Adventure After 65: Solo Walking Across Europe

In this episode of Roam Alone, we talk about solo hiking in Europe and starting solo travel after 65 with long-distance walker Paula Kreissler. 

In this episode of Roam Alone, Paula shares how she discovered self-guided walking trips through The Natural Adventure and why the format—independent but supported—was the perfect way to begin solo travel. What started with Scotland’s iconic West Highland Way has grown into more than ten journeys across Western Europe, each ranging from 80 to more than 100 miles.

Paula talks about navigating washed-out trails, trusting her instincts when routes disappeared, and the empowering feeling of relying entirely on herself. But the biggest transformation didn’t happen on the trail—it happened when she returned home carrying a new sense of strength, confidence, and independence.

Her story is proof that adventure doesn’t have an expiration date—and sometimes the best journeys begin when you least expect them.

Time Stamps
00:00 Introduction to Paula
02:10 Discovering The Natural Adventure
09:46 First solo walk: The West Highland Way in Scotland
16:25 Paula’s many solo walks—and where she’s headed next

See for yourself! Check out The Natural Adventure: https://www.thenaturaladventure.com/

Roam Alone is hosted by Theresa Stephens.

Instagram: @theresaannstephens

Facebook: /theresastephens

Facebook: /RoamAlone

Transcript

Theresa Stephens: Hello, everyone. I'm Theresa Stephens, and this is Roam Alone. Solo travel, shared stories. My guest today is Paula Kreissler. Welcome to the show, Paula.

Paula: I'm happy to be here. Theresa. Thanks for inviting me.

Theresa Stephens: Absolutely. And I am so excited to talk about your solo walking adventures. So before we get started on that, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got to that very first solo walk?

Paula: Sure. So. Well, I love traveling and have all my life and the. And I'm currently seventy three. and so my intention is for part of my health, I walk all the time still, I do a lot of five and ten K's, half marathons, walking, not running. And so the first one, I think it was something around about Scotland. And I just was like, oh, I could go on a walking holiday there. And because I do love to travel and so I've been kind of around the world, mostly Western Europe, and I've been to Scotland before, but this is a completely different way to travel I don't, I'm not going to go back to the other way of rental cars and all that stuff getting around. It's just like, I'm going to go and get to an airport, get on some public transportation and get to the start of a walk. So this particular

Theresa Stephens: That's fantastic.

Paula: one was the West Highland Way in Scotland. It's a very well known route. In fact, if you Google, long distance walking. You're going to find the West Highland Way in the top five every time. And

Theresa Stephens: Wow.

Paula: it's ninety six miles.

Theresa Stephens: my gosh. That was literally I was just waiting to ask when you talk about long walks, how long is the walk?

Paula: Yeah,

Theresa Stephens: Ninety

Paula: ninety six miles. And so I use a company, uh, for all of my walks, and I'm coming up on my tenth walk this year, but

Theresa Stephens: Wow.

Paula: I've done eight so far, since twenty eighteen. And that was the year I turned sixty five. And it's called The Natural Adventure. They're

Theresa Stephens: Oh,

Paula: based

Theresa Stephens: cool.

Paula: in the UK. There are many companies out there. This one, I trust them. they've got a whole range of holiday adventures that you can do. So when I go in and I pick solo, I pick walking. They've got different levels that you can take easy. I don't ever pick easy. Moderate is fun. moderate to strenuous is more challenging. Which I did two of those last year. And

Theresa Stephens: Wow.

Paula: so but moderate is a good space for me. and then they have expert as well. but you can also go with a group. You can go biking. There's all kinds of different ones. But the natural adventure, I trust them. what they do is they book your places you stay and you just walk from one place to the next. You know, somewhere between on that ninety six mile walk, somewhere between fifteen and twenty miles. and you stay at something, usually something local. And breakfast is always included. Lunch rarely is. and then dinner. It just depends on where you are. If you're out in the country, then somebody has dinner. But if not, then there's usually a restaurant or two in town for where you can eat. But then they also will move one small suitcase from the from place to place. So all I carry with me now, I mean, I'm now I'm an expert, right?

Theresa Stephens: Right.

Paula: So I carry a day pack. it's a twenty six liter osprey that has the water. I keep my rain gear, I keep emergency kit stuff. You know that you really should take, and battery backups. my phone and and a dry pair of socks.

Theresa Stephens: Very

Paula: So.

Theresa Stephens: smart. Very smart for my the mountains I've hiked, dry, clean pair of socks is essential.

Paula: It is. And the feeling when you put them back on, when you put a dry

Theresa Stephens: Yes.

Paula: pair of socks on after you've had wet socks on, is like heaven.

Theresa Stephens: Absolutely. And by the way, I will have the link for that company in the show notes. So if anybody's interested in their own solo

Paula: Awesome.

