There are lots of brilliant walking apps and websites.
Some are great for navigation. Some are great for finding beautiful walks. Some are great for planning adventures, checking maps or following turn-by-turn directions.
Slow Ways is different.
It is not just a place to find a walk. It is a shared national project to help more people walk and wheel (with a wheelchair, scooter or pushchair) between more places, more often.
Slow Ways is built by real people, for other people, with a common purpose: to make it easier, safer and more joyful to connect Britain on foot and wheels.
Here are twelve things that make Slow Ways different.
1. Slow Ways connects places, not just trails
Most walking platforms help people find an assortment of routes.
Slow Ways helps people connect places. Every Slow Way links towns, cities, villages or national landscapes. That means the network is not just a collection of nice walks. It is a growing map of useful connections between the places where people live, work, visit and care about.
2. Slow Ways is purpose-driven, not just feature-driven
Slow Ways exists to help create a more walkable and wheelable country.
Of course, maps and digital tools matter. But the real purpose is bigger than the technology. Slow Ways is about making walking and wheeling between places feel more possible, more normal and more trusted.
3. Slow Ways is collaborative and democratic
Slow Ways is made by people walking, reviewing, verifying and surveying routes with others in mind.
Anyone can contribute. Anyone can help improve the network. That makes Slow Ways less like a private and generic route-planning tool – it’s a shared public project.
4. Slow Ways has shared standards and a common vision
Many platforms contain thousands of routes, but they can feel uncoordinated or hard to compare.
Slow Ways is different because its routes are shaped by a common purpose and shared design principles. The aim is not just to add more lines to a map, but to build a coherent, useful and trusted network.
5. Slow Ways works with your favourite navigation app
Slow Ways does not need to replace other navigation tools.
Find a route on Slow Ways, then download it and navigate it using your favourite app or device.
That is how Slow Ways has been designed: as a shared route network that works with other tools, not a walled garden that locks you in.
Slow Ways helps people choose a reviewed, verified or surveyed route. Other apps can then help with detailed mapping, offline navigation or turn-by-turn directions.
6. Slow Ways is designed as a network, not a catalogue
A single Slow Way is useful.
But its real power comes from how it connects with other routes. Together, Slow Ways routes form a national network. Each route is part of something bigger: a system of connections that can help people make short journeys, long journeys and everything in between.
7. Slow Ways makes route quality visible
A line on a map is not enough.
People need to know whether a route has been walked, reviewed, verified or surveyed. Slow Ways helps make that confidence visible. It shows where knowledge has been added, where routes are trusted, and where more help is needed.
8. Slow Ways values usefulness as well as beauty
Beautiful walks are wonderful.
But useful walks matter too. Slow Ways routes are not only about scenery. They are also about directness, safety, accessibility, comfort and whether a route helps people get from one place to another.
A good Slow Way should work for the people who need it.
9. Slow Ways turns local knowledge into shared infrastructure
When someone reviews a Slow Way, they are not just recording their own walk.
They are helping the next person. They are adding local knowledge about paths, crossings, surfaces, barriers, gradients, landmarks and confidence. Over time, that knowledge becomes shared infrastructure.
10. Slow Ways invites stewardship, not just consumption
Most navigation apps help people use routes.
Slow Ways invites people to care for them. By walking, checking, reviewing and improving routes, people become stewards of the network.
They help make it better for neighbours, visitors, future walkers, wheelers, planners and campaigners.
11. Slow Ways supports the 5 Ways to Wellbeing
Slow Ways is full of opportunities to connect, be active, take notice, keep learning and give.
Walk a route with a friend. Notice the places between places. Learn more about paths, communities, landscapes and access. Give back by reviewing, verifying or surveying a route for others.
That means Slow Ways is not only useful for transport or navigation.
It can also support healthier, more connected and more generous lives.
12. Slow Ways brings people and nations together
Slow Ways connects places across England, Scotland and Wales.
But it also connects people. It brings together volunteers, walkers, wheelers, communities, organisations, local knowledge and shared purpose.
Every review, survey and completed route helps strengthen a network that crosses borders, links nations and shows how many small acts of care can add up to something national.
Slow Ways is a map, but it is also a meeting point.
A different kind of walking project
Slow Ways is not trying to be the best app for every walking task.
Other tools may be better for technical navigation, offline maps, mountain safety, scenic route discovery or turn-by-turn guidance.
Slow Ways is different because it provides a common purpose, a shared vision and a coordinated way for people to build something together.
It is a network of routes, but also a network of care.
A way to help more people walk and wheel between places. A way to make local knowledge useful to everyone.
