The Enlightened Traveller

02/10/2024

Dear Enlightened Travellers,

Thank you very much for your emails and kind words - much appreciated.

Commencing now, we are happy to offer you, for a very competitive price, the following:

1. Tour walking notes;
2. The Tour dossier, containing all the accommodation, luggage transfer and taxi contact details; and
3. Relevant maps.

In other words, the wherewithal to empower you to book your own tours direct.

The tours that we can assist you with are the following: Le Puy to Conques; the St James Way, The Robert Louis Stevenson Trail (with or without a donkey), The Tarn Gorge, The St Guilhem Way and the Loire Valley/GR3 route between Amboise and Saumur.

The Tour du Mont Blanc/TMB is a peculiar beast that we would not advise you try to arrange yourself. It requires specialist knowledge that only comes from years of experience.

The cost of this service is modest and would simply be a private transaction between two individuals. Do let us know if this is of interest.

Bonne continuation et a bientôt j'espere!

25/09/2024

The Enlightened Traveller® is closing its doors on 30th September.

To all our treasured customers,

After eighteen years spent delighting the mind, body and soles of its worldwide customer base, The Enlightened Traveller® is hanging up its hiking boots and closing its tours from 30th September 2024.

Life has changed since Covid and, in an increasingly uncertain world, the family has decided that it is time to let others carry the torch: we've done our bit for humanity!

Pretenders will doubtlessly seek to occupy the space we leave, but we are unable to recommend alternatives. We are, however, open to consultancy roles with customers and companies on an informal basis.

May we take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to you, our loyal and enlightened customers worldwide. It has been an honour and a pleasure to hopefully surpass your expectations and we wish you much future enjoyment and enlightenment in continuing to discover the wealth of heritage discoverable via the Grande Randonnée/GR trails of France.

Get happy, Get hiking!


The Enlightened Traveller®
Walking Holidays in France Ltd.

03/12/2023

There are certain causes that we choose to champion. One of them is to assist those who find themselves homeless through no fault of their own.

We have chosen to Donate to Crisis at Christmas and help someone start a life beyond homelessness.

You, too, can do the same, or simply learn about what they do, at:

Looking to donate to charity for Christmas? Donate to Crisis at Christmas and help someone start their life beyond homelessness

20/05/2023

A courtesy update re the Tour du Mont Blanc/TMB tour September 2023.

Just to say that we have heard from our luggage transporters that the Mont Blanc Tunnel will be closed from 4 September for refurbishment until the end of the 2023 summer season.

This does not affect your tour with us in anyway, but it may impact on your arrival and departure plans if you were considering using the tunnel that connects Courmayeur to Chamonix.

Your travel arrangements to and from Courmayeur are, of course, your responsibility alone and not part of our tour.

09/08/2022

Dear Enlightened Travellers,

Whether you want to reminisce, anticipate or just enjoy a fine reportage, don't miss the opportunity to see for free a programme entitled The One Hundred places to see along the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail.

It was first aired on August 8th and can be seen until October 6th by clicking on the link below.

Happy viewing!

Les 100 lieux qu'il faut voir Sur le chemin de Stevenson : les Cévennes de l'écrivain voyageur

En septembre 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, le célèbre écrivain écossais, décide de traverser les Cévennes à pied en compagnie d'une ânesse, Modestine. L'auteur de "L'île au trésor" en tire un récit passionnant, "Voyage avec un âne dans les Cévennes". Il est alors loin d'imaginer que le ...

01/07/2022

The Enlightened Traveller has once again been in the News.

This time we were mentioned in iNews, published on June 3, 2022 via https://inews.co.uk/

An article in the travel section entitled, "Europe’s 15 most satisfying and achievable walks for novices", by Sarah Baxter rated The Enlightened Traveller as the reference for walking the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail/RLS (GR70) in France.

We could not agree with Sarah more, of course, and thank her for her diligent, digital journalism. Other must-walk tours in the fifteen Sarah rates that we offer are the Tour du Mont Blanc and the legendary Camino Frances - Le Puy Conques.

However, for novices? Definitely not!

23/03/2022

Villandry castle and its magnificent gardens are the perfect start to Day Seven of this Loire Valley cultural extravaganza.

23/03/2022

Day Seven of our Loire Châteaux Walks tour sees you walking from Villandry to Azay Le Rideau.

29/08/2021

The Times recommends The Enlightened Traveller

Yes, it’s official: The Times recommends The Enlightened Traveller as its chosen tour operator for walking The Robert Louis Stevenson Trail in Cevennes, France. The eulogy appeared in a recent article entitled “35 great places to visit in France and where to stay,” written by Andrew Eames and published on Friday August 13, 2021.

For your information, our car broke down on the same day, which just goes to show that the good and the bad can occur on Friday 13!

The Enlightened Traveller has been walking the Stevenson Trail since 2008. So when a respected travel guru provides an independent testimonial about one of our favourite hiking tours, we are delighted to share it with you.

For the record, you need to subscribe to the journal in order to read the article in its entirety at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/35-great-places-to-visit-in-france-and-where-to-stay-zcxhz7sr7

We reproduce the relevant section here for your delectation. Happy reading and, if you haven’t already, why not join us in hiking one of France’s classic walking tours?

17/08/2021

Le Chemin des Crêtes is the highlight of Day Eight

06/08/2021

Day Eight of the RLS trail takes you from Pont de Montvert to Florac- the longest but most thrilling day’s walking of the Trail.