Walking tours

[MuirWannabe]

Looking at walking tours most likely somewhere in Europe although they are offered in other locations as well. The type of walking tour which is essentially a series of day hikes arriving at an Inn or hotel in the evening. The tour company arranges the logistics and moves your bags from location to location. But hopefully a great way to see the countryside and experience more than a typical tourist visit. Plus being able to enjoy the hiking and outdoors.

My questions for anyone with knowledge on this subject:
- have you done it? Feedback?
- any tour companies you recommend? Anyone ever use Breakaway Adventures?
- recommendations of things to do / not do?
- recommendations on particular routes or places to walk?

Thanks everyone.

 

[Bamaman]

We often look free walking tours of European cities. We really are not up for long distance hiking. The tourguides work for tips, and they are fully licensed and excellent. You can find them online and directions on what center city locations where they meet.

Then tour operation also offers nightlife and pub crawl tours at night. It is a night out with people from all over the world and shows you good local bars and affordable restaurants. The night tours are a ball.

 

[grasshopper]

We are leaving shortly on a Country Walkers trip from San Francisco to Point Reyes. We booked this trip to see how the company works and treats their clients. If it works out we will use them for a Amalfi Coast & Capri trip next year. Happy to report back.

 

[bingybear]

I've done multi day hike in a few places. The most like what you are asking was in the Dordogne region of France. Unfortunately I've never used a tour company. We just plan the trip and enjoy it.
Sorry I can't help on a tour company.

 

[audreyh1]

We are leaving shortly on a Country Walkers trip from San Francisco to Point Reyes. We booked this trip to see how the company works and treats their clients. If it works out we will use them for a Amalfi Coast & Capri trip next year. Happy to report back.

My neighbors did many tours with Country Walkers and traveled all over Europe+ with them. I think they did a lot in their 60s and 70s. Really only stopped, switching to mostly cruises, in their very late 70s.

Anyway, obviously they were big fans, so I've remembered the name in case we want to do a walking tour of the Lake District or some such.

 

[Gumby]

I highly recommend Country Walkers. We did an Italian lakes trip with them and were very happy. It was well organized, the guides were first rate, the pace was just right, and the accommodations were great. We really enjoyed ourselves.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Thanks for comments so far. I’ve started looking at Country Walkers and it looks great.
I will say the tour prices raised my eyebrows. I guess hardly anything meets my price expectations anymore. But it’s expensive for a service that just moves your bags and arranges food and lodging.

Still, I’m interested in this type of thing. It does look like great fun.

Muir

 

[MuirWannabe]

To elaborate on pricing. These tours cost as much or more than cruises of equal length. Cruise lines have to operate and maintain large ships. With this vacation the participants are doing their own walking. How can prices be the same? Just seems a little crazy.

 

[Gumby]

Personal attention is a big part of the Country Walkers tour. We had 2 guides for a tour group of 9 people. That gets expensive fast.

 

[audreyh1]

To elaborate on pricing. These tours cost as much or more than cruises of equal length. Cruise lines have to operate and maintain large ships. With this vacation the participants are doing their own walking. How can prices be the same? Just seems a little crazy.

It's a small group guided tour with meals and drinks included - looks like they are oriented towards fine accommodations. Such a tour will always cost at least 2x what you would pay for doing it on your own. They manage all the logistics as well as mapping out each day's hike. Local guides, personal service. You don't have to do anything but show up at the start. There is a lot of value added.

Large ship cruises can be a bargain. But it's a completely different kind of travel experience, and if you look into small ship cruising you'll find it's far more expensive.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Personal attention is a big part of the Country Walkers tour. We had 2 guides for a tour group of 9 people. That gets expensive fast.

Gumby,

I’ve been looking at the self guided tours and they are in the range of $2500-$3500. That’s more than most cruises.

Was not thinking we would need a guided tour. Would be interested in why you chose this route and the value the guide(s) provided.

Thanks.

 

[Gumby]

Our tour with Country Walkers was in 2007. It was our first ever trip to Italy. Although I had studied Italian at Berlitz (in Rockefeller Center) for the year prior to our tour, I thought it best to go with an established tour for that first trip. Since then, we have done an additional 6 trips to Italy and made all the arrangements ourselves. My Italian is substantially better now, so planning and booking, and then getting around in Italy has not been a problem. If I were to go to a country where I did not speak the language yet, I would go with Country Walkers. I might also book with them for a walking trip in Cinque Terre in Liguria, Italy, since it would be simpler than trying to book everything myself.

