Urban Walking – London London is a great city for hikers. For one because there are so many scenic trails and nature reserves near-by – the Ridgeway, the South Downs Way, the New Forest – and for another because they are all so easy and convenient to reach by what is probably the world’s best public…
Coastal Hikes in Spain This is easily one of the most scenic views from our recent hike on the Costa Brava between the Catalonian beach resorts of La Fosca and Palafrugell: with the three classical features of the Mediterranean coastline – the plants that grow out of the arid slopes and cliffs, the vast expanse…
Forst, a Town We were not Meant to See On one stretch of our hike along the Deutsche Weinstrasse, the “German Wine Trail”, we turned left where we should have turned right (or was it the other way round?), stepped out of the forest, fully aware that we had lost our way. It happens…
Guest Post Some Tips for First Time Hikers If you aren’t addicted to easy hiking yet, there’s no better time to start now that autumn is here. Blacks, a leading chain selling outdoor clothing, camping equipment, tents and sleeping bags, are now in partnership with The National Trust, and together they are encouraging the nation…
Coastal Hikes in Spain This is the real Costa Brava Forget everything you have always thought you knew about the Costa Brava: the holiday factories, the hordes of Viking tourists, the overcrowded beaches…. Sure, the Costa Brava has all of that, but certainly not on the stretch between Palamos and Palafrugell – an area that…
Easy hiking in Spain La Fosca in the Costa Brava La Fosca had been recommended to us. It is not a place where one would wind up otherwise. Remember this: Next time you travel through Catalonia or anywhere along the Costa Brava, make room in your itinerary for a trip to La Fosca. Take this…
Where to Go in Germany Bacharach in Half a Day Rick Steves, in one of his “Europe in the blink of an eye” itineraries that Europeans feel so smug about, suggests to his readers to spend two nights in the Rhineland town of Bacharach, as much time as you are allowed to dedicate to Venice…
Where to Go in Germany Neustadt If you hike anywhere in southwest Germany, you are bound to come across Neustadt sooner or later – most likely to change trains or to take a bus, because it is the main hub of the local public transport network. The temptation is to leave it at that, possibly…
Got two hours in Nice? The French Riviera is best understood not as a region or an area but as a single town, a thin coastal strip of settlements never more than a kilometre deep that is stretched out over a distance of 50 miles, like an extruded French version of Los Angeles. With two…
Two Things Defining Easy Hiking 1. It is hiking or walking along a trail where you don’t need a compass and where the wildest animal you are likely to meet is a wild rabbit. (A fox and a boar, in theory, but in practice, you will never see them.) Where you can be confident that nothing…