Hiking Guide: My best adventures in Europe

plus my latest French Alps campervan trip details (+ van discount for readers)

So, as you know, I’ve just finished a four-week stint in the French Alps and in Sifnos in Greece where I’ve been 1. Escaping Paris heat, tourists and expensive rent 2. Writing most of the day 3. Hiking by way of writing break. Because that’s just what I do (hike as a way of being).

Before I kick off with my list of Euro hikes, many of which are featured in This One Wild and Precious Life, I’ll give a bit of an explainer and some details of my latest trip. It’s worth looking over because I provide the basic tips and tricks for organising hiking trips around the world.

This guide will be available to everyone, but future ones will be for the paid community only!

1. Hiking and campervanning the French alps.

I’ve worked out that one of the most effiicient and convenient ways to explore chunks of Europe is by campervan. You might recall I did a similar trip in Portugal last year. This was how I first came to appreciate the elan of this way of traveling.  The van option is particularly nifty in summer. Navigating accomodation and transport options in July and August is a minefield. With a van both are sorted and you don’t have to know where you’re heading. You can make it up as you go.

Plus it works out very economically, especially if you are a couple or a group and you don’t drive vast distances.

I’ll also add that when you have a van and you also have super sensitive hearing, and you have a tendency to feel trapped by normal accomodation options (what if there’s construction next door, a train track outside the bedroom?), you feel safe. Because if you arrive somewhere and it’s not quite right, you can simply drive on to the next suitable stop. I can’t tell you how liberating this has been for me.

This was my work set-up most days.

A van is also great to work from. You have an inbuilt desk inside the van, plus I also had an outdoor table and chair. You can write when it suits. 

For this trip I booked with Roadsurfer, which have offices all over Europe and mostly close to central rail stations and airports. They have a very efficient set up and competitive pricing, from what I researched. Two things here:

I did get a discount in recognition of my sharing information about campervaning in Europe. However all my opinions and decisions (to choose Roadsurfer in the first place) were my own.

Roadersurfer want to offer everyone here a €80 discount, which expires on the 8th of September. use the code SARAH80.

To explore the Alps I would recommend exiting from Lyon, a train ride from Paris. However due to van availability in summer, I had to pick mine up in Milan, which is only a two-hour drive from the Alps, but a much longer train ride from Paris.

I use the Park4night app to find places to stop for the night. It will find every overnight spot in surrounding fields, carparks, farms, and commercial campsites, listing services such as water, access to hikes etc. The apps also lists stops along the way where you can fill up water, empty your shower/toilet waste, and so on. It’s invaluable.

Roadsurfer also provide you with an app that has suggested itineraries.

I use the AllTrails app around the world for finding hikes. You search an area in advance or once you arrive. I like to do the latter. I will find a spot for the night (using Park4night) and then put on the geo-locater on AllTrails, which will then find the best hikes nearby.

I went from Milan up to a small village called Azeglio, up to La Thuile then across the border at the Little St Bernard pass. I did this hike en route.

I then went down into Annecy, passing Semnoz. I did a wonderful hike at the top of Semnoz that does a route past an Auberge that’s only accessible by hiking (I did an extended version of this one).

I based myself at Annecy for three days, parking in the hills on the southern side of the lake and did a bunch of climbs up and down the mountains overlooking the town

Me, my standard get-up, top of mountain over Annecy (on the other side was where I camped my van for three nights, in those hills)

From here I wound south, a few days at Lans-enVerours, staying in a lovely field by a river just outside the village. I did a few hikes in the area, in including this one that passes by walk-in-only Auberge where I had lunch

Then a stop in the hills outside “the prettiest village in France”, Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. A few days later I passed through Gorge Du Verdon and then onto the super charming fortressed village Chateaudouble, before driving along the Cote D’Azur. There are some hikes around Moustiers-Saint-Marie, like this one. I did a bunch while I was there.

I marvel that Nietzsche, with all his frailties, would hike from down there to up here on the regular.

I stopped off for a hike at Eze…the infamous Nietzsche hike, which I do recommend (this is it), and then back up to Milan.

Rather than list exactly where I parked for the night (and I mostly found really really great places), I’d be happy to provide the details directly if someone here heads there. Cool?

I can 💯per cent recommend this itinerary. Honestly I wouldn’t change the route at all. Bam! Off you go!

