Responsible Travel Enlightened travellers visit countries in order to learn and experience the cultures and environments of the places visited. They are not in favour of participating in, or being entertained by, images and experiences created specifically for the tourist market. The distinction between the ‘traveller’ (Responsible Travel) and the ‘tourist’ (tourism) is a significant …
Sponsoring Great Flamingos The Enlightened Traveller has been sponsoring Great Flamingos or Phoenicopterus Roseus since it opened its own wings and started to fly fifteen years ago. As part of our commitment to actively preserving the environment and all who live within her, it seemed only natural to adopt two of these beautiful and graceful …
Saint-Giles Pilgrimage takes you along the southern section of the Hexagon’s very own medieval pilgrimage trail. Recently-resuscitated and labeled the GR 700, it is a leisurely, 70-mile/103-km walk across a scenic and undulating lowland trail. You follow an ancient Roman path along the Gardon Valley, through classic Mediterranean Garrigues countryside, traverse a series of charming villages on route and stay in the best of stone-built hotels and chambres d’hotes.
St Giles Way – Part One brings you the first section of the Hexagon’s own and long overlooked pilgrimage trail. Recently resuscitated after a lifetime’s research by one Frenchman, Marcel Girault, the trail is a distance of around 95 miles or 152 kms, offering seven days of excellent hiking from Le Puy-en-Velay to Alès and traversing the Massif Central and Eastern Cevennes.
Tarn Gorges Walking is a unique opportunity to gain a comprehensive and holistic appreciation of Les Gorges du Tarn in their wider geological context, incorporating the equally-impressive Jonte Gorges and the contiguous limestone plateaus of Causses Méjean and Sauveterre. Moreover, it’s arguably the most varied walking you’ll get anywhere in France: arid and undulating limestone roof-top, fascinating narrow gorge ledges and meandering valley-bottom trails. In other words, you get the whole cake and not just the icing.
Walking Cevennes by Rail is for those who like walking and train travel – a rail-walk tour combining fine, light or moderate walking options in Ardeche and Lozere threaded together by short hops along Le Cévenol mountain railway line.
Enjoy the rides, delight in the changing landscape of Gevaudan and Eastern Cevennes and get a sense of what you are about to experience upon arrival at your next destination. Just check-in and walk!
Walking Provence-West is a unique, light walking holiday that gets you intimately acquainted with a part of Provence that is delightfully under-trodden. Whilst most visitors to Valcézard enjoy a mix of rambling and touring by car, we are thrilled to bring you the opportunity to enjoy what is arguably the best week’s walking Provence has to offer.
Walking France’s Garrigue is a light walking holiday that sees you walking in one of the most enigmatic, yet distinctive, regions in which man has chosen to settle – the Mediterranean Garrigues and the hinterland of Nimes. You can literally smell that you are in the south of France, where plant-life is especially adapted to the hot, dry climate and radiates perfumed oils – Artemisia, Lavender, Rosemary, Sage and Wild Thyme.
Walking Gardon Gorge is a light walking holiday that sees you following the course taken by one of France’s most enigmatic rivers, as it sweeps its way from the Cevennes foothills, across Mediterranean Garrigues and into deeply-incised limestone canyon. You discover its multi-faceted history as you follow an ancient Roman hill-top trail to France’s second-most-visited cultural icon, the Pont du Gard. You approach it from a trail that only the cognoscenti use and so enjoy some superb views that few others get to see.
Stevenson Trail – Northern Half is your chance to enjoy the first half of Stevenson’s classic trail in a light-to-moderate format. Start in Le-Puy-en-Velay and finish in Chasseradès, any day from mid-April to mid-October, whilst we transport your luggage.