ESCORTED TOURS FRANCE DESTINATIONS Active tours
inspiration for Byron’s The Prisoner of Chillon (eight days from £949.)
w SPLURGE: TUCK IN Few nations take food as seriously as the French, and whether it’s a freshly baked, still-warm baguette from the boulangerie or a Michelin-starred tasting menu, it warrants complete, undivided attention. Alongside
ABOVE LEFT: Honfleur,
Normandy
ABOVE: Côte d’Azur
With its comparatively mild weather, quiet roads and the reward of a delicious French dinner at the end of it, it’s easy to see why cycling and walking holidays to France are so popular. Exodus’s escorted cycling tours tend to be for die-hard fans of Lycra who can recreate the most famous cycling race of all on its Alpine Cols of the Tour de France programme, which involves tackling the Col de la Bonette, the highest col in Europe; while its Raid Pyrenean Coast to Coast Ride takes clients on an epic journey across 11 of the most famous cols in the Pyrenees as they cycle from the Atlantic to the Med. Both are eight-day tours, from £1,059 or £1,129 respectively. For a gentler pace, suggest Explore’s Canal du Midi tour, which allows plenty of time to take in the natural beauty of the Corbières region (from £879, eight days).
Walkers are similarly well served, whether they want to stroll through the idyllic Dordogne (Macs Adventure has an eight-day tour from £650), enjoy tranquil walks punctuated by wine- tasting in Bordeaux (Explore’s nine-day tour starts at £1,099), or take on more of a challenge with a gruelling Mont Blanc trek from Exodus (priced from £1,999 for eight days).
3 March 2016
travelweekly.co.uk 57
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80