West Highland Way one of the 'world's best hikes'

According to National Geographic.

Any route out of Glasgow is going to be popular.

American experience of UK outdoors is very limited. If the West Highland Way hadn't been chosen, it would probably have been (north to south) Hadrian's Wall Path, Coast to Coast Walk, or the Cotswold Way.

Then again... I guess Americans would be appalled if we voted on their favourite bits!

Kinley wrote (see)

Any route out of Glasgow is going to be popular.

Agreed but how does that account for the popularity of one that goes into Fort William?

As Paddy says, it's probably the only one the Yanks have heard of and that's only because Scotland is second on the US list of 'pretending to be from' after Ireland.

Still a nice walk, although it gets massively better after leaving Crianlarich. 

I agree. I think people can be a bit snotty about the WHW. I enjoyed it far more than I expected to when I did it. Yes, it's waymarked and yes, there are more exciting/challenging routes to be created or followed, but from Crianlarich onwards it gets increasingly grand. I  love the Mamores section from Kinlochleven to Glen Nevis. 

But even there there's the route out round the back and down Glen Nevis instead.....

(or of course over the hills )

Jake wrote (see)

Kinley wrote (see)

Any route out of Glasgow is going to be popular.

Agreed but how does that account for the popularity of one that goes into Fort William?

 

Good point. Although it used to end in the outskirts of Fort Bill - the new "improved" version goes into town.

The walk improves the further north you get but no way would I consider it to be one of the worlds best hikes. I haven't done long distance trails outwith Scotland so can't comment on them but I would suggest that the Cape Wrath Trail is far superior to the WHW.

Slainte

Lindsay

National Geograph's best trails

There may well be criteria that we don't know about. Like having heard of it in the USA as Paddy suggests, or ensuring that there's coverage from around the world.

Kate... that link won't let me see the 20 trails for more than a couple of seconds before it flips back to the Mount Kailash Pilgrimage. However, I did notice that the Israel Trail was next on the list... a trail that a lot of Americans, but hardly anyone else, will have heard of.

Im really suprised the Leeds to Liverpool canal aint up there with the best

One of the best pub crawls in Scotland.

Bet the article doesn't mention the 26 billion midges that are going to feast on you

Last time I walked the West Highland Way, there were lots of Americans, and of course they all looked the same to me. However, I was walking along the trail with one of them for a few hours, and all the other Americans' collective jaws dropped whenever they saw him. I began to get the message when they invariably exclaimed... "Look... it's Garvin from NBC!"