These Are the Best Smartwatches for Walking and Hiking

Vivoactive watches are among the most underrated products Garmin makes. They’re lightweight, stylish in a casual kind of way, and they pack many of the features of a sports watch in a package that doesn’t look or feel like you have to be an athlete to make sense of it. It’s like a better Fitbit. The newest version is the Vivoactive 6, and I have a full review of it here.

Among its best features: a new (to Garmin) training plan for walking. The watch will suggest a walking workout for you each day, and allow you to preview workouts up to a week in advance. You can see a selection of sample walking workouts in my review, but they come with plenty of variety. Some days are just a “base” walk at a brisk pace, but others alternate easy walking with speed walking, the better to improve your fitness.

The Apple Watch is a classic for a reason. It’s a good all-around smartwatch, and you can install any apps on it you like. For walking, hiking, or any outdoorsy traveling, I’d highly recommend the WorkOutDoors app, which I reviewed here. It can show you a map of where you’re going, while displaying any metrics you care to track, like miles or steps.

There are three tiers of Apple Watch, with the SE being the budget model, and the Ultra 2 at the top—one that’s arguably overbuilt, and maybe overkill for your needs. Our associate tech editor, Michelle Ehrhardt, calls the middle-of-the-road Series 10 the best Apple Watch for most people. If you’d like to save a few bucks, older Apple Watch models are still great buys.

If your idea of “walking” is more like “hiking,” a more rugged watch might be the one for you. Garmin’s Instinct series is built for the outdoors and comes in a solar-powered model that can extend your battery life between charges if you’re outdoors all the time. Even without solar, though, the battery lasts for weeks—28 days is Garmin’s best-case estimate.

Garmin has also recently introduced rucking features, so that if you’re carrying a heavy pack (or wearing a weighted vest) on your walks or hikes, you can log the weight of the pack. You can also log rucking as a separate activity from hiking or walking, if you prefer.

The Scanwatch 2 is a fitness watch that definitely puts the “watch” part first. It’s an actual analog watch, with hands that move around throughout the day—although you can always press the crown to show the time digitally if you prefer. (The hands even briefly move out of the way if they’re positioned in front of the screen.)

Instead of a glowing full-color display, the screen on this device is just a little window toward the top of the watch face. But that’s enough to start workouts, check your pulse, or adjust settings. Underneath that screen is another clever mechanical touch—a round dial that counts your steps for the day. One full revolution corresponds to meeting your step goal for the day. Conveniently, I’ve found that even if I leave the watch on my dresser, but bring my phone or another device with me around the house, the step count dial will update when my watch syncs again.