Touring the European Countryside by Foot Offers Memorable Images

You may not cover much ground when you tour Europe by foot, but there’s no better way to get a wonderfully intimate look at the countryside. When you have laboriously climbed the twisting path of a long hill, its image is burned into memory: every rock you stumbled over, every flower you stopped to sniff.

Six years ago, my wife and I signed up with a tour company for what turned out to be an exceptional adventure in Italy.

For nine days we hiked the gorgeous hills and valleys of southern Tuscany, arriving at the end of each day’s journey at a comfortable inn, in a small and historic hilltop village.

We had so much fun that we took another walking tour the following year, a 15-day ramble through the famed Loire Valley of France.

As recently as six years ago, such escorted walking tours of Europe--or anywhere else, for that matter--were something of a novelty, and only a relatively few tour organizers offered them. Since then, however, exploring Europe by foot seems to have captured the imagination of athletic-minded Americans.

Dozens of tour companies have put together walking excursions throughout Europe, including Eastern Europe. Some of them are bicycling companies that have added walking tours for clients who want to linger along the way.

The surge of interest in walking tours prompted one Boulder, Colo., travel agency, All Adventure Travel, to begin specializing this year in nothing but escorted bicycling and walking tours.

The owners, Pat and Julio Halty, are bicyclists themselves, but they discovered a lot of their customers preferred to travel afoot. The firm currently serves as a clearinghouse, or reservation service, for about 25 walking-tour companies, and the number is growing.

The price for a European walking holiday can cost $60 or $75 per person per day to as much as $300. The price varies for several reasons, says Pat Halty, the primary factor being type of accommodations offered.

Some tours are all-inclusive--you pay one price and it covers all meals, wine and museum entrance fees. Other companies provide breakfast only, and you dine wherever you choose--at an additional cost.

The country in which you are walking also is a consideration in the price. Greece, Portugal and Spain are inexpensive. In France’s Loire Valley and the wine country of Italy, you can expect to pay much more.

A more subtle distinction is the ratio between guides and participants. “We like an 8-to-1 ratio,” says Halty. “I get concerned when it’s 15 to 1. It becomes a mob scene.”

Among the many travel companies offering escorted walks in Europe this summer:

--Alternative Travel Group: One of the oldest of the walking tour companies, Alternative Travel Group, began by specializing in Italian jaunts and then expanded to include tours in France, Portugal, Spain, the Alps and Turkey.

Its colorful 30-page catalogue lists about 20 itineraries, lasting from nine to 11 days, and dozens of departures from spring into winter.

The firm’s prices tend to be on the high side, compared to other companies, but almost everything is included in the cost except air fare. The local wine flows as freely as you might wish at lunch and dinner.

Perhaps the firm’s most popular hikes are the “Tuscan Trail” and the “Southern Tuscan Trail.” Guides escort you over country lanes and hilltop trails away from highway traffic. A vehicle shuttles your luggage to the next hilltop village.

One night in southern Tuscany is spent at a historic hot springs spa, Bagno Vignoni, where you soak your muscles and drink in a splendid view.

The nine-day Tuscan Trail tour is $1,745; the 11-day Southern Tuscan Trail tour is $1,975. Air fare to Pisa is additional. There are frequent departures through October.

For information: Alternative Travel Group Ltd., 1-3 George St., Oxford, England OX1 2AZ, (800) 527-5997.

--Butterfield & Robinson: This Canadian firm began offering bicycle tours 24 years ago, and since then has added a small selection of walking tours. Theirs are, however, among the fanciest--and most expensive--walking tours on the market.

Accommodations are in chateaux, villas and small-town auberges and country inns. The company offers five- to nine-day walks in the Alsace, Bordeaux and Dordogne Valley regions of France; the Swiss Alps, and the Lake Country, Chianti and Tuscany regions of Italy.

With Alternative Travel, you walk with one or more guides. Butterfield & Robinson offers a variation. You can choose to accompany a guide, but the firm also distributes maps of each tour segment so that you can find your own way to the next destination.

A van carries the luggage. The firm generally plans two-night stops in each destination; many companies stay in a different town each evening.

