Hiking can often be done near home, even if you live in a big city. If you or your family are not used to hiking, near home is often the best place to start. Getting away is easier and if something goes wrong or you simply do not enjoy your time, you can go home and do it differently the next time. For some, having a big experience the first time may feel important, but especially for children taking such risks is not a good option: they might get scared away from anything that resembles hiking. On the other hand, they are easily fascinated by very small new experiences. If you do not have a wood or other suitable terrain behind your house, a picnic at some nearby destination with trails and a campfire site may be ideal until you know everybody will be comfortable with more demanding adventures.

At many hiking destinations, there are easy-to-follow trails, such that knowing how to use a map and compass is not essential (although recommended), and there may be lodges with food and accommodation. Some such trails offer the possibility to get to see wilderness without too much skill and effort. The requirements vary though. If you are not used to walk a few kilometres, then a ten kilometres mountain hike will certainly be very hard. And on some trails you may find that the trail is not at all easy to follow, or that the creek you have to cross has transformed into a fast-flowing river. Always check what to expect.

If you do want to start with the big adventure, use a guide and make sure they understand your (lack of) experience and your preferences – and that you understand what you will have to cope with. A tourist entrepreneur once told about customers who wanted an exotic adventure in the wilderness, but were horrified when they realised there would be no water toilet. What are the things you did not think of?

While there are long, demanding trails in the wilderness with comfortable lodging possibilities, there are also trails with unmanned Spartan shelters or only spots where you can put your tent. Wilderness backpacking often means that you have to live without infrastructure (even trails) and with what you carry and perhaps fish from the streams and berries you pick. If you need help, you'll have to fetch it yourself. If you feel like returning to the days long past or truly immersing in the natural environment, wilderness backpacking is a good choice for you.

On long trails that follow roads or bike paths, or where the path otherwise is wide and smooth enough, using a cart or stroller (with large enough wheels and suitable tyres) instead of a backpack can be a great way of saving your back and knees from the load. If you need to carry a few days' worth of water in a hot climate, this is a huge advantage. Make sure it is ergonomic for you. Also mind that this works only on some trails: you do not want to have to drag your cart over long stretches of duckboards, stairs, stones or loose gravel, or where the path is too narrow for it. If you do go for this option, put a backpack in the cart so that if the cart breaks you can abandon it (responsibly) and keep going.

City folks are usually not accustomed to long walks with heavy packing, and usually not to the hilly and sometimes rough terrain of many trails. Even if you are fit, you should try long walks in hilly terrain before you go for any demanding hike. If aiming for real wilderness or long distance hiking, you should start with hikes you can interrupt more easily.

Ideally you build up your skills and endurance little by little, from year to year, from picnics to long wilderness hikes. If you have to train more quickly, remember to start gently anyway.

There are different philosophies about packing. Those looking seriously at backpacking of multi-day hikes will be most concerned about the weight, reliability and versatility of items to pack. Other more casual hikers may re-purpose everyday items or carry additional weight in order to increase their comfort.

Comfort and enjoyment don't necessarily correlate: if you aim for maximum comfort, why don't you keep to your sofa? Instead, think about what luxury indeed augments your experience. For a beginner, things that make you feel at home may be important, while an experienced hiker might want to carry firesteel and flint instead of matches, even if they weight more, and anybody might enjoy some spices to their meal.

There is also the lightweight school versus the traditional school. Ultra-light equipment allows longer daily distances, while often being quite costly (and thus well-represented among sponsored travel blogs). Some of the traditionalists may just not want to spend on an extra set of equipment when what they have at home suffices, while others may want to avoid using high-tech in the natural environment.

Remember that if you don't know how to use an item, it will just be dead weight in your pack. Learn how to use safety-essential items like a map and compass in a safe location before needing to rely on them in the hills. Many of the items below can also be shared between your party – you probably don't all need to carry a first aid kit, as long as you have one or two between you.

The following list constitutes the essentials for the majority of hikes, and is a good starting list for a beginner:

• Backpack
• Waterproof coat
• Jumper (especially wool or fleece)
• A spare layer or two in your backpack.
• Comfortable sturdy shoes (especially hiking boots or training shoes)
• First aid kit
• Map
• Compass
• Mobile phone (charged, off and water-tightly packed – you may want another one for non-critical use)
• Trousers or shorts – avoid jeans as these become heavy when wet.
• Socks (wool socks are considered to offer the best comfort and insulation for hiking, although pure wool may wear quite fast).
• Water – pack plenty and remember to drink it (0.5–1 l of water for every hour of hiking – the need partly depends on temperature, but cold dry air also augments it)
• Food – lunch or dinner, plus slow-release items like nuts for on the move snacking; pack electrolyte tablets for long hikes
• Torch

You may also want to consider bringing some 'luxury' items, which may add to your experience:

• Camera
• Picnic blanket
• Book
• Walking poles – in some terrain these or a staff may be essential

If carrying out a multi-day trip, it is likely that you will also need to carry a stove, tent, and other supplies. See camping for some advice, wilderness backpacking for some more.

