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A themed walk is a walk along which there are information boards covering a specific topic or theme, such as regional history, industrial history, mining or forestry. Features of nature (e.g. raised bogs or biotopes) or of geology are often laid out as special educational paths. Municipal authorities or local societies are usually responsible for their establishment and maintenance.
The paths are usually several kilometres long and are used both for educational purposes and recreation. They may connect places, buildings or natural features that have a particular theme in common by a signed route, but may also have specifically positioned exhibits.
Whilst themed walks are often designed to encourage walking, educational paths and nature trail tend to be aimed more at educating or training.
In Austria there are more than 300 themed walks. These paths are intended to give summer tourism in the Alps a new impulse, but are also helping to improve the network of footpaths.