The 'Walk Beauty' Score

I love walking in the English countryside. I also happen to be a big fan of English pubs. When I go for a walk I like to combine the two, with a nice walk in the countryside, broken up half-way by a nice pub lunch and a couple of beers. It is not unknown for me to have another one or two beers at the end of the walk as well.

With all that beer drinking, when I'm looking to go on a country hike, I need a walk that begins near a train station. Walks.IO therefore seems to have been created especially for me. Type in any UK train station into Walks.IO and you will be shown a number of walking routes within a short distance of your chosen station.

However that is not the main reason why I love Walks.IO. The main reason why Walks.IO is my favourite walking application is its intelligent route creation algorithm. Walks.IO automatically generates walking routes for you by taking into account various information about your selected location, such as national parks, heritage coasts and listed buildings. It automatically generates the most attractive walking route based on nearby points of interest, avoids busy roads and routes through as many natural and urban landmarks as possible.


When you select one of the suggested walking routes near a train station you can view a detailed OpenStreetMap of the route, view an elevation chart of the route and even view a 'walk beauty' graph for the route. The walk beauty graph indicates the most beautiful points along your walking route, based on the Walks.IO routing algorithm.