The eight-day Alsace itinerary links what the firm describes as “the tiny half-timbered, flower-bedecked villages for which Alsace is famous.” Cost is $2,295 per person, excluding air fare to Strasbourg. Departures are June 9, July 14, Aug. 18, Sept. 1 and Sept. 29.

For more information: Butterfield & Robinson, 70 Bond St., Suite 300, Toronto, Canada M5B 1X3, (800) 387-1147 and (416) 864-1354.

--The Wayfarers: This English walking company devotes its energies to the homeland, offering a series of six-night tours along country lanes and ancient right-of-ways.

Several of the tours have a literary flavor, among them “Sir Walter Scott’s Borders,” “Thomas Hardy’s Dorset” and “James Herriot’s Yorkshire.” Also very popular are walks in England’s Cotswolds, which tend to sell out quickly.

On these trips, a guide leads the way, a van carries the luggage and you stay in small inns and country hotels.

On the Thomas Hardy tour, you pass through picturesque villages and the gently rolling hills of Wessex in southwestern England. The price for this and all other tours is about $1,100. Departures for the Thomas Hardy tour are Aug. 5 and Sept. 30.

For information: Contact the U.S. office of The Wayfarers at 166 Thames St., Newport, R.I. 02840, (401) 849-5087.

--American Youth Hostels: In this year’s tour catalogue, American Youth Hostels offers three all-inclusive hikes: to Ireland, the Swiss Alps and the French and Italian Alps. Each lasts 16 days. Stays are in inexpensive dorm accommodations in hostels, which keeps the price down.

The organization’s “Shamrock Shuffle,” a circle tour out of Dublin, costs $2,350 per person, including round-trip air fare from New York City. A guide leads the way.

You must take a backpack and carry your belongings. There is one departure for adults age 18 or over on Aug. 17; a second departure open to younger hikers is scheduled for July 27.

For information: American Youth Hostels, 1017 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 783-4943.

--Worldwide Walking: Long a specialist in winter cross-country skiing tours, this New Jersey firm recently has introduced a series of walking tours to such unusual destinations as the Tatra Mountain region on the Polish-Czechoslovak border, several mountain regions in Norway and to Lapland in northern Finland.

The Tatra Mountain trips are aimed at more adventurous travelers since several nights are spent in bunk rooms in mountain lodges.

While in the mountains, you carry your gear in a backpack. Distances are not great. In Finland you stay in Lapp houses or tents. In Norway, accommodations are in comfortable inns.

The 13-day, two-country Tatra Mountain tour begins in Krakow, Poland, and ends in Prague. In both cities, accommodations are in first-class hotels. The price is $1,090 per person, including lodging and meals but not air fare. Departures are July 15, Aug. 12 and Sept. 2.

For information: Worldwide Walking, P.O. Box 1129, Maplewood, N.J. 07040, (201) 378-9170.

--The French Experience: This New York City travel agency is introducing an unusual walking holiday in Provence.

Participants stay for a week in a small hotel in the ancient village of Moustiers Sainte Marie in Provence, about 60 miles north of Nice. Each day you can join an escorted hike, either in the spectacularly scenic Gorge du Verdon--a deep river canyon--or to mountain villages or through the Provence countryside.

A different hike is scheduled every day of the week and they are available from June through October.

You can begin the week’s cycle any day of the week. Picnic lunches are provided along the way. Swimming and windsurfing are available in nearby lakes. The price of $918 per person, based on double occupancy, includes lodging for six nights, all meals, six hikes and transfers from Nice.

For information: The French Experience, 370 Lexington Ave., New York 10017, (800) 283-72623 and (212) 986-1115.

--Distant Journeys: The two Outward Bound instructors who head this firm, Andrea Ellison and Julie Head, concentrate on alpine excursions.

Their basic trip is the classic “Tour du Mont Blanc,” a 13-day circle route that begins in Chamonix, France, crosses into the Italian and Swiss Alps and returns to its starting point.

