There is a particular moment, somewhere in the vicinity of turning 60, when a great many otherwise sensible people develop a sudden, urgent need to walk very long distances for no immediately obvious reason. I don’t fully understand the mechanism, but I’ve watched it happen to enough friends, colleagues and in-laws to trust it as a genuine phenomenon rather than a coincidence. One day you’re happily commuting to an office. The next, you’re studying elevation profiles for a nine-day traverse of somewhere you can’t quite pronounce, and buying boots with more technology in the sole than your first car had under the bonnet.

It’s a rite of passage, and not an unreasonable one. Retirement hands you back the one thing a career quietly rations for forty years – actual, uninterrupted time – and walking is the most honest way to spend it: no itinerary beyond putting one foot in front of the other, no meeting that can interrupt a view like this. So here are five walks worth putting on the list, including a genuinely new one that’s just launched, plus, since I refuse to write about strenuous physical activity without addressing the reward that justifies it, what you ought to be eating at the end of each one.

1. Catalonia – The Southern Hills, Spain (brand new for 2026)

European specialist On Foot Holidays has just launched its newest self-guided route, and it happens to be its most Catalan yet – its tenth walk in Spain, and the 41st across its full portfolio of 11 countries.

The nine-night route begins in Falset, a handsome wine town in the hills above Barcelona, and winds through river gorges, hilltop hamlets and the villages of Tivissa, Miravet on the Ebro River, and Horta de Sant Joan, past vineyards, olive groves and cherry orchards, before a final lofty ridge delivers sweeping views down to the Ebro at Xerta. It’s graded medium effort, covering 10 to 19 kilometres a day, with your luggage transferred ahead of you each night so you’re carrying nothing heavier than a day pack and your own sense of accomplishment. Nine nights’ accommodation in rural inns, daily breakfasts, five picnic lunches and four dinners are included, from $2,728 per person twin-share. On Foot Holidays also offers a 10 per cent discount if you combine it with their other, linking Catalonia route from Falset – worth asking about if you fancy a proper immersion rather than a taste.

Eat this after: a proper Catalan calçotada if you can time it right – sweet, charred spring onions dragged through romesco sauce – or, failing the season, a hearty plate of fideuà, Catalonia’s noodle answer to paella, which does exactly the carbohydrate-reloading job you need after a day on a ridge.

2. The Kumano Kodo, Japan

One of only two UNESCO World Heritage-listed pilgrimage walks on Earth, the other being the Camino de Santiago, the Kumano Kodo winds through the sacred, forested mountains of the Kii Peninsula, linking ancient shrines before delivering you to Nachi Falls, Japan’s tallest waterfall. Self-guided operators run it over anywhere from four to eight days, with luggage transfers, detailed track notes, and nights spent in family-run ryokans — many with their own onsen hot spring waiting at the end of the day, which may be the single best piece of recovery technology available to the ageing hiker.

Eat this after: a proper multi-course ryokan dinner – a kaiseki spread of rice, miso soup, grilled fish and pickles is traditional, but don’t feel remotely guilty about a bowl of thick udon noodles in a hot broth if that’s what your legs are actually asking for.

3. The Cotswold Way, England

A gentler, more pastoral proposition, the Cotswold Way runs roughly 164 kilometres along the limestone escarpment from Chipping Campden to Bath, through the honey-coloured villages, drystone walls and rolling sheep country the region is famous for. Self-guided operators break it into a comfortable week or so, with nights spent in proper old coaching inns rather than tents, which is precisely the point.

Eat this after: a Sunday roast, regardless of what day it actually is, with a Yorkshire pudding the size of your hat, followed by a pint of local ale by the fire. This is not negotiable.

4. The Great Ocean Walk, Victoria

Closer to home, the Great Ocean Walk runs 104 kilometres along Victoria’s rugged southwest coastline, from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles, threading clifftop tracks, secluded beaches and coastal heathland with genuinely dramatic ocean views the entire way. It’s typically walked over five to eight days, with a scattering of excellent boutique accommodation and cafés along the route, meaning you can do the whole thing without once resorting to a two-minute noodle.

Eat this after: fish and chips, eaten out of the paper, sitting on a headland looking at the very ocean that just battered the cliffs you walked past all day. A flat white beforehand is also compulsory; this is still Victoria.

5. Vermont, Inn to Inn, USA

For something gentler in distance but rich in charm, Vermont’s self-guided inn-to-inn walking routes lead you through the Green Mountains along quiet forest trails and covered-bridge back roads, with a genuinely excellent historic New England inn waiting at the end of each day rather than a tent peg. It’s a particularly lovely option in the autumn, when the famous foliage turns the whole state into a fire hazard of red and gold.

Eat this after: a proper New England maple-glazed dinner – think roast pork or turkey with all the trimmings – followed, unapologetically, by apple pie. You’ve earned the calories; Vermont has practically no other purpose in life than to give them to you.

One foot after the other

Whichever mountain, ridge or coastal path calls to you, the actual hard part of any of these trips isn’t the walking. It’s the logistics – flights, transfers, luggage, timing it all so you land somewhere jet-lagged and immediately need to find a bed rather than a departure gate.

That’s where it’s worth letting someone else do the boring bit. Contact the team at Travel at 60, who can arrange your flights, accommodation and connections for any of these walks, turning the daydream on your kitchen table into an actual stamp in your passport.