Simple hiking is distinguished from mountain walking. The former involves walking a minimum distance of 5 km, covered in 1-2 hours on slightly sloped terrain (with almost no differences in elevation) and entails only light gear.

Greece lagged behind in the creation of an integrated motorway network, other than the basic road arteries running across the country. Before the development of such infrastructure, transportation took place via paths to which the elderly inhabitants of mountainous settlements still refer today as dimosia (in Greek “a public, main road”), which at the time constituted the chief access road. Despite the fact that some of the old paths and artfully built cobbled lanes were turned into asphalt roads, a great many of them still survive today running through mountains, dales and gorges. In recent years, financing from various bodies (municipal authorities, mountaineering associations, private individuals, etc) has allowed for the maintenance and revival of these paths throughout the country, the majority of which are waymarked, thus creating a 3,500 km-long network. For the larger part this comprises long-distance European Paths Ε 4 and Ε 6, and Class Ο (3,000 km), while a number of new shorter paths of similar interest running over a length of 500 km have also been developed.

*European Path Ε 4 (- GR ): Starting in the Pyrenees range, it stretches into Greece passing through FYROM. The Greek E4 path traverses the northern and central part of the country, the Peloponnese , ultimately reaching Gythion and ending in Crete . It thus affords hikers the opportunity to become familiar with the diversity and natural wealth of the Greek landscape.

The highest elevation on the entire route is the Skolios peak (2,911 m) on Mt Olympus. The E4 is ideal for hiking from May 15 until early October. Often, the opening of new forest roads may confuse hikers. Some of the villages encountered en route are uninhabited during the winter, thus limiting the possibility for an overnight stay. The areas have a typical Mediterranean climate, with warm dry summers and considerable differences in day and night temperatures. Snowfall starts in November and snow is likely to linger into June. The route in the southern part of the path ( Peloponnese and Crete ) is less rough than the northern one and is walkable throughout the year due to the milder climate.

*European Path Ε 6: The Greek section of the European long-distance path E4 has two parts: the first has its starting point in the Prespes area and reaches the town of Igoumenitsa via Kastoria-Ioannina-Dodoni; the second part begins in Florina, crosses the mountainous regions of western, central and eastern Macedonia (along Greece's borders with FYROM and Bulgaria) and reaches the city of Alexandroupoli in Thrace.

Mountain climbing is the hardest form of hiking. Usually, the climber's goal is to conquer a peak. In mountaineering, distance is of little significance. The most important element is that per hour approx. 300 m in rise of elevation are covered, which means that a 1000-m ascent requires about 4 hours including stops made during the climb. A usual mountain ascent lasts 7-10 hours, descent included.

Finally rock climbing (the term defines an ascent under summer conditions while in winter the activity is referred to as alpinism) is practised on any mountain peak, on very steep slopes (cliffs) rendering imperative the use of climbing techniques (of great or small degree of difficulty) and auxiliary equipment. In Greece , many spots lend themselves to free rock climbing, while schools offering the possibility of artificial climbing also operate.

All necessary information on mountain routes and trails, access to them, facilities and alpine refuges throughout the country, as well as on organised excursions, local hiking, mountain-climbing and rock-climbing conditions on Greek mountains, is provided by the Greek Mountaineering and Rock-Climbing Association ( Ε.Ο.Ο.Α. ) and local hiking and mountaineering clubs.