Edit to add: The guides just made everything easier. We stopped and ate where we ate and ended up at the proper hotel in the proper location and the proper time. The guides attended to all the details so that we didn't need to.

If you weren't looking for a walking tour specifically, I would suggest R. Crusoe & Son, whom we used for a trip to Peru. They offer a similar level of personal attention.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Ok. Thanks for the Country Walkers recommendations. I do value someone else handling all the logistics. Like always, just wish it was cheaper.

Grasshopper,
I’ll be interested to hear your feedback on your Northern California trip with them. I was reading the itinerary for that one and it looks great. Beautiful area for sure. Please let me know how it goes.

 

[donheff]

Country Walkers sounds good. I can also recommend VBT. It is a bike tour company that expanded into VBT walking tours about five years ago. You definitely pay a good deal more than you would on your own with this sort of package but for me it is worthwhile (DW and I have done numerous VBT bike tours). The tours include beautiful and fascinating locations I would probably not find on my own, excellent accommodations, food, and wine, top notch guides, good company, and full transportation. VBT bike tours get very good reviews and the walking tours do as well. I have been tempted to try one but I have problems with my feet addressed with orthotics but worry that I might be pushing things with long hikes.

 

[mh]

Ok. Thanks for the Country Walkers recommendations. I do value someone else handling all the logistics. Like always, just wish it was cheaper.

Grasshopper,
I’ll be interested to hear your feedback on your Northern California trip with them. I was reading the itinerary for that one and it looks great. Beautiful area for sure. Please let me know how it goes.

I have done a few of these kinds of trips and the way I approached it was to find out what area I wanted to do , and then research the various companies that did it. I always ended up using local companies because they seemed to have bit better handle on the various operations/logistics in the area. So far, I haven’t gone wrong with this method

E.g. I used http://www.mountainguides.is/multi...rs/laugavegur-trails/landmannalaugar-skogar/

For the Iceland trek I did and

http://www.badgeradventures.co.uk/uk/coast-to-coast/

For the England coast to coast trek, and

http://www.wildrogue.com/rogue-river-hiking-trail/#4day

For a rogue river trek. Having said all that you probably can’t go too wrong with a reputable company like country walkers if they have been doing the route you are interested in for a while. If it’s a new one for them I’d hesitate perhaps.

 

[mh]

Deleted

 

[sengsational]

To elaborate on pricing. These tours cost as much or more than cruises of equal length. Cruise lines have to operate and maintain large ships. With this vacation the participants are doing their own walking. How can prices be the same? Just seems a little crazy.

I'll agree with earlier posts...completely different experience. On the big ships, you're just one of thousands running through the few on-board experiences, staffed by very low wage employees. And when you get off, you only have a few hours, so if you want do "do the port", you probably just hit the tourist attraction and never get a feel for the place.

I will say the tour prices raised my eyebrows. I guess hardly anything meets my price expectations anymore. But it’s expensive for a service that just moves your bags and arranges food and lodging.

I think you can do your own tour, if you have a bit of creativity and a tiny bit of courage.

To do it yourself, if you have a group where you have some people not interested in walking, you can have a rental car/van. Or even if all want to walk, you can take turns moving the vehicle. My problem is finding friends who have enough time (they're all still working) and money to do such a trip.

The idea of having "everything taken care of" with one of the packaged walking tours means you'd probably just talk with your fellow tourists most of the time. As opposed to if you had made the reservation, at least you'd talk to the front desk person. Maybe you'd have no common language and you'd need to break out Google translate, lol! To some, that would be torture, but to others it would be adventure.

 

[Nemo2]

at least you'd talk to the front desk person. Maybe you'd have no common language and you'd need to break out Google translate, lol! To some, that would be torture, but to others it would be adventure.

One of my most enjoyable 'memory vignettes' was on our last R&R from Saudi.....it was a quickie because the contract was winding up/down, so with friends we went to Spain and across to Tangier by ferry.

Standing outside the hotel waiting for the others I got into a conversation with an 'old' (I was in my 40's at that time) Moroccan street vendor......in fractured Arabic & French I told him where I was working, what we were doing, etc, and.....he understood.

That was 29 years ago and I still enjoy the reminiscence.

