Outdoor Planning Made Simpler
EcoTrails provides practical digital tools designed to help people prepare for outdoor adventures and make more responsible trail decisions.
What EcoTrails is
EcoTrails is a small collection of free hiking and outdoor planning tools, alongside written guides that explain the thinking behind them. The calculators work out water, timing and difficulty. The checklists cover packing, low-waste travel and the principles of leaving a place as you found it.
Everything runs in your browser. There is no account to create, nothing to install, and nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere. The site is aimed at day hikers and weekend walkers rather than expedition planners, and it works internationally, in metric or imperial units.
What EcoTrails is not: a mapping service, a trail database, or a replacement for local knowledge. It does not know which path is closed this week or whether the stream you were counting on has dried up. For that, you need a recent trail report and whoever manages the land.
Why we built it
Planning a hike properly involves a handful of small calculations that are easy to get wrong and tedious to do by hand. How long will this take with 800 metres of climbing? How much water for four people on a hot day? Is this route a reasonable step up from the last one? Most people either guess, or they do the arithmetic once and never again.
The information exists, but it is scattered across forums, guidebooks and gear blogs, usually mixed in with product recommendations. We wanted the numbers in one place, worked out quickly, with the assumptions visible rather than buried.
The eco-friendly side came from the same practical angle. Most advice about hiking sustainably arrives as a list of things to buy. In reality the choices that matter most — how you travel to the trailhead, whether you strip packaging at home, where you put your feet on a wet path — cost nothing at all. Those belong in a planning tool, not a shop.
Our approach
Three things shape how every tool on the site is built.
Show the working
Every result lists the assumptions behind it — the base rates, the adjustments, the arithmetic. A number you cannot check is a number you cannot sensibly disagree with.
Estimates, not authority
A difficulty score is for comparing two routes, not for grading a trail. Where local rules, park services or official ratings exist, theirs are the ones that count.
Quick enough to actually use
A planning tool that takes twenty minutes gets used once. These take about a minute each, work on a phone, and default to the cautious side when the answer is uncertain.
Practical tools
Six tools, each built around a single question you would otherwise answer by guessing.
- Eco Hiking Planner Turns trip details into one plan covering timing, water, packing and impact. Open
- Hiking Packing List Generator Builds a checklist from your weather, terrain, trip length and group size. Open
- Hiking Water Calculator Estimates water per person and for the group, with a reserve and a refill plan. Open
- Trail Difficulty Calculator Scores a route from distance, climbing, ground and conditions so you can compare two. Open
- Eco Trip Checklist Responsible travel checklist that adapts to hiking, camping, day trips or driving. Open
- Leave No Trace Checklist The seven principles of outdoor ethics as specific things to do before and during a trip. Open
Responsible outdoor use
Damage to trails is almost never dramatic. It is one person stepping around a puddle, then a hundred more following the same line until there are two paths where there was one. It is an apple core that takes months to break down and an animal that learns people mean food. Small choices, repeated by many visitors, are what wear a place down — which is also why small choices are enough to protect it.
That view runs through the whole site rather than sitting in one section of it. The packing list suggests reusable containers before disposable ones. The water calculator assumes you would rather refill than buy. The planner flags where a trip creates waste that could be avoided at home. None of it asks you to buy anything.
It also means being straight about limits. Access rules, permits, fire bans and seasonal closures are local, and they change. Nothing here overrides the authority that manages the land you are standing on, and every tool says so where it matters.
Our commitment to useful information
A planning tool is only worth using if you can trust what it tells you. These are the standards we hold the site to.
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We state what a result assumes
Every calculation shows its inputs, rates and adjustments, so you can judge whether it applies to your situation or adjust from it.
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We do not overstate what a tool can do
These are planning estimates. They are not medical guidance, official trail grades or certifications, and the site says so plainly rather than in small print.
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We point to the real authority
Where a park service, land manager or local regulation has the answer, we say so instead of offering a general rule that might not apply where you are.
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We write for people new to hiking
Plain language, no assumed knowledge, and defaults set on the cautious side so a beginner ends up with slightly more water and warmth than the bare minimum.
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We fix things that are wrong
If a calculation or a piece of advice does not hold up, we would rather hear about it and correct it than leave it in place. Get in touch through the contact page.
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We keep your details to yourself
The tools calculate in your browser. Nothing you type into a planner or checklist is saved to an account, because there is no account.
Start with whichever question you have
Water, timing, difficulty or packing — each tool takes about a minute, and none of them needs an account.