Trailblazer Guide Books

TRAILBLAZER             Route guides for the     adventurous traveller

Travel guides written by travellers for travellers

Since 1991 we've been publishing a select list of practical guidebooks written by travellers for travellers. Trailblazer authors have a voice and these books are opinionated. They tell it like it is – bad as well as good.

We've concentrated on providing readers with information on routes as we believe the interest can be as much in the getting there as in the final destination. The range now includes adventure travel guides, rail guides, worldwide trekking guides and British walking guides. Take a look at our booklist and be inspired! 

Trailblazer British Walking Guides App

Our partner, Atlas Guides, has produced a British Walking Guides App that now includes the South Downs Way, West Highland Way, and the Ridgeway. Additional trails are coming soon. More here...

Offa's Dyke Path - 5th edn 

New two-way guide 

This new edition has been rewalked in both directions - from Chepstow to Prestatyn and from Prestatyn to Chepstow and reformatted for use by walkers hiking south to north and north to south.

The Offa's Dyke Path is a superb National Trail that runs from the North Wales coast to the Severn Estuary following the line of Offa's Dyke, an impressive 8th-century earthwork along the English/Welsh border. The ever-changing landscape – the Clwydian Range, the Shropshire Hills, the Black Mountains and the Wye Valley – is steeped in history and legend providing 177 miles (285km) of fascinating walking.

Read more and buy the book.

Thames Path - 2nd edn 

The Thames Path is a national trail running for 184 miles from the river’s source at Thames Head near Kemble to the Thames Barrier in London.

The path begins, as the river does, in a meadow in the Cotswolds; its upper reaches lonely and wild. As the waters deepen the settlements along its banks begin to grow in both size and grandeur and, reaching Oxford, the solitude of the river slowly subsides and the trail becomes as much about historic towns, churches, abbeys and castles as it does the river.

Lechlade, Abingdon, Wallingford, Henley ... they all owe their location to the Thames, and different eras, when the river was a life source, a place of conflict, a boundary, a mode of transport and the provider of leisure, which, thankfully – for us, at least – it remains to this day.

• 99 large-scale walking maps – at just under 1:20,000 – showing route times, gradients, where to stay, interesting features; includes GPS waypoints
• Guides to 98 towns and villages – where to stay, restaurants and pubs
• New second edition – includes extra colour mapping and trail profiles

Read more and buy the book.

Kilimanjaro - The Trekking Guide - 5th edn

At 5895 metres (19,341ft) Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest mountain. Yet with no mountaineering skills necessary to reach the summit, even non-climbers can experience the thrill of climbing one of the world’s greatest peaks. Taking you from the dusty plains of East Africa through jungle and moorland to the glacier-clad summit, this is one of the most beautiful and challenging treks there is.

• The most authoritative and detailed guide to climbing Africa's highest mountain.

Read more and buy the book.