That was me! thank you! Out and about but will be back w questions

That sounds wonderful! Our Dordogne inn-to-inn walking trip is coming up pretty soon, so it was great to hear your report.

How many days was your walking tour? 3 days? Ours is 7 nights, so 6 days of walking. I am wondering if we might want to take one "day of rest" in between, but I am not sure I want to cut out any of the planned walks. Also, what was the average distance of your "moderately easy" walks? A lot of hills?

Heavenly! What were the routes like? Over walking trails, or were they lanes and roads? Grass, natural surfaces, or paved?

Years ago when I did a walking tour in England, I opted for stay-in-one-place, because I thought I didn’t want to unpack someplace new every evening. (especially nice when we walked on a cold, windy, wet day, got back and immediately collapsed in our rooms, making tea, showering, and napping till dinner, and hung our wet things in the inn’s boot room reserved for that purpose, so they could dry over the course of the next day). We saw a lot of varied countryside and villages just the same. But now I think an inn-to-inn might be fun, too. And in France!

We opted for a short walk because this was our first foray into the curated walk arena. It was a 5 day trip with arrival, departure, and three walking days, each day was between 10 - 12 km. We were walking, predominantly, on dirt or gravel paths. Often through a vineyard. There was elevation gain as its always up one hill, and down the next to move from village to village. It was never steep, except when we detoured to see something. I loved that the app clearly stated this village has restaurants this one may not, so we knew whether we needed to pack snacks or not.

When we booked the trip and probably up until a week before we left we had the option to say we want to spend an extra night in this town, before we resume the walking tour.

We added distance to their route on 2 of the three days detouring to see an additional village or ruin. Is it easy to modify this way? Did theyprovide the options?

Every hotel they selected for us was very nice and the total experience was one I would repeat.

Did I recal they offer different levels? what did you choose?

@sas95 would love to hear your experiences too

@localeater, I think our walks are going to be between 14-16 km, and the Dordogne area is known for being steep. I doubt we'll be doing extra! Were dinners included and if not, did they recommend restaurants in each town? Do you speak any French, and if not, how did you fare in the smaller towns?

@mtnrdredux_gw, I will definitely report back after our trip.

I am curious to see how we feel about the self-guided walking experience as compared to guided small group trips. We have done 2 trips with Butterfield and Robinson, and though the trips themselves were excellent-- great walks, hotels, meals, guides, etc.-- we found that the dynamics of the group could really vary. The first trip we had a great group of 7 plus guides. Everyone got along well and I couldn't imagine it going better. The second trip we were 11, including an absolutely obnoxious couple and their three awful adult children. Though we still really enjoyed the trip, the 6 of us "non-family" people joked together about why we had payed so much money to share our lives with this family. So we think that this self-guided type of trip might better suit us.

though the trips themselves were excellent-- great walks, hotels, meals, guides, etc.-- we found that the dynamics of the group could really vary.

This is exactly why I never ever do tours. Too often a tour becomes about the people on it rather than the places you are touring. Time is too precious and trips are too costly to take that risk.

I totally agree with you mtnrd, but I will say that on the B&R trips, the guides added so much to the experience. They were phenomenal. You can privatize those trips with your own group and I'd love to do that, but unfortunately most of our friends are not interested in that level of daily physical activity.

We are heading to France tomorrow. First a wedding weekend in Normandy, then a beach stay with family in Biscarosse. BF & I will then take a road trip back to Paris and will be going through Dordogne and the Loire Valley. We won't be doing much walking but sas95 I'd love to hear about any special towns you visited.

It's so fun to see other's travel photos! Thanks for sharing.

Kitchenwitch, what a nice trip. Enjoy.

Ive had both good and bad experiences on tours. Ive made some lifelong friends but also met some people I hope I never see again. I only go on small group tours. I cringe when I see those groups where the leader needs a flag to keep them all together.

Im past the stage of hiking tours. Im not sure it was ever for me. As my one friend said, why spend so much time walking when you could be eating and shopping.

Love the pictures of your walking tour, Local. Years ago when the film The Way came out DH and I used to talk about walking the Camino. Now with his injuries and illnesses, that is something we have missed so I really enjoy reading about others’ walking adventures. Thank you for posting this 🙏

Another walking movie, this weekend I watched The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Very sweet movie, add it to your lists. LINK

Yes, that is lovely movie @localeater.

@kswl, our very own @terezosa / terriks does the Camino every year I think. That may be where I first heard of it. I'm jealous. These smaller trips probably suit us better.

You can do a trip with just small parts of the Camino, too, mtnrd. There are all sorts of companies that will plan the logistics of that for you.

Yes, I have looked into that. I am aware you can do segments, have luggage assists, etc. I've been toying with the idea.

In looking at this thread, I realize one of the posts I made with some responses is missing. Sigh… I am sure if I rewrite it will show up - LOL Here goes….

@mtnrdredux_gw The tour company offers 6 levels of walking tour from Easy to Extreme. We chose Easy/Moderate which was second from the bottom. The company didnt offer alternate routes, DH and I found them ourselves. In many cases the prescribed route utilized well marked trails, with pictures of maps of the area and available trails. We also used All Trails.

@sas95 Our tour did not include dinners, only breakfast. They didnt provide recommendations for dinner. We would generally ask the hotel when we arrived, then do a stroll by the recommendations and anything else we saw of interest pick one and make a reservation. We had some lovely meals this way and generally did pick one of the hotel’s recs. I do speak French, DH does not. I used to consider myself fluent, back when I dreamed in French, but it has been many years since I spent a lot of consecutive time in a french speaking country. I had wanted to hop up to Quebec City for a long weekend to get my tongue re-acclimated(it usually takes me a couple of days) but due to a family medical crisis those plans went out the window. In Paris everyone speaks English, in Provence and Alsace not so much. Since we did Paris first, I got my immersion there and then I was good to go. I think I must have done OK, because when I poke to people in French, they alwasy responded in French and by the end of the trip my head couldnt tell the difference anymore, which annoyed my husband, who speaks no French. He was able to use Google Translate very well for communicating whenever I wasnt around.

Hope all is well with the family @localeater, and thanks again for the info. It sounds lovely.

Mtn I remember reading about Terriks’ first trip, wearing mostly a wool dress she sewed herself. I don’t know what impressed me more— that she did the walkormade her own walking clothing!

@localeater, I have a question for you. What type of shoes did you use for your hikes? I am vascilating between my Oboz hiking shoes and just bringing a walking sneaker. Obviously prefer the hiking shoes on trails, but I don't like them much on pavement. Curious to know your thoughts on this. I could bring both, and still might, but since I'm just doing carry on, space is at a premium.

Hi @sas95 DH and I both ended up using walking sneakers. It was mostly walking on farily smooth gravel or dirt paths and they were completely adequate. If we had been climbing more, or the way had been rocky I would have wanted my Oboz.

Thank you!

Backroads is an excellent company. Enjoy the trip!