A WALKING route has been named the tenth most beautiful hiking trail in the world.
The South Downs Way ranked tenth in the top 50 but was pipped to the top spot for the UK.
Scotland’s West Highland Way was the highest-ranking UK spot, finishing fifth in the list, which was compiled by Zalando using Instagram data – the highest-ranking UK spot.
The top 50 list was created by searching the walks hashtag to find out how many images were associated with the route, which was then divided by the number of miles the hike covers to find which one had the most photos taken per mile.
The South Downs Way trail, which runs for around 100 miles from Winchester to Eastbourne, has 65,381 Instagram pictures using the locations hashtag.
This equates to 652 pictures uploaded per mile.
Peru’s Inca trail, which had 9,255 pictures per mile, took the top spot.
This was followed by Camino de Santiago in Spain (3,979) and Refugio Frey and Cerro Catedral in Argentina (2,030).
The top 20 hiking spots are below:
1. Inca Trail, Peru
2. Camino de Santiago, Spain
3. Refugio Frey and Cerro Catedral, Argentina
4. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda
5. Eiger Trail, Switzerland
6. West Highland Way, UK
7. El Camino del Rey, Spain
8. GR 20, France
9. West Coast Trail Vancouver Island, Canada
10. South Downs Way, UK
11. Tour du Mount Blanc, France
12. Thames Path, UK
13. Appalachian Trail, USA
14. Indus Valley, India
15. Fife Coastal Path, UK
16. Cleveland Way, UK
17. South West Coast Path, UK
18. Cotswold Way, UK
19. The Lycian Way, Turkey
20. Via Francigena, Italy
According to outdoor sports specialists Zalando, online searches for ‘best hikes’ has risen 89% when compared to searched from 2019.
Zalando retail manager Taeeun Lee said lockdowns have given people a new appreciation for the outdoors.
“Because international travel has largely been off the menu, many have come to look closer to home for a getaway,” he said.
“As the data shows, the UK has many, many options for those wanting to rediscover the great outdoors, so if you want to get out and see some natural beauty in the UK, it’s really easy to do so.”
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