Guided Backpacking Trips for Beginners: What You Get and What to Ask
A beginner trip is typically two to four days, five to eight miles a day, with a guide who has the permits, the tents, the stove, the water filter, the first aid kit and the food. You carry your own clothing, sleeping bag and a share of the group load, which comes to roughly 25 to 35 pounds. The value is not the walking. It is that somebody else has judged the route, the weather and the water sources, and can turn the trip around safely if something goes wrong. Our multi day hike planning guide covers doing it yourself.
What is usually included
- Permits and campsite reservations, which for popular routes is the single hardest part to do yourself and often the reason to book a guide at all.
- Group gear: tents, cooking kit, fuel, water filtration, bear canisters or hangs where required, and a satellite communicator.
- Food, usually all meals from the first lunch to the last, and better than most people expect.
- Instruction, in packing, filtering water, camp setup, foot care and Leave No Trace.
- A guide with wilderness first aid or wilderness first responder training and a plan for getting you out.
Sleeping bags and pads are sometimes rentable and sometimes not. Boots almost never are, and they are the item that ruins first trips, so buy them early and walk 30 miles in them before you go.
What you carry
Expect 25 to 35 pounds including water. That is your clothing, sleeping bag and pad, personal items, and a share of the group food and gear. On a good trip the guide redistributes weight on day one after seeing how everyone walks.
If that number worries you, two options exist. Llama or mule supported trips carry the group load, which is common in the Rockies and the Sierra. Hut to hut or lodge based walking removes tents and most food, and in the White Mountains and parts of Colorado it makes a first multi day trip much easier.
Questions to ask before booking
- What is the group size and the client to guide ratio? Six to eight clients per guide is typical, and more than ten with one guide is a lot.
- What are the guide's certifications? Wilderness First Responder is the standard for multi day trips. Ask, and expect a straight answer.
- How many miles a day and how much elevation gain? Elevation is what beginners underestimate. Six miles with 2,500 feet of climbing is a hard day.
- What altitude will we sleep at? A first trip that camps above 10,000 feet on night one will be miserable for many people.
- What is the bail out plan? A good outfitter can describe exactly how someone leaves the trip on day two, and what it costs.
- Is the outfitter permitted to operate there? Guides in national parks and wilderness areas need a concession or special use permit. Ask which agency issued theirs.
- What does the price exclude? Usually travel, park entry, gratuities and any gear rental.
What it costs
Prices vary enormously by region and by how much the operator supplies. A weekend beginner trip in a national forest is at the cheaper end. Multi day trips in national parks with permits, food and full group gear cost considerably more, and llama supported or Alaska trips more again. Judge value by three things: guide ratio, what gear you avoid buying, and whether the permit would have been possible for you to get alone.
Good routes for a first guided trip
- An Appalachian Trail section, two or three nights with shelters and frequent road crossings, which means easy exits. See our Appalachian Trail beginners guide.
- The Boundary Waters by canoe, where the boat carries the weight and the portages are the only hard part. Covered in Boundary Waters guided trips.
- Resurrection Pass in Alaska, a graded old mining trail with public cabins along it. Our Resurrection Pass itinerary lays it out.
- The White Mountains hut system, where you sleep indoors and eat cooked meals, so your pack is light. The Presidential Traverse weekend is the ambitious version.
- A single overnight, five miles in and five out. Unglamorous, and the best possible introduction.
If you would rather learn without a group
Hiring a guide privately for one overnight costs more per person but gets you three or four hours of genuine instruction on gear, navigation and camp craft, which then serves every trip you take afterwards. It is the best value in guided walking and almost nobody asks for it.
Have us match you to a trip
Tell us where you are, your dates and how far you have walked before, and we will find the guided trip that fits and tell you honestly if you could do the route unguided. Planning is free, and we earn only if you book through us.
Guided Backpacking Trips for Beginners: What You Get and What to Ask FAQs
Permits, tents, cooking kit, fuel, water filtration, bear storage, a first aid kit, a satellite communicator, all meals and instruction. You bring clothing, boots, a sleeping bag and pad, and carry a share of the group load.
Usually 25 to 35 pounds including water. Llama or mule supported trips carry the group gear for you, and hut based walking in the White Mountains removes tents and most food from your pack.
Five to eight miles, and elevation gain matters more than distance. Six miles with 2,500 feet of climbing is a hard first day, while ten flat miles is not.
The client to guide ratio, the guide's certifications, daily mileage and elevation gain, the sleeping altitude, the bail out plan, which agency issued the operator's permit, and exactly what the price excludes.
Usually, for two reasons. Someone else has the permits, which for popular routes is the hardest part, and someone with wilderness medical training is making the weather and water decisions while you learn how.
Boots, clothing and often a sleeping bag and pad. Group gear is supplied. Buy boots early and put 30 miles on them before the trip, because badly broken in footwear is the most common reason a first trip goes wrong.
