Good question. What’s the difference, really?
In Australia, where I’m from, we call it bushwalking. In New Zealand they call it tramping. In Nepal it’s trekking. In Britain it might be walking, hillwalking or even fellwalking. Americans generally call it hiking.
Apparently, we’ve all spent a lot of time around the world coming up with different names for putting one foot in front of the other.
We call our Dolomites trips walking tours, although plenty of people would call what we do hiking. We usually cover about 6–8 miles a day with approximately 1,000 feet of ascent and descent, sometimes on smooth gravel paths and sometimes on rocky, uneven mountain trails.
At the same time, we don’t want to make a day unnecessarily difficult just to call it a hike. We use cable cars and chairlifts when they make sense, stop for photographs, enjoy lunch at a mountain refugio, and aren’t opposed to the occasional cappuccino or strudel break.
Some of our guests are very experienced hikers, some simply love walking and being in the mountains, and others just want an active vacation in a beautiful place. That’s why running shoes aren’t appropriate, and trail shoes with a good, grippy Vibram-type sole are perfect.
After leading more than 250 groups in the Dolomites, with people of all ages, fitness levels, and walking experience, we’ve become pretty darn good at matching walks to our guests. Our completely unscientific estimate is that we find the Right Path for everyone about 98.3% of the time.
With small groups and enough guides, we can often give stronger walkers a little more while allowing others to enjoy the day at their own pace. And there’s almost always more walking available for anyone who still hasn’t had enough at the end of the day.
Call it walking. Call it hiking. Call it bushwalking, tramping, or trekking.
We just call it a great day in the mountains.