About the project
An independent record of how trails actually work.
TrailTransfer documents the practical layer of the world’s great long-distance walks — the stages, seasons, permits, transport and luggage logistics that decide a trip.
There is no shortage of writing about long-distance trails. What is genuinely hard to find is the practical layer: how to reach the start, how to leave the finish, whether your bag can follow you, when the huts actually open, and which of it needs booking months in advance.
That information exists — but it is scattered across dozens of small operators, national park pages, forum threads and PDFs in four languages. TrailTransfer collects it into one structured, comparable dataset, and links straight back to the authority that owns each fact.
We are not a travel agency and we do not take bookings. The aim is narrower and more useful: be the page you check before you commit to a route.
How we work
Structured, not editorial
Every trail is described by the same fields — distance, ascent, season, permits, water, accommodation, luggage transfer — so two routes can be compared honestly rather than by whichever has the better prose.
Link out, don’t re-publish
Conditions, prices and opening dates change. For anything volatile we send you to the official authority instead of keeping a stale copy on our own page.
Fact, estimate and opinion kept apart
Measured figures are labelled as planning values, judgement calls are written as judgement calls, and we avoid absolute promises about weather, terrain or third-party operators.
Dated, and correctable
Each trail page shows the year its core facts were last reviewed. If something is wrong or has changed, tell us and we will fix it.
Where the data comes from
Core route facts — distance, cumulative ascent, highest point, typical duration — come from the official trail authority or national park where one exists, cross-checked against established route guides. They are rounded deliberately: these are planning values, not survey data.
Seasons, permit requirements and accommodation types follow the issuing authority. Luggage transfer availability reflects whether the route stays within reach of the road network, which is why some trails are marked as partial or limited rather than simply unavailable.
Where we could not verify something, we leave it out rather than guess.
How the project is funded
TrailTransfer is free to read, has no account, no paywall and no mailing list. Some links to tours and visits in the towns at either end of a trail are affiliate links: if you book through them, we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. They always sit in a clearly labelled block.
Those commissions never influence the information on stages, distances, seasons or luggage transfer, which comes from the sources described above. We do not sell trips or take bookings, and no provider can pay to change what a trail page says.
Start with a trail
Twelve routes, documented to the same standard.