Hiking in France
For any vacation, travel insurance is a must, and if you’re flying to Europe it’s even more important. Luggage has been known to disappear somewhere between the airport and the hotel, and in many cases it’s never seen again. If you haven’t yet taken out cover I strongly urge you to do so, and by investing a few dollars now you could be saving yourself literally hundreds of dollars if something were to go wrong later. Hopefully though, all will be well and you can start your vacation with a full set of clean clothes and a camera that’s still working.
If you’re going to France it’s nice to dress down a little when you go for walks in the countryside, so make sure you’ve remembered to pack some jeans and comfortable shoes. There’s nothing worse than setting off on a ten mile hike only to remember you’ve left your walking boots at home and you’re going to end the day soaking your feet in a bowl of hot water – and this is something I know from painful experience.
Of course it also helps if you know where you’re going, and that ten mile hike can turn into a twenty mile hike if you take a wrong turn or end up going round in circles.
The best way to avoid those annoying and time wasting situations is to take a France travel guide with you. By having one of those in your jeans pocket you’re less likely to wander so far off the beaten track that you can’t even begin to find your way back, and they’re filled with handy maps, phrases and local landmarks to help you on your way. They’re also perfect for those times when you can’t quite make your mind up where to go, and it can be fun to just flick through the pages and pick somewhere at random. Having a pocket guide is like having a well informed friend telling you which roads to cross and the location of the best bar in town. I’d even go so far as to say you shouldn’t leave home without one – they really are that useful.
