Imagine staying in a villa or apartment on a working winery in the hills of Tuscany. You look out the window and see the workers in the vineyards. As a part of your walk go for a wine tasting, the wines of Chianti will definitely be on your dinner table.
There are two areas for your walking holiday in Tuscany. In the Chianti area stay in the town of Greve, located about mid way between Florence and Siena with frequent bus service. Your walks will take you along country roads passing vineyards, olive groves and stone villages such as Montefioralle and Radda. The small quaint village of Radda, in particular has some great cafes for a lunch or dinner stop.
There are walks are available in both directions from Greve. There are a number of trails and country roads, not always with signs so a map or guide is a must. An excellent reference is Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria:
How far you hike each day will be determined by the number of wineries you visit along the way. At dinner head into Greve and the Coop grocery store, and cook in your villa. There are many restaurants surrounding the town square as well to sample the Italian cuisine.
Another fun area for a walking holiday is nearby and just to the west in San Gimignano. A pedestrian friendly (no cars allowed) mountaintop town with 13 towers remaining from the medieval times it is busy with shoppers during the day, however at night you have the town to yourself. As you explore the town visit the old walls, the cathedral and weekly market.
You will start your walks by heading downhill from San Gimignano to the village of Certaldo in one direction or the Roman town of Volterra in the other direction. The walks in this area will take your 3-4 days. Use the local bus service to get to the start.
Avoid the hot summer months a time your walking holiday in Tuscany for May/June or September/October harvest season.
Great walking routes, wonderful food, the Chianti wines, stone villages and the wonderful scenic hills of Tuscany all make for the best walking holiday ever!
Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria: Revised Edition
Price: $13.6
Pages: 416, Edition: Rev Sub, Paperback, Penguin (Non-Classics)
50 Hikes In & Around Tuscany: Hiking the Mountains, Forests, Coast & Historic Sites of Wild Tuscany & Beyond
Price: $11.53
Pages: 288, Paperback, Countryman
Originally posted 2009-10-14 17:22:59.
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Acadia National Park in Maine offers numerous walking and hiking trails of all levels. One of the longer hiking trails is the moderate 8.4 mile (13.5 km) North Ridge Trail up and back down Cadillac Mountain.
Before starting your hike stop at the Visitor’s Center for the excellent film on the history of Acadia National Park. Then a short drive on the Park Loop Road brings you to the trail head. There is no parking lot so join the other cars along the side the road.
The trail is easy to follow with a mixture of painted blazes and rock piles as you gently climb up the mountain. If you take just a short walk off the main trail you will find wild blueberries. There were plenty of vantage points along the way to observe the rugged Maine coastline and Schoodic Peninsula across the Frenchman Bay. Below us was the resort town of Bar Harbor and two cruise ships anchored just off shore.
As the trail neared the top you are mainly walking across rock until you reach one of the viewing platforms. When we arrived there was a park ranger with binoculars watching for migrating birds of prey which were then identified for the surrounding crowd.
Cadillac Mountain is Acadia’s tallest peak at 1,530 feet and the viewing platforms were crowded with many people who had driven up the other side of the mountain. There is also a small store and snack bar at the top.
If the North Ridge trail sounds too easy then try the South Ridge Trail which also climbs 1530 feet but is 14.8 miles (23.8 km) with some strenuous sections. For easy walking there is the extensive network of Carriage trails.
To get the most from your visit get a copy of Acadia, The Complete Guide: Mount Desert Island & Acadia National Park
Although we were hiking on a long summer weekend we found hiking in Acadia National Park enjoyable with the trails actually not too crowded.
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Want a fairytale walking holiday, then visit Tegelberg located in the Alps of Bavaria, south of Munich, Germany. This trip is suitable for moderate level hikers.
Stay in the town of Schwangau. Start your walking holiday by walking along a local road for about two kilometers to the base of the mountain. The cows spend the night in town and head out into the fields in the early morning and returning about 5 p.m. causing all traffic to stop and wait for the herd to cross. Best vantage point is the outside patio with great beer on the main road.
If you want to see the famous castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein built by King Ludwig purchase your tickets for the English language tours at the base of the mountains and plan to take most of your first day for this. Another great castle build by King Ludwig is the nearby Linderfhof, his summer home, and also worth a visit.
For the hike take the steep walk up the mountain to Neuschwanstein which takes 40-60 minutes. There is a café near the top to relax. Just past the castle follow the hiking trails to the Marienbrucke (bridge) which provides an excellent view of the castles, Schwangau and lake below.
