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Last year I sought advice on bike touring in Brittany with my wife, which was a success, so I thought I'd ask again.
We fancy a week to 10 days away, probably cheap flights of possibly train. We both teach so has to be school holidays.
Happy to camp some days, possibly cheap hotel/bnb others.
Inspiration was an article on Norway, which I've been to twice years ago. I'd love to return but know it's expensive. I've done Tour of Mont Blanc, so thats a possibility, but probably mega busy.
Somewhere quieter? Slovenia? I would like scrambling/via ferrata, but my wife doesn't like exposure, so that is ruled out.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Fill your boots....
https://www.era-ewv-ferp.org/e-paths/
FWIW, I personally would head to quieter paths. We passed some Spanish Camino paths last summer and a few seemed to be very busy... Not really my thing.
Ive done a fair bit of trekking around the place. Slovenia was one of the real favourites. You have to stay in the mountain huts and they vary from almost hotels to WW1 artillery spotting bunkers with a long drop and cold water only. My fave was very primitive but just below the summitt of Krn mountain. good maps and good waymarked paths to follow. I did 2 x 6000ft summits with no huge effort.
The other place I really liked was masssif central around Montdor good network of paths and plenty of places to stay with again some good summits
Also Monte Sibilini national park in Italy was good - and that was a recommendation from here
PM me if you want more details
Corsica GR20 ?
Gr736 in France, follows Tarn river. At least 2 via ferrata a few km away from the path. It is a New GR.
Slovenia - view from the summit of Krn. Just a walk albeit a wee bit exposed in places
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/3199/2877280278_b0cd40df8a_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/3199/2877280278_b0cd40df8a_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/5ofPbE ]Krn lake pano[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/25846484@N04/ ]TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr
Majorca - I forgot that - lovely walking in the mountains in the north and a lovely 100yr old train to get to the start we used
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48371545042_2b58a873a5_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48371545042_2b58a873a5_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2gGqP6U ]DSC_1060[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/25846484@N04/ ]TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr
Near Montdor - Puy du Sancy - fab walk
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Sibilini in Italy
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Corsica GR20 ?
Was my initial thought but would be tough (or perhaps just not much fun) to fit into 10 days with travel either side. Also quite exposed in places.
Was my initial thought but would be tough (or perhaps just not much fun) to fit into 10 days with travel either side. Also quite exposed in places.
I've done it in two trips starting at the midpoint, Vizzavona, both times. Heading North the first time and South the second time.
The Northern section was by far the harder and more exposed. The Southern end is far less 'rugged' and exposed although still fairly tough. You could do one half in a ten day trip perhaps. There's a mountain railway to get you up to Vizzavona from Ajaccio.
The Kerry Way is a good shout I did it on CinderKone some 25 years ago and had to get off a fair few times mainly due my low skill levels on the rough stuff.
But pre knee issues I'd have done the <span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">C</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">amino de Santiago.</span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span>
Great ideas, thanks all. Please keep them coming. Caher not sure what you have linked to?
There are a few more long distance paths on Corsica, all softer than the GR20. I've done the one down the west coast, and one from the east coast to the west coast. Both were spectacular, not too hard, and have been thoughtfully divided up into day stages with food and lodging of varying degrees of comfort, Would reccomend, but might be brutally hot in August.
Gr20 is good, especially the northern section. It can get very busy though. Slovenia looks good. The Italian dolomites are great. I wouldn’t camp, refugees are not expensive (30eur b+b or less) and very good. Try to avoid July/aug if you can. Alta via 1 or 2 both have via ferrata and easy/hard options.
We did the northern part of the GR20 - with flights over a 10 day period.
Tough walk and very basic accommodation on the way, we took our own tents. Quite an acheivement though, it’s the elevation gain day after day thats the challenge, nothing more than basic scrambling in places, but they have inserted cables in the more challenging areas.
However we didn’t see any of Corsica, kind of wished we booked 12 days to give a day either end for exploring the capital etc.
Try to avoid July/aug if you can
No choice unfortunately
We did Chamonix to Zermatt (the walking route not the glacier route) on foot about 15 years ago in early July. The wildflower meadows were amazing at that time of year.
If you've already done Tour de Mont Blanc then start near where it leaves the Mont Blanc trail and head up throu Verbier, Arolla, Zinal to the Mattertal. Was a great trip staying in cheaps hotels and huts.
Also done the S. half of the GR 20 before that. Did it in September so set off carrying 6 days food which made for heavy packs as there is no guaranteed supply points out of season. Was great but hard and had weather from hot sun to driving snow.
All the suggestions above look great. Loads of places to explore.
Some good options on here:
Alta Via 1 or 2 in the Dolomites are good suggestions as many VF sections are avoidable. In the Dolomites all you need is some maps and an open mind and you can easily create your own week long route
The path along the Kara****en (Austria/Slovenia border) looks amazing, we've done a few sections
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">France</span>
The GR400 in Cantal is a good suggestion. We did some walks there last year and it was stunning
https://www.gr-infos.com/en/gr400.htm
GR20 does have some very exposed sections and variable weather as it's an island. North end is preeyu hard in places, south bit has lnger days at lower elevation but in full sun
The GR5 can be chopped up into week size chunks as can the GR10/11
France has more GRs than you can shake a stick at.
