Walking with like-minded people is a surefire way to enhance the enjoyment of your walks, build deep and long-lasting friendships, bring families closer together, and motivate you to keep getting out into nature. Whether you walk with your best friend every morning, a local rambling group every weekend, your colleagues every lunchtime, or just love getting out together as a family at every opportunity, you’ll quickly discover the huge benefits of group walking. You’ll motivate and encourage each other, give tips and advice on everything from the best boots and rucksacks to your favourite walking snacks, and share new routes both in your local area and further afield.   ...

But most of all walking with other people is about fun and friendship. We’ve been overwhelmed by stories from #walk1000milers who have discovered new walking groups, built incredible new groups of friends, and even reconnected with long-lost relatives while taking part in the challenge. So if you fancy signing up and want someone to walk with, pick up the phone and call a friend or family member and ask them to join you. It doesn’t matter if they’re an experienced long-distance hiker or have never laced up a pair of boots in their life, just get out and start walking together. If you’re looking for someone new to walk with then sign up to our Facebook group, which has almost 30,000 members who constantly share stories and arrange walking meetups all over the country. Check out the Walking for Health website, which provides England’s largest network of free health walks with 1,800 taking place each week. There are more than 500 volunteer Ramblers groups across England, Scotland and Wales, with most of their walks taking place at weekends and more than 300,000 people taking part each year. Search for guided walks in your local country park or nature reserves, start a regular lunchtime walking group with people you work with, encourage your kids to walk with you to and from school – you can do it any way you like. Walking 1000 miles in a year breaks down to 19.23 miles a week, or 2.74 miles and roughly an hour of walking a day. You’ll have a great time doing it by yourself; but if you share those miles and hours with other people, just imagine how much fun you’ll have along the way.