Gastronomic hiking specialist Hedonistic Hiking has released its European tour dates for 2024, alongside the option of a ‘taster’ autumn hiking weekend around Beechworth in North East Victoria. The 2024 programme features tours to Umbria and the Maritime Alps, two destinations which return to the schedule after a four year absence.
The independent company runs small group European hiking tours that include gastronomic and cultural experiences. Most of the tours are in Italy, with a small number of tours crossing borders into France, Austria and Slovenia.
Alongside the hiking, tours may include anything from a cooking class and wine tasting to truffle hunting and visits to food festivals and markets. Hiking days are punctuated by gastronomic picnics and rounded off with superb dinners paired with the best local wines. Tours are graded 1-5 to suit all fitness levels.
Get a taster in Australia
For guests who want to find out more about the tours, a weekend taster trip in Australia is the ideal opportunity to sample the Hedonistic Hiking experience. Kicking off with a fabulous tasting menu dinner at the award-winning Provenance restaurant, the Hiking around Beechworth tour (14-16 April 2023) takes guests in the footsteps of the infamous Bushranger, Ned Kelly, on a gentle (level 2) journey that includes two fully guided hikes, picnic lunches and superb dinners. The tour explores the town’s gold rush history, its vineyards and concludes with a wine-tasting of Nebbiolo wines at a local producer.
Prices: AUD$1085pp inclusive of fully guided hikes, meals and activities. Excludes accommodation.
2024 bookings open
Tours to Umbria and the Maritime Alps will return to Hedonistic Hiking’s 2024 schedule after an absence of four years.
For art lovers, the revised level 3 Medieval Umbria tour (20-27 May 2024) packs in even more of the region’s magnificent art, with visits to Piero della Francesca’s famous fresco cycle in Arezzo, the Madonna del Parto in Monterchi and the Resurrection in Sanselpolcro. Other highlights include hiking along evocative pilgrim trails in the footsteps of St Francis of Assisi and a visit to a local festival in the Umbrian town of Gubbio. Gastronomic highlights include an olive oil tasting at an organic farm, wine tastings in historic cellars, gourmet picnics and superb dinners.
Prices from AUD$4870 per person inclusive of 7 nights’ accommodation, all meals, activities and transfers with www.hedonistichiking.com.
Hedonistic Hiking’s France and the Maritime Alps tour returns in June 2024, with hikes across a landscape carpeted by wild flowers, past cascading rivers and along mountain ridges, against a backdrop of snow-capped peaks. The level 5 tour travels from the south of France to the north of Italy, taking in the Mercantour National Park and crossing the border to hike in the dramatic Maritime Alps. Gastronomic highlights include a fun cooking class in the Piedmontese city of Cuneo, delicious picnics and restaurant dinners that showcase the best local cuisine and award-winning wines.
Prices from AUD$5100 inclusive of 8 nights’ accommodation, all meals, activities and transfers with www.hedonistichiking.com.
2024 schedule
Destinations included in the 2024 programme to Italy include the Dolomites, Tuscany, Piedmont, the Italian Lakes and Alps, Friuli, Emilia Romagna, Umbria, the Basilicata, Sardinia and the Abruzzo, with several tours crossing borders into France, Slovenia and Austria. Accommodation is in hand-picked, locally owned hotels and private houses.
Established in 2007 by Jackie and Mick Parsons, Hedonistic Hiking organises guided hiking tours, accompanied by gourmet food and wine experiences, in Australia and Italy. All tours are researched, designed and led by Jackie and Mick and graded 1-5 according to difficulty. Tour groups are made up of solo travellers, couples and keen walkers whose partner may not share the same passion for hiking.
