Hikes in Europe

HADRIAN'S WALL PATH, BRITAIN

In A.D. 122 the Emperor Hadrian ordered a 73-mile-long wall to be
built near what is now the border with Scotland to separate
northernmost Roman Britain from the "barbarians" beyond. Those walls
and turrets today are a World Heritage Site - a lichen-speckled
vestige of Roman domination reaching from Wallsend in the east to
Bowness-on-Solway in the west. In 2003 Hadrian's Wall was given
another designation, as an 84-mile national trail. Walking to the east
for six days to keep the prevailing winds (and occasional lashing
rains) at their backs, groups led by nine-year-old Lomond Walking
Holidays begin among the salt marshes and peat bogs of the Solway
Firth estuary and soon cross the pastures and villages of Cumbria.

The trip's highlight is Day 3, a 15-mile section through
Northumberland National Park between Banks and Housesteads, where
hikers ramble through rough grazing uplands and rolling moors that are
home to some of some of the best preserved sections of the wall. Each
afternoon a shuttle carries the group to a small, family-run
guesthouse or inn and returns them to the trail in the morning.
Eventually the trail drops into lowlands again, and hikers walk beside
the River Tyne and through the industrial city of Newcastle and
finally end in Wallsend, where Hadrian's legacy disappears under the
accretion of centuries of change.

Grunt Factor Stages are 12 to 15 miles daily, across mostly flat
ground, but with some short, steep pitches and steps.

Signpost Trip dates are June 26 to July 1, July 31 to Aug. 5 and Oct.
23 to 28. The cost, $925, at $1.87 to the pound, includes all meals,
lodging, guides and daily luggage transfer.

Information (44-1786) 870456; www.walkingholidaysuk.com.=20

GRAN PARADISO NATIONAL PARK, ITALY=20

Originally a royal hunting reserve, Gran Paradiso became Italy's first
national park in 1922. Now this sanctuary of 13,000-foot peaks,
plunging valleys, larch forests, ibex herds and wildflower meadows
near the French border is the happy hunting grounds of
waffle-tread-wearing hikers. Each summer an American guide named Armin
Fisher, who lives and works in northern Italy, leads traverses of a
corner of this 173,000-acre park, from Valgrisenche to Cogne.

Starting at the park's westernmost valley, the group spends a week
crossing high passes and traipsing through alpine meadows of nodding
edelweiss and mountain lilies, where golden eagles waver in the
thermals overhead. "You're walking across sort of 'The Sound of Music'
terrain," Mr. Fisher said.

Each afternoon the group arrives either at a rustic, high-mountain hut
- usually above tree line - that's run by the Italian Alpine Club, or,
at midweek, the Albergo Savoia, which is in a valley low enough to
offer luxuries like showers - and plenty of good Italian wine and
polenta. Those who sign on for a longer journey (no extra charge) can
pick up crampons and an ice ax near trip's end and climb the
13,323-foot Gran Paradiso; though it is the highest peak in the park,
the ascent isn't especially steep (no previous mountaineering
experience required) until the last 100 feet. Trips end at the village
of Cogne, and a visit to a nearby Alpine botanical garden.

Grunt factor Four to seven hours of moderately difficult hiking daily,
with 1,500 to 3,000 feet of daily elevation gain.

Signpost Trips available late June through September. The cost, $1,200
to $1,500, varying with group size (four to eight people) and includes
six to eight nights' lodging (depending on group's desires), breakfast
and dinner, guide fees and use of any gear.

Information (39-3472) 320106; www.mountainsandmore.com.=20

CORSICA

Though it is hardly news to Europeans, Americans have only recently
awakened to the hiking opportunity on the rugged Mediterranean island
of Corsica, France's "mountain in the sea." Those who don't want to
commit to the GR20 - the spectacular and arduous 130-mile route that
many claim is Europe's best backpacking trail - aren't out of luck.
Active Travel, based in Austin, Tex., offers eight-day self-guided
trips that give hikers tastes of the GR20 and other trails while also
letting them experience the comforts of rural village life.

Hikers lace up their boots at Calacuccia, a lakeside town of homes
with thick stone walls. Equipped with detailed itineraries and maps,
they spend the next several days in pleasant repetition: Each morning
they walk out of their inns (several nights are spent in former
Franciscan monasteries and former convents) and right into the piney
woods, passing through golden countryside with braying donkeys, remote
mountain villages and high country where some shepherds still take
their flocks to forage during the hot Mediterranean summers.

