1st European IVV Hiking Day / October 2026
Explanation for the 1st European IVV Hiking Day 2026
Get detailed information here about the hiking day and its possibilities. Stickers, patches, stamps, and certificates can also be ordered!
The European IVV Walking Day is intended to invite people all over Europe to be on the move together – regardless of age, background, or ability.
It is not a competition.
There are no rankings, no best times, and no statistics.
The focus is on the shared experience, personal impressions, stamps in the start booklet, and memories in the form of photos.
All IVV walking formats are welcome – from short strolls to longer hikes, from family and intergenerational offerings to inclusive formats.
The European IVV Walking Day stands for openness, community, and diversity. It is not the number of participants that counts, but the togetherness.
Europe is on the move. Together. At its own pace.
Let's all join in!
Your IVV Europe Presidium
Hiking events in Europe – a first selection
IVV-Europe officially invites all national associations and affiliated clubs and structures to participate in the European Hiking Day from the year 2026 onwards, which is to be held as part of an annual European Hiking Week in October.
This invitation is an expression of a clear joint will to establish a fixed, recurring European date from 2026 and to make hiking as well as IVV offerings visible across Europe.
Why this initiative?
The European IVV Hiking Day is intended to be more than just an additional activity. It is meant as a simultaneously occurring European symbol: Hiking connects – across countries, languages, and structures.
For the first time, all state associations have the opportunity to make their existing activities visible under a common European umbrella – without new obligations, but with significantly greater impact.
One day! One period! One common European signal!
What participation specifically means:
Participation in the European IVV Hiking Day explicitly requires:
• no new event
• no additional organizational effort
• no change to existing structures
Existing national or regional hikes can be easily integrated.
The European IVV Hiking Day is deliberately conceived to be open and inclusive. It is not limited exclusively to traditional hikes. In principle, any form of IVV activity is suitable for participation – cycling, swimming, and other IVV-recognized forms of exercise can also be included without additional effort. What matters is not the mode of movement, but the shared European symbol: movement, encounter, and community across national borders.
The added value lies not in additional effort, but in the shared European visibility.
Time frame
IVV-Europe recommends carrying out the activities for the European IVV Hiking Day preferably in the week from October 17 to October 25.
This period offers the national associations and clubs the necessary flexibility to optimally integrate existing events while at the same time making a high level of European simultaneity visible.
Invitation to Participate
IVV-Europe understands this initiative as a joint project of all national associations. The first implementation from 2026 offers the opportunity to actively help shape content and priorities and to be part of this European development from the very beginning.
We warmly invite you to embark on this path together with IVV-Europe and to actively support the European IVV Hiking Day from 2026.