Information and communications about the destinations and activities offered by Pure Adventures Tours. Our adventures are mostly cycling and hiking tours but can include other activities from sea kayaking to skiing. To receive updates in your email inbox, enter your address below right.
I'm personally not big on hostels, but many people are. A good hostel might be worth staying at, and so I'll pass along the 'STA Top Hostel Picks" for Paris. I have no idea really how good they are. Since STA is dedicated to student travel, that should give an idea about what the clientele is probably consisting.
Caulaincourt Square Hostel (Paris, France) – Located in the artist haven of Montmartre, you’ll be walking the same streets as Picasso and have access to free WiFi in the hostel."
Take a Stroll Through Provence This Summer and Discover a “Life List” Destination for an Affordable Price
Scottsdale, AZ—Picture exploring the countryside of Provence by foot, savoring the flavors of distinct French cuisine, sipping some of the world’s finest wines, and enjoying a breathtaking view from a picturesque chateaux. Discover France, the leading specialist in cycling and hiking travel services throughout France, offers unforgettable self-guided walking trips to Provence that give travelers the opportunity to “live like the French” and explore this romantic destination at their leisure this summer.
Complete with hotel arrangements, Garmin personal navigation systems, route maps, and suggested itineraries, Discover France’s self-guided itineraries to Provence offers travelers freedom, flexibility, and at less than 1000 Euros---affordability. Guests will wander through Provence with peace of mind as Discover France takes care of the details. Avoid the annoyances of group travel and experience these itineraries that feature the best of Provence:
This hiking tour combines the best of Provence from St Remy to Gordes and includes history and plenty of culture, history, antiquity, castles, crafts, traditions, gastronomy, and natural beauty. During five hiking days, visitors discover Saint-Remy de Provence and the countryside around this lovely town, the Sorgues Area, the Vaucluse Hills and the Luberon. Feast on gourmet French cuisine, sip on delectable French wines, and stay in unique and well-appointed accommodations along the way. Dates: April-June, Sept-Oct. Price: 997 Euros, double occupancy.
A Classic Provence journey, this unique hiking tour takes travelers on a discovery of the Pont du Gard area, west of Avignon. Start at the famous Pont du Gard - Roman aqueduct built in the 1st century BC and during four hiking days, visitors discover the countryside around and spend two nights in the charming town of Uzes, a classic and typical Provencale village. Be immersed in the culture, food, natural beauty, historical sites, and wine on this journey. Dates: April through October 2009; except in July/Aug when trails are closed due to forest fire prevention measures. 835 Euros per person, double occupancy.
The routes for these trips are a combination of quiet country roads along Provence villages as well as parts of GR-trails (“Grande Randonnees”/ Long Distance Paths). The daily distance varies between 15 and 20kms (9 and 12 miles) and the hiking is moderate with some hilly terrain. Day five exceeds this distance with a 23km (14.5miles).
Discover France features creative self-guided itineraries that offer the best of each region at the greatest possible value to the traveler. Their website features more than 30 different self guided tour itineraries that last anywhere from four to fourteen days. For more information or to see a complete listing of itineraries, please visit the websiteor contact by phone at (480) 905-1235.
So, the Tour starts in Monaco this year which is very unique in the history of the tour. The Principalite of Monaco is an independent country but it might as well be France. Situated just next to Nice on the Cote d'Azur, this is the perfect start for the tour we are offering to enjoy some of the best southern France countryside and the greatest bicycle race in the world!
We are offering a chance to ride along the French Riviera and then continue on to the southern beaches of Provence to see the all important Team Time Trial. Among all the hard core cycling tours we offer at the Tour, this trip is not meant to be a hard core trip. In fact, it is a moderate trip that is open to good cyclists who love to follow the race but would also like to enjoy some Provence countryside and Mediterranean beaches. There is no heavy climbing and the ride distances are moderate with options to go long for those who need more miles.
