How Fit Do You Really Need to Be?

It is the question we are asked more than any other, and the one most clouded by anxiety. The reassuring truth is that our grand journeys are designed for curious, reasonably active adults — not for athletes. You do not need to be fast, slim or young. You need to be able to walk comfortably for a few hours, on uneven ground, on consecutive days, and to recover overnight.

But honesty cuts both ways. These are escorted journeys, not cruises with excursions, and a traveller who arrives genuinely unprepared will spend the trip struggling rather than savouring it. This article is meant to help you place yourself accurately — and, where there is a gap, to show you how modest the work of closing it usually is.

What our journeys actually ask of the body

The walking intensity varies considerably across the six journeys, and we describe it plainly in each itinerary. The Great Rift is rated moderate: early starts and long game drives, with gentle walking and no trekking required. At the other end, Beyond the Blue is demanding — not because of distance, but because of cold, altitude and confined spaces, with mandatory medical screening.

Most journeys sit between those poles. Andes to Antarctica, The Long Way East, The Pacific Arc and The Silk Road Reborn all include walking days that ask for three to six hours on the trail, sometimes at altitude, sometimes with significant ascent and descent. None requires technical skill — no ropes, no climbing — but all reward a body that has been prepared.

A simple self-test

Here is a practical benchmark you can try at home over a fortnight. Can you walk briskly for two hours on hilly, uneven ground, carrying a five-kilogram daypack, and finish tired but not exhausted? Then, can you do a shorter walk of an hour the very next day on those same legs without dreading it?

If the answer to both is yes, you are at or near the baseline for our moderate journeys, and a few weeks of training will sharpen you for the more demanding ones. If two hours feels like a great deal, you are not unfit — you simply have a clear, achievable target to train towards. And if the test feels easy, your preparation can focus on the journey’s specific demands rather than on general fitness.

Why the gap is usually smaller than it feels

Travellers routinely overestimate how fit they need to be and underestimate how quickly fitness improves. Walking fitness, in particular, responds fast: someone who currently manages a comfortable thirty-minute walk can usually build to a comfortable two-hour walk within six to ten weeks of consistent, gradual effort.

The body adapts to exactly what you ask of it. You do not need to run, lift heavy weights or join a gym. You need to walk, regularly, on hills, and to add a little distance each week. The journey itself is the goal, and the training for it looks reassuringly like the journey: walking, in good boots, in the open air.

When fitness is not the real question

Sometimes the concern travellers voice as fitness is really about something else — a knee that has been operated on, a heart condition, breathlessness, or simply the uncertainty of age. These are not reasons to assume a journey is closed to you, but they are reasons to seek proper advice. Speak to your own doctor, ideally one who knows your history, and be specific about what the journey involves.

Our pre-departure medical questionnaire exists precisely to surface these matters early, while there is time to plan. Many travellers in their seventies and beyond complete our journeys superbly. What matters is not a number on a form but an honest, informed picture of what your body can do — and a journey, or a module within it, matched sensibly to that picture.

Choosing the right journey for your body

If you are unsure, begin with a journey or module whose intensity you are confident of, and let it teach you what you are capable of. Many travellers join one module of a longer journey, discover they are stronger than they feared, and return for the more demanding stretches in a later year.

Fitness should shape which journey you choose and when, not whether you travel at all. Tell us honestly where you stand and we will tell you honestly what suits — including which walking days have gentler alternatives, and where a rest day naturally falls. The aim is always the same: a journey you finish glad, not merely relieved.