A local tour company representative transfers bags to the next inn,
allowing hikers to travel light and at their own pace. "When we go by
the villages, it's very tempting to sit at the bistro and have a drink
and have a pastry," said Olivier Lajuzan, the company's co-owner.
"It's a great way to just feel the local way of life." The trip
concludes by dropping down to the seaside villages of Porto or Piana,
where hikers can snorkel in blue waters.

Grunt factor Mellow to moderate, ranging from four miles of hilly
hiking a day to eight miles of flat walking.

Signpost Trips can be scheduled anytime through October. The cost of
$900 a person, based on double occupancy, includes seven nights'
lodging on the island, most breakfasts and dinners, luggage transport
between towns and other assistance.

Information (830) 868-2502; www.franceactivetravel.com.

BERNESE OBERLAND, SWITZERLAND

Only in Europe, with its grand hotel tradition, could a hiker who's
meandering down a glacier so big it would be at home in Alaska
encounter a "hut" that sleeps 100, serves hot meals and cold beer and
has a sundeck crowded with card-playing Germans.

More than two dozen huts large and small pepper the Bernese Oberland
area of Switzerland's Alps, and they're not just for hard-core
mountaineers. Each summer, Swiss Guides, a small company owned by the
Swiss mountain guide Freddy Grossniklaus, who now lives in Park City,
Utah, take clients on five-day glacier-walking tours across the heart
of this stunning, ragged terrain. For most folks, it's the closest
they'll ever get to playing the mountaineering star Reinhold Messner.

From the cog train station at the Jungfraujoch at 11,333 feet, clients
step out onto the glaciers, and then spend a good chunk of the next
five days "on the rocks," as they wend their way around the crevasses
of huge, nearly flat glaciers like the 14-mile-long Great Aletsch
Glacier, the longest in the Alps. By midsummer much of the ice has
turned from white to diamond blue, and the surface splashes with
rivers of water.

Hot meals await each of the three nights at different huts, among them
the Finsteraarhorn Hut, on the flanks of the 14,022-foot
Finsteraarhorn, highest peak in the Bernese Oberland. Although clients
wear harnesses and ropes, and spiky crampons on their feet for safety,
no previous climbing experience is needed.

Grunt factor Four to six hours of mellow walking per day, though at
altitudes of 9,000 to 12,000 feet, and sleeping at high elevation can
be fitful.

Signpost Trips can be scheduled throughout the summer and early
autumn. Price is $635 a day, at 1.27 Swiss francs to the dollar, for
groups of three or four; less expensive for bigger groups. This does
not include $51 per person per day for hut lodging, dinners and
breakfasts.

Information Call (435) 615-0476, in Utah, until July 11, and then
(41-79) 334-6159; www.swissrockguides.com.

JULIAN ALPS, SLOVENIA

Lovers of the great outdoors are starting to discover the natural
beauty that was obscured for decades behind the Iron Curtain. The
first trips to Slovenia (which joined the European Union last year) by
KE Adventure Travel, of Glenwood Springs, Colo., explore the limestone
massif of the Julian Alps, which straddle that country and northern
Italy.

While the Alps here are not so high as in the west, they're perhaps
more conducive to high-ridge rambling. From near the lakeside town of
Bled, the group (up to 16 hikers) ascends into Triglav National Park
and spends the first few days traversing a 6,000-foot ridgeline, with
views down into green valleys that are rioting with wildflowers. A few
times during the week hikers scramble up rocks, and on one day cross
short but sheer portions of the route using via ferrata (iron way), a
popular European sport in which hikers put on harnesses and attach
themselves to fixed cables.

On the fifth day, the trail drops into a high, hidden valley of seven
lakes, each a different-colored gem in a stark setting, before
arriving at the Prehodavci Hut (6,790 feet), one of the wooden,
dorm-style mountain huts where most of the trek's nights are spent.
The trip reaches its crescendo on the last day when hikers awaken
early at the Kredarica Hut to climb Mount Triglav, at 9,390 feet the
highest peak in Slovenia.

Grunt factor Four to eight miles of hiking per day, with moderate
elevation gains. Hikers should be comfortable with a little bit of
scrambling and some exposure to heights.

Signpost Trip dates are July 16 to 23, Aug. 13 to 20 and Sept. 17 to
24; $1,665 price (plus $85 insurance) includes guide, two nights in
hotels, five nights in mountain huts, plus breakfasts and dinners.

Information (800) 497-9675; visit http://www.keadventure.com.=20

CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON writes frequently about travel for The New York Times