Walking through vineyards on the Camino in Portugal
When the main tourist season of the summer months is over, the harvest season of the autumn has passed and trees have lost their leaves, winter is upon us. A number of the mountain areas that offered great walking conditions earlier in the year, now transform into ski resorts. Luckily, this doesn’t mean that you’ll have to pack up and stay indoors!
Learn about the fantastic walking destinations that can be visited year round. What’s more, they offer a completely different landscape than you may have seen on previous trips. So if you were thinking of visiting your favourite walking destination again, do so in the winter months for a completely new experience.
Below is a selection of winter walking holiday options around Europe if you are looking for fresh holiday ideas and somewhere to go this winter.
The Rota Vicentina in Algarve is an initiative to develop low impact tourism. Excellent for winter walking!
The coastline of the Algarve is renowned for its beauty: idyllic beaches, sand dunes and dramatic steep cliffs dot the landscape. Even in winter the colourful vegetation that the coast is known for is still visible. We are a big fan of the Rota Vicentina, a long distance footpath that opened just a few years ago and that is an initiative to develop low impact tourism. The region already sees surprisingly few walkers in summer; imagine what it’ll be like in winter! The path leads to the south-western most point of the European continent and makes for an excellent winter walking destination.
Dingle Peninsula is one of the most spectacular regions on Ireland's West Coast
The Dingle Peninsula is one of the most spectacular regions on Ireland’s West Coast, steeped in history, mythology and traditional Irish culture. A mountainous finger of land jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, it has been home to a number of tribes and populations for at least 6,000 years, from prehistoric times through the Early Christian period to the Middle Ages. It is a part of Europe that can be visited year round and the landscape will change with the seasons. On your winter walking holiday, you will find plenty of small hamlets to enjoy good Irish cheer along the way. One of these is Dunquin, Ireland’s westernmost settlement, which is often affectionately referred to as ‘the next parish to America’.
Walk along the Vermillion Coast from France into Spain this winter
Discover the landscapes and villages that inspired the surrealist paintings of Salvador Dalí as he travelled across the French Pyrenees, along the Vermillion coast and into Spain. Port Ligat is where the eccentric painter used to live and Figueres is Dalí’s birthplace, where you can now visit the quirky (its exterior is decorated with eggs!) Dalí Museum. Your days on a winter walking holiday to this stretch of coast in southern Europe will be filled with coastal fishing villages, the foothills of the Alberes (part of the Pyrenees), and of course the Catalan hospitality.
Puglia is most famous for the village of Matera
Fancy spending a couple of nights at a traditional ‘trullo’, with its typical conical roof?
Puglia, Italy’s ‘heel’ and its gateway to the Orient, offers pleasant walking temperatures in the late autumn and early winter months. Puglia is a land forged in history, most famous for the village of Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that feels lost in time. If you want to go walking in Puglia, make sure to include the valleys, coastal paths, olive groves and vineyards, enchanting maze of narrow streets of Ostuni and the elegant baroque city of Lecce.