GR7 Self Led
You could not do better than use this holiday along the GR7 as an introduction to Andalucia, the Alpujarras and self-led walking in general. Its a lovely hike, we look after you well, and you have our unique maps!
You Stay in small hotels and pensions as the route winds from village to village through a landscape of deep verdant valleys, mountain slopes, oak and chestnut forests and terraced farms tilled by mules. It is a magnificent landscape of wild flowers, ibex, golden orioles and bee-eaters, just waiting to be explored.
Customer Feedback (2)
Anonymous
Your trip notes were great. We learned an important lesson on the first walk - of how it's easy to make landmarks and points on a map 'fit' what you are seeing.... resulting in us going way off route. As a result, we dedicated an hour or so each evening to going through the notes in detail and noting key points on the map so that we paid close attention during the next day's hike. Sometimes it felt like a giant treasure hunt, which was fun. And we thoroughly enjoyed being taken through so many villages and took advantage of many of the bars!
We also really enjoyed the places we stayed in. The one disappointment was our final accommodation in Bubion, which was such a huge contrast to the wonderful Casa Sonia where we'd stayed the night before. We were in a very small room, at the top of the stairs, with very little space even to put our luggage. I did ask if we could be moved to a bigger room but that wasn't possible. I assumed, at the time that this was because the other rooms were booked, but there was actually only one other couple staying there. As we couldn't speak Spanish and our hosts no English, it may have been that none of the rooms were any bigger or better. Breakfast too was poor in comparison to all the other places - just coffee and white toast whereas everywhere else had also offered fresh fruit, yoghurt, fruit juice and sometimes cheese. It would have been fine for one night along the way but not a great end for two nights.
Having said that, we enjoyed our explorations of the area on our full day there and had a couple of excellent evening meals in the restaurants you'd recommended.
Casa Sonia was definitely the highlight in terms of accommodation. Sonia herself was a wonderful host and cooked a fabulous evening meal which was superb value with the wine she included. Our room was enormous and beautifully renovated and was off a wonderful, large terrace with comfortable chairs and great views to the mountains. Staying there was a real joy and we were very tempted to phone you and see if we could spend 2 nights instead of one!
We also thoroughly enjoyed Granada and our visit there was greatly enhanced by the walking notes you provided. They were excellent, informative and really got us exploring areas we otherwise wouldn't have found. Needless to say we still managed to get a bit lost in some of the back streets of the Albacin, but that was all part of the adventure. The hotel was very comfortable and the receptionist incredibly helpful with information about getting buses, to airports, places to eat etc.
So... definitely a trip I'll be recommending to others. Thanks again to both of you for your excellent organisation and support.
Best wishes ..........Sarah
walkAlpujarra - Jeremy