Hotels and airlines are willing to undercut themselves and their advance planning customers in order to fill unsold space. The trend has been around for a while, but it seemed like only a lucky few or those who were very flexible could get a last minute deal in the past. For example, being single gives you a whole lot of flexibility that a family of 4 may not have. According to the Wall Street Journal today, this last minute trend may be something of the new norm.
Of course new norms change all the time. The examples cited in the article show that currently this does pay off. I think this can only work with airlines and individual hotel bookings, however the cruise industry seems to be doing the same thing. Well, I personally don't care much about what the cruise industry is doing and frankly all these 'travel products' have become commodities. My concern is how this mentality transfers over into the tour business.
As a company that sells mostly self-guided trips, we can handle it. In fact, we can prosper from it where I am sure many guided/group tour programs with fixed departure dates cannot. We will happily take bookings at the last minute and organize the whole tour to start any date; that is our offer anyway, so if more people go to booking last minute then we can be there for them. How can a group departure do that?
The majority of people who book 'tours' are booking group, guided programs with fixed departure dates. These trips are organized by companies that have to lock up hotel rooms and services very far in advance. Often the hotels don't like to tie up rooms without some guarantees and so comes the non-refundable deposits, etc. These tours need early bookings to assure departures and hold space. If minimum numbers are not met far enough in advance, a tour company has to decide to either cancel the space to avoid lost non-refundable deposits to the hotels, or raise prices on those who book in advance to keep the trip. The latter is almost never the solution. These same hotels that would discount to last minute travelers booking direct impose higher restrictions and standards on the tour companies that market their product and bring them groups.
So, I would expect to see more group tours with fixed departure dates to start canceling. This may leave some people who booked in advance out in the cold - with airline tickets and no tour. We have been able to help many of these people in the past who are willing to go to a self guided trip, but for those who aren't - well, tough luck. Therefore, who wants to book a guided group tour with fixed departure date in advance??
Tour companies, including ourselves, are pushing hotels and other service providers to be more flexible in their terms, but when the demand for direct bookings is so strong (and more profitable to the hotel), why should they? This could mean quite some changes for the tour industry.
New flights have been added between Bordeaux in the southwest of France and Rome. This gives one better alternative to travel between France and Italy that will save a lot of time! To cover this distance by train might take a 1.5 days and by car, at least the same time!
Now, instead of passing through Paris, Air France has this flight:
Bordeaux-Rome: Air France announced the launch of two new roundtrips Air France announced the launch of two new roundtrips on Mondays and Fridays starting 2nd February 2009, on its Rome-Bordeaux route, as a complement to its already-running Saturday and Sunday roundtrips. Information and Bookings: www.airfrance.com, or in all Air France agencies or through any travel agent.
Cycling/hiking in Italy + Dordogne in one vacation now very possible!
After literally traveling on planes, trains, and automobiles for 24 hours, we arrived at our hotel outside of the walled-city of Avignon in the Provence region of Southern France.We could barely keep our eyes open through dinner that first night.
The next morning we awoke, eager to try out our rental bikes.I couldn’t wait to go sightseeing by bicycle…without a big group of American tourists, without a guide, without a SAG wagon, and on nobody else’s schedule but our own.The self-guided bike tour with “Discover France” was the perfect arrangement for us.We felt like we were totally on our own, but we could them call for help if it was really needed.
The bikes were the hybrid style, with a wide padded seat, upright handle bars, shock-absorbers on the seat post, and big baskets in front, presumably to carry wine, cheese, and baguettes.These bikes were built for comfort.We put on our helmets, loaded up the water bottles and snacks, checked our maps, and we were off!
Our itinerary called for us to cover about 25 miles a day at a leisurely pace including time for lunch and visiting many sites of interest unique to the area.Let me share a few of those places with you.