 

[brett]

When we were in Spain we did a one day trip to Tangiers from Tariffa.

Enjoyed it so much that Morocco is on our list-especially the southern beach areas.

 

[neihn]

Looking at walking tours most likely somewhere in Europe although they are offered in other locations as well. The type of walking tour which is essentially a series of day hikes arriving at an Inn or hotel in the evening. The tour company arranges the logistics and moves your bags from location to location. But hopefully a great way to see the countryside and experience more than a typical tourist visit. Plus being able to enjoy the hiking and outdoors.

.

OP, check out this company, they seems to fit your description. My co-worker had done/used it many times (most recently last October), she is in her late 50s (so if she can do it, I probably can do it, so do you - She has only good things to say about that company

https://www.onfootholidays.co.uk/

 

[Nemo2]

When we were in Spain we did a one day trip to Tangiers from Tariffa.

Enjoyed it so much that Morocco is on our list-especially the southern beach areas.

In 1969, with my first wife, we went over from Algeciras on the ferry, (they had three day stopover return tickets at that time), got a little hotel room down in the medina, and wandered up and down the alleys.

(There was a young 'Anglo-ish' guy on the ferry over, and we kept seeing him sitting at a table outside a cafe....never seemed to move.....he caught the same ferry we did back to Spain and was scooped up by the Guardia as soon as the boat docked......"drug deals" someone mentioned to us.)

 

[PawPrint53]

We did a self-guided walking tour of the Cotswolds that was kind of designed around how many miles we felt like walking per day. The accommodations were mid-priced B & B's mostly, although one was a cute cottage behind a pub. Don't remember the name of the company, but I think I found it using TripAdvisor. They gave us great directions and instructions.

 

[mh]

I'll agree with earlier posts...completely different experience. On the big ships, you're just one of thousands running through the few on-board experiences, staffed by very low wage employees. And when you get off, you only have a few hours, so if you want do "do the port", you probably just hit the tourist attraction and never get a feel for the place.



I think you can do your own tour, if you have a bit of creativity and a tiny bit of courage.

To do it yourself, if you have a group where you have some people not interested in walking, you can have a rental car/van. Or even if all want to walk, you can take turns moving the vehicle. My problem is finding friends who have enough time (they're all still working) and money to do such a trip.

The idea of having "everything taken care of" with one of the packaged walking tours means you'd probably just talk with your fellow tourists most of the time. As opposed to if you had made the reservation, at least you'd talk to the front desk person. Maybe you'd have no common language and you'd need to break out Google translate, lol! To some, that would be torture, but to others it would be adventure.

It all depends on the route you are walking as to when it makes the most sense to have a guide. For example , the rogue river trail or something like the cinque terra, it’s almost impossible to get lost on the trail. For the coast to coast trail in England not all the turns are marked clearly and you could blow 1/3 of a day on a wrong turn, not the end of the world but it can certainly happen. The Iceland highland trek , if the weather turns on you , and you get bad visibility , you better be real good at navigating with a compass and a detailed topo map. Even if you have a gps unit. Also the local guided tours tend to use the best lodges because they do a lot of business with the lodge owners. I would at least use a company to do a self guided tour where they book the lodges for you and arrange the shuttle of your baggage.

One other nice thing about an arranged tour is that you’ll meet people that are adventurous enough to do the walk in the first place which usually makes them more interesting and fun that the average person. I usually have a good time interacting with people on a guided walk , other people you meet on the trails, locals in village with the lodge, etc.. , and I’m not the most outgoing person in the world.

 

[sengsational]

One other nice thing about an arranged tour is that you’ll meet people that are adventurous enough to do the walk in the first place which usually makes them more interesting and fun that the average person. I usually have a good time interacting with people on a guided walk , other people you meet on the trails, locals in village with the lodge, etc.. , and I’m not the most outgoing person in the world.

Having an automatic group of like-minded buddies can make it really fun, I agree. I'm sure if a couple or a small group of friends decided to go unguided, I'm sure they'd interact with the locals and other tourists, but not quite the same dynamic as the larger group that might be on the same guided tour.

 

[MuirWannabe]

How big are the guided groups usually? Has anyone done guided and self-guided? What did you think of the difference?

I’ll be going with a group of 6 of us. So I was thinking self-guided but not certain. I’d like to be able to adjust itinerary and stay somewhere for an extra day if we wish. Can you do this with self-guided but not with guided?