• Active or cultural: choose your main interest - some tours offer both.
• Scenic highlights: mountain views, coastal trails, natural forest, desert panoramas: you choose.
• You can set your own pace.
• Choose between a trip moving on most day or centre-based (staying at a central location - ideal if you want an easier day or just put your feet up).
• Graded from Easy to Tough (see tour grades below).
• Tour Leaders to walk and lead the way, giving advice, help and information en route.

Any walking holiday is one of the best ways to make friends with like-minded people, so don't be afraid if you're on your own. With the enthusiasm and camaraderie of the group, you won't be alone for long (See 'Is it for me' below).

If getting to know a place well is a vital ingredient of your perfect holiday, it makes sense to leave the four wheels behind and walk around a more compact area. On some of our tours, such as those in Asia or Africa, we might be hiking with the local people, perhaps going to the weekly market, or from their village to the fields. Such encounters may be brief, but they will remain with you for a lifetime.

The icing on the cake is that a walking holiday is greener in more ways than meets the eye, since stopping at shops, cafes and restaurants that are well off the beaten track is often the best way of contributing to the local economy. And as we are always a small group, we can often get access to a school, workshop or house, which would be denied to larger numbers.

The grading of any walking or trekking holiday is extremely important for the whole group to have the best experience.

We have classified our walking holidays as precisely as possible, so please look carefully at the itineraries.

• Grade A and A/B - easy and easy/moderate Short day walks and rambles at low altitudes. Most active people can easily enjoy these walking holidays with little or no experience or preparation. We have many adventure treks in Europe for you to enjoy. From rambling around Ronda and gentle walks on Gran Canaria, to trailing around Turkey and Tuscany. Further afield, imagine yourself viewing the mighty Himalayan peaks by trekking along the Singalila Ridge in India or the Annapurna Panorama in Nepal. We even take you to the end of the earth with easy walks in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
• Grade B and B/C - moderate and moderate/strenuous This is the category most of our walking holidays fit into. For these you need to walk moderately for around 6 hours a day, with the occasional free day. If you walk some weekends and generally lead an active life, then you'll be fine. The choice is endless, with treks worldwide: from the Dogon Trail in Mali to the hikes on New Zealand's South Island; walking the Great Wall in China, and the classic route up to Machu Picchu in Peru.
• Grade C and C/D - strenuous and strenuous/tough Stretch yourself a bit more with these treks ideally suited to serious walkers capable of trekking for around 8 hours a day, every day. There will be steep ascents and descents and the effect of altitude could be a factor. These choice walks get the very best out of each continent. The Mont Blanc Trek and Picos de Europa are classics at this level. Further afield is the challenging Torres del Paine circuit in Chile, the Mount Kenya climb in Africa and the Tien Shan trek in Kyrgyzstan.
• Grade D - tough If you are very fit and an experienced trekker then these are the tours for you. Long days with steep uphill and downhill gradients mean that you need to be strong with plenty of stamina. Experience in bad weather conditions and an ability to operate at high altitudes may also be required. If you fit the bill then the tough tours up Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Ararat, or even to Everest Base Camp could be for you.

Signing up for a walking holiday is always something of an unknown. The terrain, altitude, weather, fitness and duration are important issues. Many of these factors are taken into account when we grade the tours and set departure dates.

• If uncertain, choose an easier graded tour to start with; you can always add on some extra exercise by going for a walk on a day off.
• Each tour has a detailed dossier giving specific information, so before taking any decisions, read the day-by-day analysis thoroughly.

Feed off our own experience

Don't forget that over 25 years, most of our group members, as well as our trek leaders, will have completed many different tours and have been a priceless source of information and recommendations. The advice we pass on to you is realistic and based on solid experience.

How fit is fit?

• As with all our active tours, the fitter you are, the easier they become and the more you will enjoy the scenery, friendship and the whole experience.
• Building up slowly to higher distances, grades and altitudes, by increasing the difficulty of each tour, is better than jumping up too many grades at once.
• On the most serious treks, we combat the effects of altitude by allowing plenty of time to acclimatise.

Baggage and equipment recommendations are highlighted on each tour and in each dossier:

• Light daypack for water, suncream, sunhat and camera.
• Waterproofs in case of bad weather.
• Suitable footwear, well worn in.
• Occasional Kit Bag recommendation.
• Sense of adventure.