Hedonistic Hiking's winning formula of hiking through Europe's gastronomic landscape continues to thrive and expand and in 2024, husband and wife team, Mick and Jackie Parsons, will lead 16 tours in Europe. The company will also run 2 tours in Australia at the start of the year.

Thanks to an ever-increasing demand for challenging high altitude tours, an updated France and the Maritime Alps tour will run in June when the crowd-free slopes are sprinkled with wildflowers and at their most colourful. The company has also introduced a Medieval Umbria tour with a focus on art and medieval history.

Top 2024 tours

Crossing borders - France and the Maritime Alps

Hike from Provence in the south of France to Piedmont in the north of Italy on an 8-night guided tour to France and the Maritime Alps. With a new itinerary for 2024, the tour includes level 5 hikes through the Mercantour National Park and the Maritime Alps, with sightings of ibex, marmots, chamois and golden eagles, and following trails through carpets of wild flowers, past lakes and streams, and against a backdrop of snow-capped peaks. The final hike includes a section of the Grande Traversata delle Alpi, a high mountain trail that unites the whole Alpine arc of Piedmont.

Hikes are interspersed with cultural highlights, including visits to the opulent Belle Epoque Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and its magnificent gardens at Cap Ferrat, the Santuario di Vicoforte which boasts the world's largest elliptical dome, and the imposing alpine Vinadio Fort in Piedmont. Gastronomic highlights include a cooking class in Cuneo, gourmet picnics and gastronomic dinners.

Price and dates: from £2800pp, including 8 nights' accommodation, all meals with wine, activities and transfers. 15-23 June 2024. www.hedonistichiking.com.

Art, abbeys and medieval pageantry in Umbria

Hedonistic Hiking's new Medieval Umbria tour is about much more than hiking. There are also Piero della Francesca paintings, visits to hideaway churches, abbeys and medieval towns, and, on the last day, a chance to be a spectator at an extraordinary display of traditional flag-throwing and pageantry at the annual Palio of the Balestra in the medieval town of Gubbio.

The level 3 hikes follow evocative pilgrim trails, through open farmland and woodland, past abandoned stone houses, a dramatic fortress and a 13th century Benedictine monastery. Food and wine also play a significant part, with lunches at organic farms, wine and olive oil tastings, gastronomic picnics and a medieval style banquet in a private country house. Stay in 3 different hotels, including the former Ducal Palace in Gubbio.

Price and dates: from £2,675pp including 7 nights' accommodation, all meals with wine, activities and transfers. 20-27 May 2024. www.hedonistichiking.com.

Hike through Tuscan history

2024 marks the centenary anniversary of the death of Puccini who was born and raised in Lucca, the starting point for Hedonistic Hiking's Lucca, Volterra and Elba tour. In addition to a concert of Puccini classics, the tour includes time to explore the walled Renaissance city, and hikes in the Lucchesi hills and the Apuan Alps.

There are hikes along former mule tracks, across mountain pastures and through the countryside around the Etruscan city of Volterra to medieval San Gimignano. There's also time to explore the local gastronomy, lunching in olive groves on Hedonistic Hiking's trademark picnics, tasting innovative Bolgheri Super-Tuscan wines and enjoying delicious dinners in local restaurants. The tour ends on the island of Elba with a hike to the island's highest point, and visits to the pretty port and Napoleon's villa in Portoferraio.

Price and dates: from £2,800pp including 8 nights' accommodation, all meals with wine, activities and transfers from Pisa. 11-19 May 2024. hedonistichiking.com.

About Hedonistic Hiking

Established in 2007 by Jackie and Mick Parsons, Hedonistic Hiking organises guided hiking tours, with gastronomic and cultural experiences, that are researched, designed and led by Jackie and Mick. All tour groups are made up of solo travellers, friends and couples. Tours are graded 1-5 according to difficulty and include accommodation in hand-picked, locally owned hotels and private houses.

In Italy, the company runs guided gastronomic hiking tours to the Dolomites, Tuscany, Piedmont, the Italian Lakes and Alps, Friuli, Emilia Romagna, Umbria, the Basilicata, Sardinia and the Abruzzo, with several of the tours crossing borders into France (including Corsica), Slovenia and Austria.

In Australia, the company organises tours in Victoria, along the South West Coast, on the Great Ocean Walk trail, in the Grampians, the Victorian Alps and around Beechworth. 

Further press information and high res images:
Jenny Garber, jenny@jgcommunications.co.uk, +44 (0)7966 213126