Five Tips for Hiking with Kids

My daughter and I love to go hiking together. We love nature, enjoy venturing into new places that are only accessible by foot, and just really like to be outside. But many parents and caregivers struggle to motivate their kids to go out on long hikes – or even on any hikes. I get many emails and comments with the same message: Your tours look lovely, but my kid would never do this without complaining all the way. Can you please give us tips for hiking with kids?

So, I decided to write about our five best tips for families who want to go on hikes to avoid stress, enjoy nature together, and spend quality time on beautiful hikes. 

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Avoid this attitude – Tips for hiking with kids

“Our kids are too small right now; we will start hiking with them when they are older…” 

I don’t know how many times I have heard this sentence from parents. But actually, I believe that this is one of the bigger mistakes you can make if you want to interest your kids in hiking. If they don’t want to do it when they are small, why would they magically want to do it when they are older? 

I think love of nature and also the enjoyment of moving outside is strongest when instilled very early. It will then come naturally to them later and they will never fall into the habit of complaining about it. I did the first hikes with my daughter when she was 10 months old. She was sitting in her baby carrier, so hiking was always part of our life for her. Once she was able to walk, very soon she had her own motivation to cover the distances. Today she walks more than the adults. Of course, you have to adjust the trips to the age of your children, but in general, I don’t think you can start them too early. 

Hiking with kids – preparation is key 

Right at the beginning, I want to make two remarks that should be self-evident.

Do not tackle dangerous hiking tours with your children, particularly in the high mountains where the weather can change quickly or in very remote areas, where you cannot end the trip earlier if any problems occur. 

Also, always bring the right gear for your kids and have enough food and drinks for them with you – not only to be safe but also to avoid little voices following on the trail: Mum, Dad, I am hungry! 

By the way, I have also compiled a list of great items and gadgets that my daughter loves to take on hikes to keep her busy…

So now, without further ado our five best tips to make hiking trips with kids more enjoyable:  

1. Choose the right hike 

Of course, hiking with kids is only enjoyable when you chose hikes that are kid-appropriate. First of all, this means they should not be too long. There is no general rule of thumb though, every child (and parent) has their own perfect distance. As a parent or caregiver, you can decide best how much walking the kids can manage without getting too exhausted. This does not mean that you should never challenge yourself and your family, but don’t plan something where you already know it might be way too much for one of you. 

We regularly hike 10 miles, but we are also very used to it. For others, three miles might be the perfect length. It also depends a lot on the path – if it’s straight and easy, you can plan for longer distances, but if you have to cover altitudes and the path is rocky and challenging, plan for less. 

The key to hiking with kids is choosing a hike with an interesting destination. Kids don’t enjoy walking just for the sake of it (and neither do many adults…), so if you have a destination that is exciting, the motivation to actually reach there is much higher. It is always amazing when you plan to get to a lake to swim in, a mountain top with an amazing view, or a waterfall that you can climb – this way, the kids will be running ahead to get there first. This is one of our favorite tips for hiking with kids.

Safety concerns should also factor into your decision on which hikes to choose. Especially when you start hiking with your kids, always chose paths that you can also get off of – a hike on a path that is very remote might not be the best choice in these cases. The more practice and self-confidence you get, the more you can challenge yourself and your family. 

2. Include your kids in the planning process of a family hike 

In our experience, it really is great if you include your kids in the planning process for hikes. This way, they feel like they have much more agency in the entire process and will not feel like something is imposed on them. Is there a mountain that you can see every day from your window (at home or where you are on a family vacation)? A castle, that your kid’s friends have visited and told them about? These are the tours you should really take with your children. In my experience, these are the hikes that my daughter is really motivated to finish because she has her own interest in reaching the destination and has helped to chose it. 

Another nice feature is if the path has signs and markings that the kids can scout for. My daughter gets so excited when she has to find the right way and has to look for the red markings of our hiking trail that she always speeds ahead to be the first one to see them. 

