Walking holidays in Europe

The trip was fabulous. The scenery was beautiful and I felt it was a privilege to be there. Thanks to you all for organising such a great trip, us travellers don’t always appreciate the effort it takes to bring it to fruition.  A special thanks to Luke, a fantastic kind guide who was a great encourager. I hope I get to travel with Park Tours again.

Our 2009 Sardinia/Corsica walking holiday was the first one we did with International Park Tours. We had so much fun with Telemaco as our guide. Being very fit, and a local, Telemaco took us on walks and to places which were very special. Everywhere he had friends or relatives who fed us so well, introducing us to the local and delicious organic food. We still talk about that trip and laugh about the fun we had with Telemaco and his partner, Victoria. I’m sure he’s just the same. It would be fun to go back.

We enjoyed Sardinia, the varied topography and landscapes. A standout is that the Tour leader was experienced in the local environment and helpful. The leaders are always friendly and generous and have good local knowledge. Our local guide Telemaco took us to lunch at his place. A big thing for us when travelling is to see how different people live. We enjoy immersing ourselves in the local villages and local food. This is one of the key things that we like about Park Tours as opposed to City tours, that we can talk to the locals. Being a small group is a big plus; we had individual attention spent on us. The small group size is a feature of what ParkTours do, this is far superior to the bigger tours which we avoid. We like the personal attention. Mostly you could do a shorter walk or a longer walk to challenge yourself, we like the flexibility. We have made lifelong friends on Park Tours tours because the people have common interest. Overall immersion is the key. We like the history and walking and to immerse fully into local environment, people, and food.

I enjoyed seeing the beautiful wooden world heritage churches in the Maramures region with rich red and gold paintings. People walking to church on a Sunday in traditional dress. This area of Romania is quiet - no cars nor tractors. People use horse drawn carts. Farmers use hand tools and horses or cattle. The hay stacks are all made by hand. It is a step back in time. The history going back to Roman times, theserenity and peace of the villages. I would love to go back there.