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Portsmouth walking opportunities

Walking is good for you. Building walking into your daily routine can help those with conditions like diabetes and heart disease; its many health benefits can include helping to reduce high blood pressure and increasing bone density. Below you will find useful information on local opportunities to help you get your steps up.

** We recommend visiting the websites listed below for details of changes to walking programmes as a result of Covid-19. **

Healthy Walks

Portsmouth HF Rambling Club organises walks for its members every Sunday and on bank holidays. The walks vary between six to ten miles. If you’d like to get involved, visit the club’s website. It costs £6 a year to join, but you can try up to three walks first to see whether it’s for you. 

You can also take part in a range of healthy walks around Portsmouth, which run throughout the week and are led by qualified walk leaders, who have undergone the national Walking for Health training. The walks are a mixture of city and country walks and are a great way to improve fitness as well as make new friends.

Friends of the Earth

Portsmouth Friends of the Earth (FOTE) work to improve the environment locally, nationally and internationally. They organise regular urban hikes in the city; for more information click here.

Walking To School

Over 70% of children in Portsmouth enjoy walking to school every day.

Walking is healthy, economical and fun. It gives your children the chance to develop their road skills, and walking in numbers adds to everyone’s safety.

Benefits of walking to school:

  • Keep fit.
  • Teach your children road safety skills.
  • Less stressful than looking for safe parking spaces.
  • Find out more about the local environment.
  • Reduce your carbon footprint.
  • Save money on fuel and parking.
  • Time to talk to your child and other people.
  • Less cars on the road at peak times means the roads are safer for everyone.

Portsmouth City Council helps local infant and junior schools to run the Walk to School month campaign and delivers road safety education in schools such as child pedestrian training, independent journeys and Bikeability cycle training.

Walking in Portsmouth

If you need to get from A to B, walking in Portsmouth is a smart choice. The city is compact, so it’s not far to walk between the main shopping areas, the seafront and leisure facilities. There are no timetables to keep to, no journey delays, and no overcrowding, and it’s healthy, green, free, direct, and you get fresh air and sunshine en route.

For more information on walking in Portsmouth please visit the Portsmouth City Council website.