Walking Holidays, Vacations and Tours
Walking Holidays to suit everyone
When choosing a walking holiday there are a number of factors that need to be considered.
What type of tour is required? What level of fitness and experience? Why a walking holiday and where should it be?
There are many walking vacations to choose from and most are suitable for a wide range of abilities from beginners to experienced walkers.
Types of tour
Tours can vary enormously from gentle hikes that combine walking with other interests such as literature, history, photography, horticulture or bird watching, to treks over challenging terrain.
Gentle walks might well utilise a single overnight base but when combined with transport can be designed as a series of short linear walks in the area, starting and finishing at different locations.
Walks which start and finish at the same location are called circular.
More commonly, walks are linear and participants stay at a different location each night. Tour operators will usually arrange for heavy luggage and equipment to be transported ahead.
Organised tours can also be either small guided groups or unguided but either way, you can expect the holiday provider to take care of all of the organisation and planning.
Physical intensity
Most tour operators grade their walks from easy, gentle to those requiring a very high level of fitness and experience;
though they may express the scale in different terms,
the level of fitness required for a particular walk is defined by its grade.
- Gentle walks can usually be enjoyed by anyone in good health, who leads a reasonably active life and at this level, specific experience is not normally necessary.
These walks will generally involve 3 to 5 hours walking each day, often with extended breaks. Distance is not really relevant on such tours and might be anywhere between 5 and 10 miles.
- Participants on intermediate walks are often required to have had previous hill or mountain walking experience; the walks are usually over rougher ground and cover further distances,
perhaps 20 miles in 6 or 7 hours, so fitness is definitely required at this level.
- The toughest walks are only for very fit and experienced mountain walkers.
It is likely that the walks will be at altitude, involve walking over snow and ice, crossing rivers and often some climbing as well.
Destinations
These days we are spoilt for choice when choosing where to walk, tours are organised all over the world and associated with all manner of special interests and themes.
There is even a company combining rambling and real ale, described as the beer drinker's dream holiday!
When deciding on a destination, note particular climatic conditions and also the extra endurance needed when walking at altitude.
It is also important to consider vaccination and visa requirements. Advice for travellers is freely available from national governments such as the
US State Department
Consular Information Sheets
and the British Foreign Office;.
The Australian government publish a very useful and useable web site called SmarTraveller
and keep in mind that an advantage of booking a holiday through a
tour operator is that they should be able to give you additional advice.
Accommodation
No doubt the majority of walking tours incorporate camping but there are a significant number of walking holidays which use lodges, inns or even quite luxurious hotels.
Options for non-walking partners
Surprisingly, some holiday providers do cater for non-participating or less active partners, offering a range of walk options or other activities.
Take Advice and be Prepared
You can best enjoy your holiday by matching the tour to your level of fitness and experience; regularly walking the distance and type of terrain that you will be experiencing.
Good tour operators will provide preparatory information and also be able to help you choose the right holiday.
Check out walking Holiday listings in our guide by clicking the links below
Remember that many of the other activity holiday listings in the guide can also involve hiking.
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