Theresa Stephens: or walking adventure, you can click on the link in the show notes for more information on that. So already I've got like twenty five questions. first one would be so these different levels easy to moderate to expert.

Paula: Yeah.

Theresa Stephens: What determines the level?

Paula: it will explain that on the website, but it could be just the distance you're going for the day. Nothing about the trail itself, but sometimes it's about the trail itself. It could be how technical it might be to get up an incline or down descent. You know, it just depends. and I've had both of those experiences and so for me, again, the hardest is when it's, like, one in Germany, this last in twenty twenty five was, I'm going to say an inch thick cable that I had to hold on to because I'm just got this back, this twenty six liter pack on and I've got some good hiking shoes and, you know, pants. And that's kind of my gear, right? It's not

Theresa Stephens: Yeah.

Paula: I don't have cleats or, you know, all the stuff that people do.

Theresa Stephens: Crampons and

Paula: Right.

Theresa Stephens: no

Paula: I do not carry that with me.

Theresa Stephens: Okay.

Paula: and so. But you really had to, like, hang on to this cable to get around this one space it was on. Well, both on the Rhine River and the Mosel River. I had two different walks I did in Germany, and so that both of those so moderate was most of the time. But then the strenuous part was these more technical parts where, you just you weren't going to just walk up or down

Theresa Stephens: Right.

Paula: at all. You couldn't do that. but sometimes it's like if it's over, fifteen, eighteen miles. Then again, a lot of people aren't quite ready for that because a lot of the days are ten or twelve miles.

Theresa Stephens: Yeah, it depends on, you know, the the trail and how difficult it is.

Paula: Yeah.

Theresa Stephens: That would make ten miles versus eighteen miles or vice versa.

Paula: Exactly.

Theresa Stephens: Yeah. And so, are all of these about that long of a distance? You know, eighty to one hundred miles or so.

Paula: So yes and no. So the website itself, you will find the data in kilometers. So I just I have my spreadsheet. And so I drop in the day to day. And then some days you can take the short route or the long route. And so I always drop in the long route and then have a conversion over to Miles. So the longest one that I have done, which again is one of my favorites is it was one hundred and fifty miles.

Theresa Stephens: Wow.

Paula: It was the Cather way. But of course, it was like twelve days as opposed to seven days. And they've got, of course, you know, sections of the Camino in Spain that you can do, the whole five hundred miles there if that's. But again, you're going to be it's going to be thirty or forty days that you'll be there. but the, the shortest ones that I've done, there were two I did in Italy in twenty twenty four, and they were both like sixty ish miles each. And those would be the shortest ones that I've done. The two in Germany were seventy ish. And of course, you know, that's just the official distance from A to B.

Theresa Stephens: Absolutely. Now you call them walks?

Paula: Yes.

Theresa Stephens: I would call them hikes.

Paula: Yeah.

Theresa Stephens: What is the difference or is there a difference? Are they all trails or are they. Are there roads or. Or

Paula: So

Theresa Stephens: what?

Paula: that good question. So I go back and forth. But I say walks mostly because I walk. And that's when I tell everybody even in a, five K event or ten K or whatever, I'm like, I'm walking,

Theresa Stephens: Mhm.

Paula: I'm not hiking. I might actually have my hiking shoes on, and I do for almost every one of these. I mean, I'm majority of the time I'm wearing my hiking boots, and with good lugs, because sometimes you never know about if any of the, the up or down is going to be, you know, scrabbly surface or not. And so you won't really want to be able to keep your footing really well. But then some days you can actually look at the what it is. And I think it was I'm trying to remember in Scotland, I went back to Scotland a couple of years ago when there were and most of it was a trail along a canal, and so

Theresa Stephens: Oh,

Paula: it was

Theresa Stephens: nice.

Paula: just asphalt, most of it. Sometimes it went through some trees and stuff, but still it was, you know, and so I could wear just something with less grip than my normal, um, hiking boots. But,

Theresa Stephens: know from wearing hiking boots for a very long time that they they're heavy and they can

Paula: Yes

Theresa Stephens: weigh on you

Paula: yes

Theresa Stephens: and weigh on your joints. You

Paula: yes

Theresa Stephens: know, mile

Paula: yes

Theresa Stephens: after mile.

Paula: yes.

Theresa Stephens: So that's smart to have the option of both and to look, you know, to the next days. at the root and what is needed for that day.

Paula: Yes. that's just, that's me in general as a planning. Planning ahead. and so yes, knowing where you're like the night before, like I know where I'm heading. And now the natural adventure tends to have an app that goes with it that you just download, and you can track things and it gives you a lot more information. But, it like knowing because it will tell you to the best of their information, you know, if it's going to be if it's a more challenging day than maybe the day before or not so much, or says, if you go this way, but you could go up and around and that's, you know, five kilometers more and you might have to, you know, just sometimes it's more they will just tell you if it's more challenging or not. So then you make the decision when you get there, whether you want to go easy or not.