Spinning Your Wheels for a Lot Less

Fall is a fine time for enjoying the outdoors in Europe and North America, but only if you can do so at reasonable cost. You would think, wouldn’t you, that a trip on which you provide your own transportation--namely, your own two legs--would cost less than most others. But most trips of the most prominent hiking and biking-tour operators are priced in the range of $300 to $400 a night, not including air fare.

But here are the reliable hiking and biking outfits that do it for much less. Though some may have already ended their season, their departures are so popular that you might be well advised to book ahead now for 1999.

Just Biking: Randonnee Tours; telephone (800) 465-6488, fax (204) 474-1888, Internet https://www.randonneetours.com. A Canadian company with a loyal following for their independent, non-group biking tours. On Randonnee’s programs, you simply follow a pre-designed itinerary through France, Italy, England, Ireland, the Netherlands or Switzerland, entirely on your own, without a guide or escort, but with your luggage carted for you from town to town. Accommodations are at modest hotels or B&Bs.; Averaging about eight to 11 days in length, tours run year-round and generally cost $130 to $150 a day.

Just Hiking: Knapsack Tours; tel. (925) 944-9435; fax (925) 472-0536. Unpretentious to the max, this outfit especially popular with an over-40 crowd covers some of the great wild places of the world--the Canadian Rockies, the Ecuadorean rain forest, the Swiss Alps, Yosemite--on a schedule of four to six hours a day on foot. Tourist-class hotels, inns, bungalows and lodges are no-nonsense, and luggage transport is provided. The cost works out to $75 to $130 per day.

C-N-Do Scotland; tel./fax 011-44-1786-445-703; or by e-mail cndo.scotland.@byinternet.com. Highlands, lowlands--the whole country’s covered by a wide variety of treks, from day trips to two-weekers, run throughout the year. Low-key and eco-friendly, it sends out groups of eight to 10, who stay at family-run small hotels, hostels and guest houses. Rates are usually less than $100 nightly and often include meals.

Ibex Treks; tel. (317) 254-9861; Internet https://www.ibextreks.com. Their specialty is moderately challenging outings of five to 14 days through the Swiss Alps, from mid-July through August only. Due to the terrain, on this one you’ll have to lug much of your baggage yourself. An eight-day tour of the Bernese Oberland, sleeping dormitory-style, can cost as little as $773--less than $100 per night. Groups average about eight people per trip.

Hiking and Biking: Forum Travel International; tel. (925) 671-2900, fax (925) 671-2993, Internet https://www.foruminternational.com. A California-based clearinghouse for a number of European outfits, it offers 70 biking and 20 hiking tours between May and October. Averaging eight days (a low of five to a high of 15), most (but not all) are self-guided following a written itinerary. Costs are often less than $100 nightly, including lodging and breakfast; some tours also throw in dinner. Luggage is sent along by the tour operator from inn to inn.

REI Adventures; tel. (800) 622-2236, Internet https://www.rei.com/travel. An outdoor clothing and equipment company, it runs trips--mostly geared toward beginners--on every continent, with accommodations ranging from camping to inns or B&Bs.; Examples include six trips per year to (not up) Mt. Everest, 16 days for $2,065; in November, eight nights in Mexico’s Copper Canyon for $1,095. All meals and luggage transfers are usually included.