Andes Walking Trips

Great trip ! Fabulous walks and views, expertly led by our fantastic guide , Mike , who was full of local, historical and botanical info as well as being lovely company .

Our leader, Julia, has excellent interpersonal skills and a great love for the country, history and land. Her mastery of languages was very helpful and showed the beauty of Portugal and its people at its best.

A friend recommended Explore. The Amalfi coast walk was my first trip as a solo traveler with a small group of people I did not know beforehand. My first guided trip. Explore's description was clear and accurate, from the meals we would have to the place we would stay to the distances we would walk. Explore was great about reminding us what we had to do before we went. The whole trip was a joy. Our guide told us there would be no problems, and any problems were his problems, not ours. Everything worked beautifully--the transfer from Naples, the buses to get us to destinations in the morning and to the farm in the evening. The farm where we stayed high above the Amalfi coast was beautiful, with glorious sunrises and sunsets we could see from our balcony. The food the family prepared was delicious, and we enjoyed eating together in the big dining room. The walks were steeply up and down, often on stone paths carved into the hillsides over centuries. Throughout, we could enjoy views of the villages and the sea. Our guide described the natural and human history of the area, pointing out landscape features to us. Though the walks were steep, we had plenty of time to stop in a village for a cool drink, a coffee, or a gelato. A wonderful trip.

Gerion was the best tour leader of any of the trips I have done with Explore. Not only was he incredibly well informed about his country but he was extra attentive to the participants' needs. A really super person.

This was a fabulous week of walking in the stunning Picos de Europa. Juanjo was an excellent leader, his knowledge of the area plus his organisational skills really made this a great trip. I really enjoyed the all the walks although it is probably at the top end of a grade 3 with lots of ascents and descents over rocky ground so you do need to be reasonably fit. However, there is always the option to miss out a day if need be. We were really lucky with the weather in the end as high winds and heavy rain were forecast but Juanjo was always able to come with an alternative if we couldn't do the planned routes. The hotel is small, traditional and family run and all the staff are really friendly. Special mention has to go to Juanjo's son in law who was the chef and prepared the most amazing evening meals for us. Each evening was a three course meal with wine included. All were delicious and really big portions too. The only slight negative was having to wait until 8pm to eat but this is normal for Spain. This was a fantastic trip, made even better by the lovely group and also the bonus of having much better weather than expected.

The Dordogne trip was outstanding - beautiful scenery, quaint and comfortable hotels, excellent food and days longs enough to feel the benefit of walking but not so long to make you too exhausted to enjoy arriving. Added bonus was our ability to enjoy a “coupe” everywhere we landed.