It is highly unlikely that you will be the first person to hike in the area where you are going. Consider seeking the advice of other hikers before setting off to learn about any particularly challenging areas or any places of interest.

Weather is one of the main factors in preparing for any hike; know the climate, check weather forecasts, ensure you have a good weather window, with lots of time to spare. Be aware that weather in mountainous or coastal areas can change dramatically and adjust your equipment accordingly. Bear in mind the impact that sudden or severe weather could have on your route – if you are walking next to a river for instance, flooding could render the path inaccessible, and descending cloud could increase the time needed to get "below the weather".

Always overestimate the length of time that a hike will take you – the standard calculation advises 4 km/hr (on a good trail). You may want to adjust the standard calculation down to 3½, 3 or even 2½ km/hr if you are a new or inexperienced walker or if the route grade becomes more difficult — straight through the forest or across a boulder field and it might drop down to 2 km/hr. For any ascends 15 min per 100 m altitude gain is a good estimate, above 3,000 m elevation it is better to use 20-30 min per 100 m altitude gain.

Once you have calculated this, build in additional time for rest stops, lunch breaks, and sightseeing. If your route has you finishing within a few hours of dusk, consider taking a torch with you in the event that you are delayed. An important safety measure is to inform somebody (such as a friend, relative, or even your hotel manager) on your route and when you expect to be back – if you broke your ankle you don't want to climb a hillside to get mobile phone coverage, and your phones could have gone dead. Give a hard deadline for calling rescue services – having your friend decide puts an unreasonable burden on them.

See also Appalachian Trail#Prepare for information about a demanding long-distance trail.

Many well known hiking trails are of long distances, more than many people can tackle on a single trip. One method to do these is to walk in stages using two vehicles to get between start and finish points of a day hike. The method is simple once pointed out. You drive with two cars to the end of the trail, parking one of them there. Then everyone gets into the other car and drives to the start of the section you are walking. At the end of the hike you get back the first parked car and drive back to the start to get the other. Sometimes a local business can be asked to drive the car to the hike endpoint – you avoid driving two cars to the destination (their car is already there, so less driving in total in most situations).

Of course the vastly preferable option if at all possible is public transit. In some countries there are dedicated buses or train stations intended primarily for hikers. There are even remote railway lines where you may request a stop outside a dedicated stop (or official stops that look like they were just improvised).

If you can use public transport (and perhaps a taxi for getting near the trailhead) you avoid the extra driving and the hassle of handling the cars.

Just relying on paper or offline maps requires knowledge on how to read such maps and how to draw conclusions about your position in them. The more information inside the map, the better. Elevation profiles and hillshades inside the map allow you to project the surrounding area into the map and also estimate routes in case of trails missing. E.g. you should avoid trying to hike down or up inside a stream valley to reach the bottom or the summit, instead always look for ridges achieving the same goal — they are often more smooth, sometimes free of trees and won't come up with unscalable barriers.

Also, it is important to understand ascends and descends in maps and at which scale the map is displayed, to calculate distances and times for hikes. Don't use steep scree slopes (at about 30° it is easy to cause a slide – and that's the common steepness because of earlier slides).

Main article: GPS navigation

Nowadays, hiking even in remote regions has become much easier with the help of various software and devices for GPS navigation as well as POI and trail display.

Such devices support navigation, map display, trail recording, POI identification and tourism information. Translation apps can help with conversation with locals, and mobile phones can be used for emergency calls (if there is coverage on the trail or in its vicinity).

However, never rely on these devices – in any demanding environment you need to be on top of it yourself, and there are issues with batteries, controls, toughness etc. Some completely fail in hiking conditions, such as not coping with moisture or cold weather, not having suitable maps or needing a steady good internet connection. Most smartphones cannot be handled with gloves on, and most break if they slip and drop on a stony trail. Also tougher devices can run out of batteries, lose contact to the satellites in a gorge or in dense forest, or give information that you misinterpret.

Even with a perfectly working device, you need to understand the map it shows and any issues with a route it might choose. Few devices can create sensible routes through the terrain. The straight line it may choose in absence of roads is never a good choice, and it may lead down cliffs or across suicidal fords.

