BAREFOOT – EXPERIENCING AN INTERACTIVE LANDSCAPE
Take off your shoes and wake up your senses.
Did you hear and feel anything?
I feel a little hurt but it’s refreshing.
Barefoot has many health benefits for adults, the elderly, and children. We all know, there are many acupuncture points on the feet. Since ancient times, massage on the acupuncture points of the foot was believed to be effective to treat illnesses. Barefoot walking on different surfaces is like a massage, putting pressure on your feet to support your body’s metabolism.
In order to encourage people to participate in this health promotion activity, many parks in Europe, especially in Germany and Austria, design barefoot trails and parks to attract millions of visitors each year. Visitors of all ages enjoy taking off their shoes and spend hours walking on different surfaces. It exists some trails of nearly 5 km as well as trails of just a few meters.
The walking experience from Jakobsbad Gonten to Appenzell in Switzerland is one of the longest trail available today, where you will walk on different surfaces such as clay, grass, streams, rocks, constantly alternating.

Some localities with diverse geological characteristics offer a good opportunity and unique design ideas to make the journey extremely attractive to many tourists.

Each year, this trail welcomes about 100 000 guests, the feedback of majority of guests is “too fun” and “very happy”. The accompanying services are operating at full capacity.
And below are some pictures of this attraction:

In the city, barefoot activities become minimalist but no less interesting. Referring to these images, you can completely design yourself some areas in the garden.


On barfusspark.info, they introduce the list of barefoot parks in Europe. They also give many helpful tips and safety instructions in order to design barefoot trail landscapes for your reference.
Reference links :
- https://www.appenzell.ch/de/alpstein/wandern/themenwanderwege/barfussweg.html
- http://www.barfusspark.info/en/park.htm
- https://www.facebook.com/barfussbuch/
- http://mrsmyerskindergarten.blogspot.com/2018/11/creating-our-barefoot-sensory-path-and.html
- http://homeklondike.site/2017/01/06/mobile-sensory-garden-what-is-it/