Continue along the trail over to the Tegelberg where there is a panoramic restaurant and plenty of hang gliders to watch. From the top take the three hour hike back down the mountain which offers amazing scenery at every turn. Expect to take about 7-8 hours to complete the entire hike.
On your third day you could take the cable car up Tegelberg to walk along one of the trails departing from the panorama restaurant.
These are other great hikes in the Bavarian Alps can be found in Walking in the Bavarian Alps
With the fairytale castles, fine beer, amazing scenery a walking holiday in Tegelberg, Bavaria makes for a great vacation.
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Because I frequently go on walking holidays in both Europe and North America I have noticed a difference in the way hiking trails are constructed on both continents. There are always exceptions to what I have listed below but these differences do alter the overall hiking experience:
Five ways the European trails are different:
In Europe you will find a network connecting trails while in North America you tend to have long distance trails such as the Appalachian Trail; Pacific Crest Trail; and Trans Canada Trail with a few connectors or side trails
In England you can stop for a cup of tea high on a mountain in the Lake District. In the Alps of Germany or Switzerland there will be a café at the top of the mountain. In North America you rarely have tea rooms or cafés except in a few of the very popular National Parks such as Banff with a lot of day hikers.
Many of the North American trails pass mostly through National, State or Provincial Parks even the long distance trails such as the Appalachian Trail. An therefore these trails tend to be in forested areas. In places such as England public footpaths in use for centuries are not uncommon.
North American trails have blazes on trees with little or no directional signage. While in Europe there are often directional signs are most intersections with blazes on posts or maybe even none as you are just following the trail.
In North American hiking trails usually consist of a dirt path with plenty of wooden bridges, boardwalks and stairs and other support structures along the routes. While frequently this is to stop erosion in areas where there is a high number of hikers other times it is this to make it easier for hiking. On the European continent walking trails are more likely (not always) to be wider and may have a gravel base.
If you need some suggestions for where to hike take a look at Classic Hikes of the World: 23 Breathtaking Treks
These differences in hiking trails just make the experience even more interesting.
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One of the most interesting hiking trails in the world, the historic Chilkoot Trail is a challenging 53 kilometer (33 mile) long hike up 3,500 feet. The Chilkoot high mountain pass is located in the Coast Mountain range between Dyea, Alaska and Lake Bennett, British Columbia.
Originally this trail was used by the Tlingit natives for trade. On August 16, 1896 a gold nugget was discovered in Bonanza Creek in the Klondike and the rush was on. To get to the gold over 100,000 prospectors sailed to Skagway, Alaska and hiked loaded up one of two routes. The White Pass trail (nicknamed dead horse trail) is today a railway line.
In hiking up the Chilkoot Trail, the prospectors were required to carry sufficient supplies to support themselves for a year, generally 900 kg of food and equipment. At the top of the Chilkoot Pass the North West Mounted Police (forerunners of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) checked to ensure they had the required amount. It could take the prospectors over three months to move the supplies from cache to cache.
The goods carried included 350 pounds of flour, 150 lbs. of bacon and 100 lbs. each of beans and sugar, sleds, stoves, medicine, picks, shovels, etc. It was said that if you stepped out of line along the trail, it could take as long as half a day before someone would let you back in line. Along the sides of the trail, even today, are littered rusting equipment the prospectors left out of exhaustion. Of the 4,000 who actually discovered gold, only a few hundred ultimately emerged rich.
However today it is a rewarding experience for many hikers. You can plan the hike yourself and obtain the required hiking permits. There are also tour companies you can get the permits and handle the logistics.
The trail can be hiked in either direction, but almost every one chooses the west to east option, and for a good reason. Leaving from Skagway puts the steepest part of the trail, the Golden Stairs, on the uphill side. This is the quarter mile section where you climb over 1000 vertical feet. The weather on the Chilkoot can be seriously bad, by starting at the coast and working inland, most of the wind and rain rolling in off the Pacific will be at your back.
The character of the Chilkoot Trail changes along the way, first it climbs steeply from sea level at Skagway to the pass, and then descends only slightly over to 2,000 feet at Bennett Lake.
On the return you may continue your visit of Whitehorse and the Yukon or take the restored White Pass & Yukon narrow gauge railway down to Skagway. This railway was completed in 1901 and today is used mainly by cruise passengers for day trips. In fact it is the busiest tourist railroad in the world today.
People hike the Chilkoot Trail for the history and the natural beauty. Are you up for this challenging hike?
Chilkoot Trail: Heritage Route to the Klondike
Price: $18.96
Pages: 182, Paperback, Lost Moose
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