Fresh air hitting your lungs and sunshine warming your skin give your body an instant natural high as you reap the benefits of a good walk. Tour companies offering walking tours are on to this secret, providing clients with opportunities from light walks to serious hikes, letting them experience the world with a wellness twist.

Tour company Oku Japan offers a variety of experiences in Japan, including the multiday Temples and Trails of Shikoku excursion, a small-group guided walking tour focusing on physical and spiritual wellness. The island of Shikoku is famous for its 88 Temple Pilgrimage Trail with a 1,200-year history of pilgrims walking the island to visit its Buddhist temples and sacred places such as Mount Kōya. Along the trail you will likely encounter traditional pilgrims, known as ohenro, clad in white cloaks and searching for enlightenment while they pay homage to the original pilgrim, Kōbō Daishi, more commonly known as Kūkai.

With Oku Japan, you’ll not only walk through stunning landscapes to visit the Buddhist temples, but you’ll also experience traditional shukubo, or temple lodgings, where you have the opportunity to pray with resident monks. At onsen ryokans, traditional Japanese inns, you’ll bathe in the thermal waters of natural hot springs.

Zenjibuji Temple No. 32 in Shikoku © Katinka2014 | Dreamstine.com

Inside Asia is known for its immersive tours offering a variety of authentic experiences such as the Trails of Northern Thailand tour. This five-day walking journey through rural Thailand emphasizes the stark contrast between the chaos of city life and the quieter, simple life of the hillside tribes, including the Akha and Karen people. From visiting sacred temples by day to sleeping in rustic bamboo huts by night, this experience lets you channel your inner strength while you explore your own spirituality and connection with nature.

Road Scholar offers a unique brand of tour, focusing on education while experiencing the most beautiful corners of the world. Its Discover New Zealand: Walking Clean and Green tour focuses on the wellness of the planet with a 22-day walking excursion that includes massive glaciers, pristine lakes, lush rainforests and sweeping coastlines. Along the way you’ll not only enjoy the quietude of this island nation, giving you plenty of time for self-reflection and self-growth, but you will also learn about the “clean and green” commitment of New Zealand and its Māori people who work to maintain the pristine landscape and, in turn, the wellness of the planet.

These tours take you on epic journeys from which you will return home refreshed and renewed, both physically and spiritually. Not only will you walk your way to improved health, but the connections you experience between nature, spirituality and humanity will also strengthen your faith in yourself and in the world you inhabit.