The first day, after going through many small towns, we arrived at one of the main attractions for the day, the majestic Pont du Gard.The roman aqueduct, built in the year 19 BC, is a giant stone bridge that spans across the wide river with huge arches.Once we were on the bridge, we peered over the edge of the stone wall hundreds of feet above the water.There was no fence or safety net to prevent tourists from plunging into the river and then suing the government.I guess that’s mostly in America where we worry about things like that.Typically our hotels were always located at the top of a hill, which meant a steep climb at the end of the day.However, there was always the fabulous Southern France dinner as a reward (remarkably similar to California Cuisine, so we felt right at home), as well as inexpensive local wines, wonderful desserts, and to top it off, my personal favorite, the cheese plate, at the end of the night.
On another day we rode through medieval villages, then onto rural farm roads past vineyards, colorful fields of flowers, olive trees and fruit orchards, finally arriving at Chateau Tarascon, a 14th century castle situated on the Rhone River.The huge castle was quite a fortress with beautifully woven intricate tapestries on the walls dating back over 700 years, but was otherwise empty.The most interesting rooms looked like small stone closets.In the center of these rooms, which were actually the ancient bathrooms, there was large hole in the floor.When I looked through that hole, I was surprised to see straight down to the flowing river three stories below!People always complain about the bathrooms in certain European countries.Needless to say the French have come a long way from those days, although the concept of a shower curtain still escapes them for some reason.
Towards the end of the trip we visited the old Roman city of Arles near the Mediterranean Sea.When we arrived here for the evening, we were greeted by mosquitoes that obviously thrive in the Mediterranean climate.The suggested packing list provided by Discover France had included insect repellant, but unfortunately I did not paid any attention to it. As result, we were swatting at bugs the last couple of miles to the hotel.Luckily this one hotel was not at the top of a hill.
Van Gogh lived in Arles for two years of his life and did many paintings here before being sent to the insane asylum.We visited the museum with many of his paintings plus many old ruins like the amphitheater and the public baths that had been built by the Romans when they invaded Southern France over a thousand years ago.There was also a coliseum that still held events like bull fights to this day.Later in the day we saw an amazing event.In the evening as we were walking on the crowded main street though town, we heard a loud noise approaching like thunder.Suddenly the crowd parted as a group of large white horses galloping at full speed herded a pair of huge bulls right past us.At the end of the long street they were escorted up a ramp and onto a truck waiting to take them home after the day’s bullfight with the matadors.The bulls had only been six feet away from us, again with no protective fences or barrier, and the crowd was buzzing with excitement afterwards.
All in all it was a great trip and eye-opening experience, and we both really loved the bike trip.We are already planning a similar adventure in Spain next year!
We just posted our newest cycling trip, this one in Puglia. This region which is located in the "Heel of the Boot" - that lower eastern part of Italy - where the coastline falls on the Adriatic Sea. Just saying that makes me think of the white washed homes and villages perched on the hillsides above the sea of clear, turquoise waters. Don't believe me? See the photos. We just put this announcement out by enews to subscribers too, and what I didn't have space for in the enews is a nice little recipe for a classic regional dish from Puglia. This was sent to me; perhaps it was found on the net somewhere - maybe on Gigliola's website? Anyway, what could be easier to make than spaghetti? So, make it good:
Spaghetti alle olive verde
Puglia
Preparation - Medium
Serves 4
Gigliola Bacile was raised in the beautiful baroque southern city of Lecce, and it was there, she says, that she learned to dress spaghetti with chopped green olives. Her secret? She starts her soffritto with just a little extra virgin olive oil, and adds more fresh raw oil (oho crudo) at the end.
6 T extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup freshly grated bread crumbs
3 salted anchovies or 6 oil-packed anchovy fillets
3 garlic cloves
1/2 small dried hot red chile pepper, crumbled, or 1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup coarsely chopped pitted green olives (about 1 lb whole olives)
salt to taste
1 lb spaghetti
I am the owner & founder of Discover France, Pure Adventures, Cycling Classics, and GotoParis. I am a former resident of Paris and am married to a French woman now 15 years. I have 2 young boys both French and American that keep me active. Cycling and travel are my greatest passions when free time allows!
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