Outdoor Citizens

Outdoor Citizens opportunities

Thanks to continued funding from Sport England, The Pilgrim Trust and Cotswold Outdoor we were once again able to offer bursaries to members of the Outdoor Citizens community to support more people from diverse or underserved communities to get involved in this year’s Festival of Walking.

Find out more