Many people will prefer trails that are well marked and well wandered, where no additional devices or separate maps are necessary. You will still have to identify your intended route or destination beforehand. Also, you need to be able to cope if the markings become confusing at some point or the trail itself becomes unusable (taken by a flood, whatever). For simpler trails, you just need to be able to turn back in the worst case; in more demanding circumstances you must be able to improvise a camp and plan new routes.

The comprehensiveness of markers and level of trail maintenance (for identification) can vary widely though, and often hiking needs support by the two former tools.

Blisters on your feet can be an unfortunate result of a walk. Although some people are more likely to get blisters than others, everybody should take precautions and be prepared, so that this remains a minor inconvenience.

Some steps that you can take to reduce the chance of getting a blister:

• Wear good comfortable boots or shoes. Ensure these fit well. New walking boots (particularly leather ones) should be worn extensively before you set off on your trip – buy new boots a few months in advance of a big trip and wear them on gentle day walks from home. At the other extreme boots should not be so worn that they are structurally degraded.
• Wear good socks. Try wearing two pairs of socks – a thin close fitting pair next your skin and then a thick woollen or cotton pair, on longer trips you could wear clean inner socks each day and change the outer ones less often. An alternative is a pair of special two-layer walking socks, which are like having the two socks sewn together. In either case the two layers of fabric between you foot and the boot should result in rubbing being between the two layers rather than against your foot.
• Try to keep you feet dry. Wet skin softens and may form blisters more readily. Avoid putting wet socks on in the morning, and consider changing your socks when you finish walking at the end of the day.
• Immediately remove any small stones which get into your boots.
• Fabric adhesive plasters can be applied to areas of your feet where blisters are likely to form (based on your experience), or where you start feeling they might.

Consider bringing some special "blister plasters" with you. Inspect your feet at the end of day, then clean and bandage any blisters.

To each hiking trip, there are three sides. Check the risks by looking at each of them:

• The people: How is your health and the health of your partners? Do you have enough stamina? Does your ability match the difficulty of the route? Do you have enough experience? Do you carry the right equipment? If you have a 'guide' do they know your level of experience?
• The route: How long? How arduous? How difficult is it to navigate it? Will you meet the most difficult part in the beginning or at the end?
• The circumstances: How does current, past and forecasted weather affect the route?

It is impossible to minimize or cancel all dangers. But if you know about a danger, you can offset it by choosing a safety factor. For example, if it is raining heavily, you can choose a route without river crossings. Or if you feel unprepared, add larger time reserves. Also if the conditions don't seem favourable for a particular hike, don't feel pressured to go against your feelings: even (and especially) experienced hikers know that cautious disappointment is better than risking getting into a dangerous situation.

On each trip, there are many instances where you can decide between three alternatives:

• When conditions are good, carry on
• When conditions are bad, choose an alternative path
• When conditions are bad and an alternative path does not exist, turn back.

So, create and carry a written plan that says when and where you have to make a decision. This forces you to be conscious of the time, the weather conditions, your well-being, and above all – the risks.

A good plan, will also consider your state as the hike progresses. For example, a well planned hike will aim to put any major ascents (such as hill climbing) at the start of the hike when you (and your party) have the energy for it, conversely at the end of the hike, a good plan will have you on a gentle descent, perhaps with "slack" allowances as you are tired.

In remote areas, wind, heat and cold are significant dangers to an injured or a sick person. Finding some kind of shelter is extremely important – that is why you should always carry a map! When looking for lost persons, rescue personnel will always check shelters and their guest books.

There is a trade-off between getting good shelter, and avoiding transport that may be hard for the injured or sick person (and arduous for you). Sometimes it is better to build a shelter where you are or somewhere close.

An injured person will very easily get cold. Make sure they are adequately isolated from the ground and well covered. In cold weather they could share a sleeping bag with somebody for keeping warm. The "space blanket" in your first aid kit reflects body heat and protects from the wind, but it does not prevent heat loss to the ground.

Always know the phone numbers of the rescue agencies. For example, in Europe, 112 is the number for all kinds of emergencies, and most mobile phones will recognise it and treat it as an emergency call regardless of the local emergency numbers (see Phone service#Stay safe). Sometimes calling a dedicated number for your specific situation (such as the local mountain rescue service) is better, but the general emergency service should be able to forward the call or contact them as needed. Before calling for help, write down your coordinates and distances and directions to landmarks that can be used for finding you. Keep your map ready to explain your location. While in some cases, you may be able to use a maps application on your mobile device to identify your location, mobile phone positioning systems often don't work particularly well in rural areas. GPS systems will work provided the GPS can "see" enough sky to find satellites; do a reality check though, especially if the device has been off, as it may use a previous position or something inferred from it until it has found the current one. It is important to tell about landmarks in addition to coordinates, as a mistake in the communication could send rescuers to an entirely different area if you rely just on numbers.