Spain is a great place for shorter treks
For me Austria is the best place for hut-to-hut treks. There's loads of them all over the place and dozens of established routes.
If you want to be cheeky, look at the itineraries from walking companies like Exodus, Collets, KE travel etc to get inspiration.
Or look at the Cicerone Guides, Trailblazer guidebook websites for English books on routes
Caher (and others) have mentioned the Camino de Santiago, but it'll be quite busy in the summer months.
I think 70% of pilgrims do the French Way,10% do the north coast, 10% the Portugese and the other routes into Compostelle get the remaining 10%.as
We found the July/August temperatures fine on the North Coast, Primitivo and Portugese. The north coast was busy with regular tourists rather than too many pilgrims.
The north coast and Primitivo are among the most enjoyable walks I've done anywhere. The French, Basques and Spanish were hospitable, the other pilgrims good company and the walking fabulous.
Hmm, the Canaries offer unreal hiking. So far, I've done Gran Canaria, Tenerife, and Gomeria. Doing the circular hike on Gomeria takes maybe 5-6 days, and you can do most of the one one Tenerife in 3-4, so it could work? Lot of great wild camping, unreal landscapes with a lot of diversity along the way.
https://hikingisgood.com/gr-132-in-la-gomera-report/
https://www.caersbart.be/gr-131-tenerife/
Good shout on the Kerry Way, gonna do that at some point.
If you don't get abroad there are some good options here too:
Hadrian's wall path
Anglesey coastal path
Dales Way
St Cuthbert's Way
Beacons Way
Of course the best trekking I have done is in Scotland. Right to roam and the network of old routes as detailed in the Scottish hill tracks book or on the scotroutes website ( which is think is projected out of our scotroutes brain 🙂 )
For abroad I would recommend of the stuff I have done Slovenia for what you intend - no camping required as you can only stay in the mountain huts inthe national park but a network of paths so you can chose your own routes - and really good mapping
Just back from:
https://www.caminodosfaros.com/
in Galicia. Three nights under the stars (camping is not allowed but sleeping out is except in the nature reserve), and five in hotels. Mountian type walking at sea level. On the early stages from Malpica we saw half a dozen other walkers - deserted beaches, granite landscape, friendly people in shops, hotels and bars, even the taxi driver who took us to the bus station on the last day was chatty.
We haven't felt as out there man for years: several hours difficult walking from a road, no phone signal, no-one around. We walked with great care.
Wainwright's coast to coast? Did it 10 or so years ago and it was brill.
Just back from:
Awesome....
Met a lovely French girl walking the Fisherman's Trail on the Portuguese Atlantic Coast.
Walked half of one section, 15km out and then the return, barefoot along the sand covered cliffs. Lots of secluded bays for skinny dipping and other devious activities.
TJ what was the route you did in Slovenia? Sounds incredible
@Edukator - great stuff!!
Our 2007 walking holiday in Galicia and Asturias is my favourite holiday ever. There's just something about the place that really gets under your skin. Truly wonderful place and people
Just back from
Now that's my kind of walking... Sounds great.
+1 for Slovenia, although it is still the busiest hill area that I have ever visited (1992). Loved it all the same.
France has a very good path network, and being a network you dont have to go the same way as everyone else. Find an area you like and get the IGN map and mix and match. Our usual destinations were the hill country either side of the Rhone - Drome Provençal or Cevennes.
"Truly wonderful place and people" It's an area which has yet to be changed/ruined by mass tourism. Even in early July there were hardly any foreign registered cars. One hotelier spoke French and another English but everywhere else it was Spanish/Galician.
As for maps to use for planning and travelling: we use waymarkedtrails and weser-radweg for planning:
https://hiking.waymarkedtrails.org/
On the trails it's mapy.cz which allows downloading maps which is essential when there's no phone signal. The camino dos Faros route appears in red on the mobile version. In Winter there are slope overlays which help assessing avalanche risk.
There are local bus services with Monbus but don't be surprised if they are fully booked - so use taxis, just over a euro a km. Most of the walkers we met had arranged pick ups by taxis at road access points to take them to accomodation rather than sleep out. We got caught by Guardia in a tent in the Pyrenees once, were lucky enough to be let off, and now just have a sleeping bag, mat and mosquito net for our faces. Very impressed with the Guardia who are prepared to walk difficult paths in the dark enforcing the no tent, no tarp, no shelter of any kind rule.
Edit: we did the eastern side of that Volcans walk on MTBs a few years back, @ElShalimo (some of it is supposed to be walking only). Some impressive view points but a lot of time in forest seeing only trees.
The other place I really liked was masssif central around Montdor good network of paths and plenty of places to stay with again some good summits
Back in ‘97 I did a week riding around the Massif Central, starting out from Clairmonde du Feronde and finishing up at Puy de Dôme. Some beautiful countryside, not too difficult riding and overall had a great time, staying in gîtes every night. It had one great advantage - being away from all the hysteria surrounding Princess Di’s funeral! It would certainly make a great walking tour.