Something that will also make kids feel like they have agency and are not only tagging along is having their own backpack. From a young age, my daughter had her own backpack with a couple of toys and snacks – this way she felt like me carrying stuff. It contributed to her feeling more empowered on the trail, and that was again reflected in less complaining. She really felt more grown-up. 

By the way, this is her current backpack that she loves. When she was smaller, we used this model.

3. Princesses, castles, and legends 

Sometimes you do everything right, but your kids still complain while on hikes. Too long, too boring, too hot – you name it. But I have discovered, that there is one thing that always makes my daughter forget that she does not want to keep moving: telling stories. 

The best thing is if you know something about the hike that you are doing that is interesting that you can talk about. I always try to research the area that we visit at least a little bit to have some stories up my sleeve. Who lived in the castle that we will reach at the end of the hike? Why was there a war with the neighboring castle 500 years ago? What was transported on the river we walk along in the middle ages? Who used to live on the land we cross? How did the landscape develop (here it comes in handy that I studied geography and I feel like all those hours learning about glaciers and volcanos were really worth it…)? And while my daughter concentrates on listening and asking questions, the miles just fly by. 

If you don’t know anything about the area or you really have no connection to it, you can also tell other stories. And they don’t always have to be kids’ stories. My mother accompanies us on many hikes, and she has told my daughter every detail about her own childhood in rural Germany by now. When we hiked down from the Everest Basecamp, I told her the entire story of Lord of the Rings – it lasted three days and got us back down to Lukla without her complaining once. Of course, I also made breaks – but she was happy to keep going through those as long as she would get the next bit of the story afterward. 

4. Listen to your children on family hikes 

Particularly when you are tackling longer hikes, it is very important that you listen to your children and pay attention to their behavior. You know them best and can probably tell if they are complaining because they are just bored or if there is something more serious behind it. If you feel like it is not the right moment to just push through, you should never feel bad to turn around or stop a hike at any given moment – your and your kids’ health and wellbeing are always most important. 

We adults tend to overthink everything. We plan the entire day. Sometimes we even map out where we want to make the first break and how many sandwiches we should eat there so that there is something left for later. In my experience, kids are very different there. They just listen to what their body tells them, and as long as there is no solid reason against it, most of the time it’s better to just roll with it. When my daughter needs a break, we take one. When she is hungry, we eat something. Sometimes that means that we have our big picnic half a mile before we actually reach the summit or our destination, but in the end, her resources last longer this way. When I try to force her to go further in that moment, it almost never ends well. 

Of course, you should also plan for more time when you hike with children. The stuff they find right and left of the way is much more interesting than just going straight. One thing I discovered for me is to just let my daughter venture – in the end, that will get us to the destination quicker.

When I let her watch that pretty butterfly for 5 minutes, she will keep moving afterward – if I don’t let her do it and rush her, I will never hear the end of it. But to be honest – isn’t hiking also to spend time in nature again? To stop rushing? And not only to get from A to B? Personally, I have learned a lot from my daughter and I keep learning, as I have sometimes forgotten to cherish those moments and to look for the small things. So, hiking with children can also be a very grounding experience for adults. 

5. Be confident in your decisions

Unfortunately, many times today parents have to justify their decisions to take their kids hiking and let them venture outside in front of others. It’s too dangerous. It’s too hard. It’s too boring. It is almost shocking how removed from nature many people are that think that way. But it also takes some confidence in a parent or a caretaker to say: Yes, we are going hiking, and yes, this is a good decision for our family. 

But this also has an effect on children. Children look up to their parents and caregivers for guidance, and if they radiate confidence, the kids will also be sure that they can do something. The more secure the parents are that children can achieve something, the more self-confident are the kids. If you believe that they can tackle that hike, they will believe so too and will put all their energy into it. While you can and should challenge yourself and your family, do so in small steps so that you can earn the confidence and do it securely. When you work together as a team, there is no limit. 

With these five tips for hiking with kids, we have spent many weekends and vacations on amazing hikes in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. We hope you can take some inspiration from them for your next hike.

Do you have other tips for hiking with kids? What works for your family? Please share with us in the comments!