When there is no mobile phone coverage where you are, you must send somebody to call for help. Sometimes climbing a nearby hill is enough to get signal, sometimes you need to get to a road with traffic or an inhabited house. Some mountain shelters have emergency phones (check that in advance).

If possible, send two people with written instructions. Make a copy for those staying, as that will allow you to check whether changed plans are compatible with the instructions, or whether the instructions were ambiguous. Determine what path they should use, and whether they should come back to give assistance.

To ease finding you, especially if you expect rescuers to come by air, or assisted by aircraft, you could create big marks on the ground, such as an "X" from bright-coloured clothes.

When you see or hear a helicopter, use the international signs for help. If you do not need help, make a "N" with your arms to signal "No help needed": One hand pointing to the ground, one hand pointing to the sky. If you need help, make a "Y" with your arms for "Yes, we need help": Point both hands to the sky. This is saving valuable time for the helicopter crew.

When a helicopter is landing, stand with your back to the wind, and your face to the helicopter (the pilot wants to land against the wind). Kneel on the ground, protect your eyes, and do not move. In case of bad vision (fog, night, rain, snowfall), the helicopter crew needs your body as a landing aid. For that reason, wear bright clothing when directing a helicopter.

Part of the camping experience is to be away from screens, but a phone is an essential safety tool and can be handy for other uses.

Keeping the phone off and packed away will help your immersing in the nature around you and getting away from your everyday life. You might want to keep contact with the outside world, but once a day or once every few days should be enough. Coordinate with your company, not to interfere with their experience.

Depending on where you go, you might mostly not have mobile phone coverage. With weak signal, batteries get empty much faster than at home. In most places hill tops get better signal than valleys and you might have information on specific places where you are likely to have good signal, so you might want to schedule contacts for those points on your hike (and keep the phone off otherwise). Using text messages draws less power than calls, and they don't require real time contact. Keep the internet off when you don't need it.

If you need to keep contact for meeting someone, it might pay to arrange that meeting somewhere where you don't miss each other because of lack of coverage or bad weather. A cabin with phone coverage would allow one party to wait for the other and be kept updated on their approach. If you need to climb a nearby hill to get text messages, you might still get enough information. Usually it suffices to know whether they'll arrive tonight, or whether you should wait, continue or go for another meeting place. Usually no need for real time communication, given that you have the mutual understanding.

Mobile phones can also be used for weather services, on the net or by text message. Check addresses and instructions beforehand and bookmark any web page you are going to use; you don't want to empty your batteries searching for the right page. A simple page with little graphical content and little Javascript is usually to be preferred. You might be able to test the pages with just 2G connections allowed, or find some other way to test with similarly throttled connection.

Most smartphones have an integrated satellite navigator. You might want to download a suitable app and the maps you need. It uses quite a lot of power when in use, so if you cannot recharge your phone regularly, you don't want it as your primary means of navigation. There are also other issues, such as risk of failure, see GPS navigation for a discussion. Still, if you lose your trail, it is a good backup. You should also have a paper map at least as backup, one detailed enough that you at least can get out of the wilderness by using it after getting lost.

Most mobile phones aren't made for rough handling. Some don't handle moisture at all, some fail in cold temperatures, and you probably have cracked the screen of one. Even if yours is made to be tough, it might have its batteries go dead, you might drop it into a river or just lose it. A spare phone, charged, off and water-tightly packed, is a good backup. Depending on region, it might not need an SIM card for calling emergency services.

In some areas, especially where reception is poor, there are safety phones at some or most cabins. They may have landline or satellite connection, or just a good antenna on a stationary "mobile" phone. You might not be able to place normal calls – some of these are hardwired to emergency services. Still, they are useful if you are in an emergency, or if you are belated and risk missing the deadline when a friend will call emergency services. Check whether there are any special requirements or handling instructions.

Where you are off the mobile phone grid, you might still get connection with a satellite phone. In some places you can hire one for your hike. If you consider buying one, check coverage: if the satellites are geostationary, they have an orbit over the equator at a specific height, and won't cover the polar regions. Already at high latitudes, such as the Nordic countries or Alaska, they are easily blocked by mountains.

• Kokoda Track