For imagery and exact location references, go to my “Roadsurf” highlight on Instagram

2. Hiking in Sifnos

I won’t say too much here, just that the place is the most set-up Greek island for hiking I’ve come across, aside from Crete (see below). The island’s community have funded the maitenance of a web of tracks that are super well-marked out and take you on great adventures down to secluded beaches, between villages, thinking out ways to connect the trails to the bus routes. Here’s the website with everything you need. I pretty much did…all of them.

Again, go to both my “Sifnos” highights on Instagram to see details.

3. The Samaria Gorge Trail in Crete

This is an epic 16km downhill hike through the rugged White Mountains of Crete in Samaria National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Actually, it’s more of an all-day adventure starting with a rugged 90-minute bus ride up from the central bus station in Chania (a thrill in itself) to the top of the range in the morning. This is followed by the long switchback route through the second longest gorge in Europe, crossing the river several times and passing Byzantine ruins, winding up on the shores of the Libyan Sea.

You might remember the bit in Wild and Precious where I learn about “philotimos” from the Greek engineer Giorgos? Here we are mid-Samaria excursion.

The swim and beer at the taverna on the beach at the end as you wait for the ferry, as well as the bus and boat rides to and from the hike, complete the epic adventure.

From Wild and Precious:

“I’d been lured this time to Crete, Greece’s largest island. In big part because it is harsh and mountainous and threaded with challenging hikes. Also, Crete’s wild terrain has spawned heroes since before the gods. I love the Greek heroes and gods, primarily for being so flawed. All Greek myths are told via some big Greek character stuffing something up and being weakened by a force truer than themselves, often The Furies or nature, before fighting their way to victory with an even more heroic truth.”

4. The White Mountains Trail in Crete

The climb to the summit of Mount Gigilos is a great way to experience the “high desert” moon landscape of the White Mountains. From the top, the views extend out to the Aegean Sea, the North coast of the island and the Libyan Sea to the South. It’s an exposed, surreal landscape.

There are certainly some hot and exposed sections and some very perilous switchbacks. The final 30 minutes require substantial boulder climbing using some ropes and metal rungs…which makes it all the more fun.

According to Greek mythology, one of the Titans living on Crete slashed the land with his knife to create the gorge while Cretan-born Zeus, the God of the heavens, placed his throne on top of Mount Gigilos and raced his chariot on the nearby mountain plain of Angathoti. There you go!

5. The Julian Alps hike in Slovenia

Slovenia is a hiker’s Disneyland, a foodie’s grande boeuf and an eco-warrior’s homecoming. However, working out an epic route that can combine the best of three factors on your own is nigh impossible from afar. I researched for a few weeks and then realised there are too many moving parts to coordinate –particularly when it comes to timing bookings in the mountain huts with transport timetables with reservations at the top restaurants.

I searched “eco solo hiking trips Slovenia” and from the Google fray, I wound up connecting with one very amiable Miha who owns SloTrips.

Miha organised a bespoke adventure trip for me that incorporated all elements in a seamless route over the Julian Alps. He called it the Sarah Wilson Adventure and it combined hiking the best bit of the Alps, the best Gostilna, a bit of via Ferrata (rope work; you are supplied with harnesses and a helmet before heading off), a mountain bike ascent and dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant at the end.

You can contact Miha to have the same trip prepared for you as either self-guided or guided (many have already!!)

The view down to Lake Bled

.From Wild and Precious:

“The walk descends into the Soca Valley and meandered up and down beautiful mountain paths with waterfall stop-offs. The terrain is a mix of all the areas that surround Slovenia – the austere beauty of the Tatras and the verdant and neat lushness of its neighbours Italy and Austria.

I slept in the mountain huts and was served big bowls of pork and cabbage soup. In the Soca gorge I jumped into turquoise rivers so clear that the riverbed, metres below, seemed only an arm’s length from the surface.”

6. The Heididorf hike in Switzerland

One of the many spectacular hikes that you can do from the quaint Swiss Alps hiking hub village of Sils Maria (and there are many if you’re in area!). The walk follows in the footsteps of the children’s book character Heidi. Or at least the movie version.

If you’re after a Swiss alpine experience, Sils Maria is a perfect hub for exploring glaciers, waterfalls, mountain lakes, larch forests and lush alpine meadows.

For extra wonderful context, it’s also the village where Frederich Nietzsche came to write Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He hiked in these same hills to write the book, and his Nietzsche House, now a museum, is located in the centre of the village.

You could easily stay here a week or two and hike every day, stopping off in little villages for lunch, some of which are closed to vehicles (you must hike or come by horse and cart!).

No doubt over coming months/years I will do a Euro Hikes Part Two edition…But I’ve exceeded the Substack post length…

Adios

Sarah xx