Walking is the “best medicine,” Hippocrates once said. “If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk.” And “if you are still in a bad mood,” the wise Greek physician added, well, “go for another walk.”
Hippocrates’s words, it turns out, also apply to vacations. A crop of new walkabouts around the world afford travelers the opportunity to slow down and soak up the scenery, with both feet firmly on the ground.
Our guide to six walking trips around the world, some new and others well-trodden, from Tasmanian beaches to the Himalaya ranges.
Hut, Hut, Hike!
Wander from France to Italy on a new three-day hut-to-hut hike.
“Fresh mountain air, lots of space, and hiking — it’s what you’re going to the Alps for,” says Meredith Erickson, the author of the cookbook Alpine Cooking: Recipes and Stories from Europe's Grand Mountaintops.
The outdoor adventure company Eleven Experience now offers a “new backcountry experience” that takes up to eight guests on a “haute route” from France to Italy. The walking vacation winds through picturesque mountains blanketed in wildflowers, 19th-century fortress ruins along the Col du Mont mountain pass and glaciers framing the Italian-Alpine town of Courmayeur.
There plenty of European comforts: Stays at chalets in Le Miroir, a small Savoyard village tucked high in the French Alps, and mountain huts in Italy’s Aosta Valley, home of the famed footrace Tor de Geants; après al fresco for trail mix; and candlelit dinners served with hand-foraged Génépi liqueur prepared by personal chefs.
When to Go: Mid-July through the end of September. “The summertime is as good as the winter in the Alps,” according to Erickson. “It’s more accessible and nothing’s covered up. You can immerse yourself in the smells and sounds. It smells like cheese and animals, and it’s confusing and amazing.”
Peak Himalayas
One of PRIOR’s most sought-after group trips is back for its third and final year.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealand mountaineer and explorer, claimed the view of Mount Everest from Pikey Peak as one of the best in Nepal.
