Before booking

Fitness and trip grades

Besides the destination, the most important thing about choosing your trip is making sure it suits your background and physical abilities. To help you select the right trip, we have classified our self-guided tours into the following grades: 

Grade 1 -  Easy – shorter walk of 3 to 5 hours each day on clearly way marked and flat paths. Everebody can walk this tour

Grade 2 -  Moderate – walks of 4 to 6 hours a day. Some stages could be more 20 km (13/15 miles) and rolling uplands, ascents mainly gradual than steep of up to 500 m.

Grade 3 - Challenging – walks of between 5 and 8 hours a day with ascents up to 700 m. Some hiking experience is advisable.

Grade 4 - Strenuous – 6 to 9 hours walking a day with long ascents and descents more than 1000 m. You walk big mountains as the Alps or Massif Central, on rough and stony paths. On occasion route-finding may be tricky and request some experience

If you want more advice on whether a particular tour is right for you, please e-mail us contact@randolacaminade.com. Our team will be able to help you to choose the trip that right for you.

Booking a tour

Availibility

All our walking holidays are available from March to middle of November. Maniy in the South of France are available during the winter months as well. You can start your holiday on any date you want during this period.

Prices

The tour prices, which are per person, are based upon two people sharing a twin or double room. You have to pay an additional fee for a single room if you want to be alone in the room or if the group has a odd number of walkers.

the tour price include: · Lodging and breakfast with or without dinner in a double or twin room (see tour description)
· luggage transfer from one hotel to the other during the tour
· the tour pack (one per party)
· a telephone assistance in case of emergency.

We propose an option without luggage transfer for people who travels "light".

Reservation and Payment

You can’t make a provisional booking but we recommend you to call or e-mail us if you need to fit your tour dates, with flights or other travel arrangements. Don’t commit to buying flights without ensuring that we can confirm your land arrangements first.

The earlier you book you trip, the easier will be for us to ensure that we can book accommodation and get best rooms.

First decide on the tour and the date you want to start. Complete the booking form on the website and sent it to us by fax, post or e-mail with the deposit (30% of the total cost) or the full payment if you are booking within 4 weeks of the start date. Note that there is no surcharge for payment by credit card.

Insurance We strongly recommend that you protect yourself, your equipment and luggage with a suitable holiday insurance policy. This insurance should also be arranged to cover non-returnable costs should you have to cancel your trip due to unexpected personal circumstances. Traveling on your own

If you are very experienced walker and you are used to traveling on your own, there is no problem booking a self-guided tour. Please contact us for an individualized quote. You will pay an “lonely supplement fee” that reflects the additional cost of a single room, baggage transfers and the tour dossier for one customer rather than two. We don’t recommend that inexperienced single walkers take these holidays.

Groups

Il you are more than 4 friends walking together, you can get discount under special conditions. We have only one correspondent (leader’s party) who pay for the other members of the party. We make out one contract and one bill for the party. Please contact us.

Tailor-made tours for clubs and groups

Every year we organize tailor-made tours for clubs and groups. If you would like us to arrange a walking holiday for you, just let us to have the details and we will give you a quotation.  

After booking

Trip dossier

This trip dossier includes :
- detailed walk route notes and interesting background information about the area
- detailed local information about places to visit en route, recommendations for places to eat in the evening when dinner is not included
- a comprehensive list of what to take with you
- information and contact details of the different places of accommodation where you will stay, for different taxis that carry your luggage and that can escort you a day if you are tired or injured.
- Guidelines for what to do and who to contact in an emergency.

We shall send this dossier to you within 3 weeks before the departure date after receipt of the balance or total payment if you live in Europe. An additional special delivery (UPS, DHL,..) fee is requested for people living outside Europe who want receive the dossier at home . Otherwise you will find the dossier at the first hotel and we send you all the details to reach it by e-mail.

Equipment
- The most essential items of equipment are a good pair of walking boots and a suitable daypack.
- Waterproof jacket and overtrousers (rain gear)
- Thick socks for use inside walking boots
- Comfortable trousers and/or shorts
- Extra sweater
- Sun hat
- Treckking pole or walking stick (3 or 4 grade tour).

This short list is for the walking side of the tour and we presume you will bring comfortable casual wear for use during the evenings or on the free day.

We encourage you to travel lightly and don’t have too much bags and clothes. You will be provided with a suggested packing list for the walking tour. It’s up to you to decide what additional things to bring. Depending on your total trip time in France, you may have bags which you won’t need on the walking tour. We suggest you make arrangements to store bags during the hike if you won’t need them (you can leave them in a locker room in a railway stations for example).

Be careful, baggage-handling services are not available in the French hotels. Be prepared to carry you your own bags up narrow staircases, many hotels or inns do not have elevators.

Arrival in Europe

We suggest you consider arranging your travel so that you arrive in Europe at least two days before your hike is scheduled to start. By planning to arrive early, you safeguard against potential delays or cancellations of flight and you have extra time to adjust to the new time zone so you’ll feel more relaxed when your hike begins !

Getting to the starting place

We explain in the detailed itinerary and in more details in the Route Notes how to reach the starting point and the first hotel where you will stay. We shall send you all these details if you take your trip dossier at the reception desk of the first hotel.

Transfer between the airport or the nearest station and th starting and finishing points of the tour are not included in the tour price. We shall be pleased to help you. Feel free to e-mail us if you are facing difficulties.

Lodging and food

La Caminade books an pays for you accommodation, normally in double or twin-bedded rooms, with en-suite facilities when available, which is 95% of the time. However, you can stay in remote spots or small villages where there is little or no choice of accomodations and where facilities may be limited. In this case, you will share a bathroom and toilets with some other people.

All breakfasts are included, together with dinner based on half-board accommodation as specified in the detailed itinerary or in the route notes. When dinner is not included, you are sure to find some restaurants nearby. We give your name, address and phone of these places.

Lunches or picnic lunches are not included, but many overnight stops are in small towns and villages where picnic material can be bought from local shops before you start your day’s walk ; alternatively, a packed lunch can be ordered the evening before from the hotel or guest's house.

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