How long does it take to walk 20 miles?
Twenty miles is 32.2 km, a long, full day on foot. It is a little more than a fast pilgrim's day on the Camino de Santiago, and about three quarters of a marathon.
The numbers
32.2 km · 20.0 miles, in steps
| A child, 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) | about 64,800 steps |
| 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in) | about 48,600 steps |
| 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in), the average adult | about 45,700 steps |
| 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) | about 43,200 steps |
| 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) | about 40,900 steps |
| A giraffe, 5.5 m (18 ft) | no idea, sorry |
Step length is about 41% of height. Give or take 10% for how you walk.
How long it takes to walk
| A stroll, 4 km/h | 8 h 3 min |
| A normal walk, 5 km/h | 6 h 26 min |
| A brisk walk, 6 km/h | 5 h 22 min |
Walking without stops, on level ground.
Calories, by body weight
| 55 kg (121 lb) | about 1,128 kcal (1,500 incl. resting) |
| 70 kg (154 lb) | about 1,436 kcal (1,909 incl. resting) |
| 85 kg (187 lb) | about 1,744 kcal (2,319 incl. resting) |
| 100 kg (220 lb) | about 2,052 kcal (2,728 incl. resting) |
The walk's own cost at 5 km/h. The second number adds what you would have burned sitting still, which is what some fitness trackers show.
Try your own distance
Steps
about 45,700
41,200 to 50,300 depending on your stride, about 0.70 m a step at this height.
Distance
32.2 km · 20.0 miles
Time on foot
6 h 26 min
at 5 km/h, no stops
Calories
Depends on your weight more than anything else. Enter it to see an estimate.
That is 3/5 of the way to Everest Base Camp.
How long does it take to walk 20 miles?
About 6 hours 26 minutes at a normal pace of 5 km/h (3.1 mph), 5 hours 22 minutes at a brisk 6 km/h, 8 hours 3 minutes at a stroll of 4 km/h. Those are level-ground figures without a single stop, so plan on a full day, seven to eight hours with stops. Twenty miles is 32.2 km, a long, full day on foot. It is a little more than a fast pilgrim’s day on the Camino de Santiago, and about three quarters of a marathon.
Does age change it?
Yes, but less than people expect. A meta-analysis of 41 studies and 23,111 healthy adults measured normal walking speed by decade: the fastest group, men in their forties, averaged 1.43 m/s, which is a mile in about 19 minutes, and the slowest, women over eighty, averaged 0.94 m/s, about 28 minutes a mile. Everyone in between is within that band. Over 20 miles, that difference adds up to hours, so pick a daily distance that suits your own pace.
How many steps is 20 miles?
About 45,700 for an adult of average height, from about 40,900 at 1.9 m to 48,600 at 1.6 m. That is four to six times the daily step counts the health research looks at, in one go: a day you build up to rather than start with.
How many calories does walking 20 miles burn?
About 1,435 kcal for a 70 kg (154 lb) adult at a normal pace, from roughly 1,130 kcal at 55 kg (121 lb) to 2,050 kcal at 100 kg (220 lb). Weight decides most of it, pace barely matters between 4 and 6 km/h on the flat, and that is the walk’s own cost above sitting still. Some fitness trackers add the resting share and come out about a third higher.
A goal for every walk
The hard part of walking more is not the walking. It is having a reason to go out today. reTrek gives your walks a finish line: pick a famous route, like the Camino de Santiago or the Inca Trail, and every walk moves you further along it, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. The walk you would have skipped becomes the one that gets you to the next milestone.
Walk it with a friend and pool your steps, or race them there. Everest Base Camp is free. Get reTrek.
Other distances
Sources: Normal walking speed, a descriptive meta-analysis, Bohannon and Williams Andrews, Physiotherapy, 2011 · Energy expenditure during level human walking, Ludlow and Weyand, Journal of Applied Physiology, 2016