How long does it take to walk 3 miles?
About an hour at a normal walking pace, 50 minutes at a brisk one, an hour and a quarter at a stroll. Three miles is a 5k, near enough, and it is the walk that turns a step count into a proper outing. Here it is by pace, age, steps and calories.
The numbers
4.8 km · 3.0 miles, in steps
| A child, 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) | about 9,700 steps |
| 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in) | about 7,300 steps |
| 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in), the average adult | about 6,900 steps |
| 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) | about 6,500 steps |
| 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) | about 6,100 steps |
| A giraffe, 5.5 m (18 ft) | no idea, sorry |
Step length is about 41% of height. Give or take 10% for how you walk.
How long it takes to walk
| A stroll, 4 km/h | 1 h 12 min |
| A normal walk, 5 km/h | 58 min |
| A brisk walk, 6 km/h | 48 min |
Walking without stops, on level ground.
Calories, by body weight
| 55 kg (121 lb) | about 169 kcal (225 incl. resting) |
| 70 kg (154 lb) | about 215 kcal (286 incl. resting) |
| 85 kg (187 lb) | about 262 kcal (348 incl. resting) |
| 100 kg (220 lb) | about 308 kcal (409 incl. resting) |
The walk's own cost at 5 km/h. The second number adds what you would have burned sitting still, which is what some fitness trackers show.
Steps by height: How many steps is 3 miles?
Try your own distance
Steps
about 6,900
6,200 to 7,500 depending on your stride, about 0.70 m a step at this height.
Distance
4.8 km · 3.0 miles
Time on foot
58 min
at 5 km/h, no stops
Calories
Depends on your weight more than anything else. Enter it to see an estimate.
That is 1/12 of the way to Everest Base Camp.
How long does it take to walk 3 miles?
About 58 minutes at a normal pace of 5 km/h (3.1 mph), 48 minutes at a brisk 6 km/h, an hour and twelve at a stroll of 4 km/h. Three miles is 4.83 km, a little short of a 5k, and it is the length of most parkruns and of a lunch hour spent entirely on foot.
Does age change it?
Yes, but less than people expect. A meta-analysis of 41 studies and 23,111 healthy adults measured normal walking speed by decade: the fastest group, men in their forties, averaged 1.43 m/s, which is a mile in about 19 minutes, and the slowest, women over eighty, averaged 0.94 m/s, about 28 minutes a mile. Everyone in between is within that band, and the decline is gradual through the sixties and seventies. A healthy walker of any age covers a mile in 18 to 28 minutes.
How many steps is 3 miles?
About 6,900 for an adult of average height, from about 6,100 at 1.9 m to 7,300 at 1.6 m. That makes three miles a day close to the 7,000 steps that the 2025 Lancet Public Health review found carried most of the health benefit of walking.
How many calories does walking 3 miles burn?
About 215 kcal for a 70 kg (154 lb) adult at a normal pace, from roughly 170 kcal at 55 kg (121 lb) to 310 kcal at 100 kg (220 lb). Weight decides most of it, pace barely matters between 4 and 6 km/h on the flat, and that is the walk’s own cost above sitting still. Some fitness trackers add the resting share and come out about a third higher.
Walking with a finish line
Walking is easy to skip when it leads nowhere in particular. reTrek gives your walks a finish line: pick a famous route, like the Camino de Santiago or the Inca Trail, and every walk moves you further along it, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. Instead of fitting in a walk for its own sake, you walk to reach the next milestone.
At 4.8 km (3.0 miles) a day, Lukla to Everest Base Camp takes about 12 days. Walk it with a friend and pool your steps, or race them there. Everest Base Camp is free. Get reTrek.
Other distances
Sources: Normal walking speed, a descriptive meta-analysis, Bohannon and Williams Andrews, Physiotherapy, 2011 · Energy expenditure during level human walking, Ludlow and Weyand, Journal of Applied Physiology, 2016 · Daily steps and health outcomes in adults, a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis, Lancet Public Health, 2025