Mid 50s seasoned hikers looking for good escorted walking or hiking tours in Greece, possibly combined with an island cruise. Does such a thing exist???

Judy<BR><BR>I know of the follwing web address but there's probably a lot more tour operators offering similar:- <BR><BR>out:-http://www.experiencegreece.com/<BR><BR>Also, think carefully about planning it yourself. You'll probably save a lot of money and your travel plans will be a lot more flexible. This is what we did and had no regrets. If you do decide to take this option look at the following pages. They helped us greatly.<BR><BR>http://www.greekbackpack.com/<BR><BR>http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/1744/greece.html<BR><BR>Rob<BR>

There are many walkimg tour companies that offer hiking trips in Greece. I went on one in western Crete with Country Walkers, a USA-based company, which has trips in the Peloponnese and in Crete. Although I had a good time, I would hesitate to recommend it because of serious reservations I have about certain things the guides (Greek husband and British wife) did. ATG-Oxford, a British walking tour company with an outstanding reputation, offers walking/hiking tours in Greece. BCT, a USA-based company, has similar tours in Greece. I took two walking tours with BCT in France and found them both to be excellent. I think Wayfarers also has walking/hiking tours in Greece. I think most of the well-known walking tour companies that do not specialized in just one country do have walking tours in Greece. I have taken five walkimg/hiking tour vacation in three countries with three different companies. In general I love these tours because I'm able to see small villages, farmland, woods, and similar places that I would miss if traveling on my own without a car or with a friend who would rather not be so active. Usually, although they are by no means cheap, they stay in such good hotels and include such good meals and are so well planned that they are a good value. (Note: the country Walkers tour was NOT a good value.)

Take a look at http://home.bredband.no/harhau/islandwalking/greece.html<BR>which has detailed descriptions of lots of walks on a wide range of Greek islands. The Sunflower Books' "Landscapes" series also has quite a few books on various Greek isles, with walks, picnics and car tours described in great detail. If you're even occasional hikers, I see no reason at all to go on an escorted tour, unless you're thinking of going up into the wilder mountainous areas of the mainland in either mid-winter or the hottest part of summer.

P.S. On my walking tour in Crete, we sometimes walked one way and had a small boat pick us up on the way back. Most of the trails were in places far from a road that were accessible only by foot or by boat. Therefore I think it would be somewhat difficult to do the wame thing independently. I think that ATG (which I've never traveled with) does continuous trails, with a van carrying the clients' luggage to the next hotel. It would not be possible to do that independently unless you carried all your belongings on your back. In addition, the trails are primarily goat trails--very rocky nd steep, and it's easy to lose your footing and break a piece of yourself. For this reason, I think it's a lot sfer to go with a group.

I'm considering the Country Walkers trip to the Southern Pelopennesus (spelling?) this fall and so am curious about what the problems were. I've been on only one walking tour, which was a CW trip to Tuscany. It seemed to me that the trip to Greece looked like a relatively good value, esp. since the single supplement is very low. What were the problems?