The scenery is gorgeous, says Ellison, but you can expect moderate-to-strenuous hiking at higher altitudes (though under 9,000 feet). Accommodations are in modest hotels or in mountain lodges or refuges.

You will have to carry a backpack with clothing changes and rain gear. The price is $1,250 per person, which includes lodging and most meals; air fare to Geneva is extra.

Departures are June 25, Aug. 27 and Sept. 10. There are seven-day versions of the trip at $925 per person.

For information: Distant Journeys, Box 1211, Camden, Me. 04843, (207) 781-5339.

--Above the Clouds Trekking: Among the few Americans who find their way to Romania’s Transylvania Alps are the small groups that have been led there by this Worcester, Mass., firm since 1984.

These 16-day trips are not for everyone, since Romania’s mountain lodges are very basic, according to the firm’s Steve Conlon. However, the scenery is beautiful, and you have the opportunity to meet and talk with hikers from other Eastern European countries.

The hiking is “surprisingly rugged,” says Conlon, so you should be in good shape. Daily distances covered are longer, and you will have to carry a good-sized backpack.

Four nights are spent in Bucharest, the Romanian capital. The price is $1,400 per person, which includes lodging and food; air fare is extra. Departures are Aug. 2 and Aug. 16.

For information: Above the Clouds Trekking, P.O. Box 398, Worcester, Mass. 01602, (800) 233-4499 and (508) 799-4499.

--Classic Bicycle Tours and Treks: The craggy Pindus Mountains of northern Greece are not lofty, says manager Dale Hart of Classic Bicycle Tours and Treks of Clarkson, N.Y.

His firm has put together a 13-day itinerary on marked but remote mountain trails. Accommodations are in small hotels, village houses and mountain hostels.

Anyone in good physical condition should be able to complete the hike. Mules carry the luggage. The price is $1,089, which includes lodging, breakfasts and two dinners; air fare is extra. Departures are June 29 and Aug. 31. In 1991, the firm is adding a Crete itinerary.

For information: Classic Bicycle Tours and Treks, P.O. Box 668, Clarkson, N.Y. 14430, (800) 777-8090 and (716) 637-5970.

--Peregrine Adventures: Each spring, Peregrine Adventures of Park City, Utah, puts together several 15-day walking tours of the little-visited islands of Greece.

You spend two or three days on each island taking day hikes, then travel on to the next island by ferry. This year’s program has been completed, but similar trips are planned for 1991. The price this year was $2,195 per person, which included lodging, meals and air fare from New York City.

In late summer and fall, Peregrine has scheduled a 15-day combination walking and sailing tour of Turkey called the “Ottoman Odyssey.”

First stop is Istanbul for sightseeing. You continue on to the culturally interesting area of Cappadocia in central Turkey, and complete the journey with a weeklong cruise along the Aegean Coast.

The price is $2,995 per person, including air fare from New York City. Departures are Aug. 23 and Sept. 6, 16 and 29.

For information: Peregrine Adventures, Box 3838, Park City, Utah 84060, (801) 649-0460.

--Tre Laghi Travel: Tre Laghi Travel’s nine-day “Grand Hotel Tour” of Northern Italy’s Lake Country is aimed at the hiker with a love of comfort and good food. All accommodations are in four- and five-star hotels. Among them is the majestic 18th-Century Grand Hotel Villa d’Este on Lake Como, where the group spends two nights.

On this tour, Tre Laghi offers a choice of a leisurely hike to the next destination or a longer one, if you are so inclined. Luggage is carried by a van.

The price is $2,560 per person, which includes lodging, breakfasts and dinners. Air fare is extra. Departures are July 24 and Aug. 31. A less expensive version with accommodations in more modest hotels is $1,570.

For information: Tre Laghi Travel, 301 Southwest Lincoln, Suite 802, Portland, Ore. 97201, (503) 274-2827.

All Adventure Travel publishes a 28-page catalogue of trips throughout the world, including a substantial number in Europe. The firm can book a tour and handle the necessary air connections and other travel arrangements. For a copy: P.O. Box 4307, Boulder, Colo. 80306, (800) 537-4025 and (303) 939-8885.