FAQs
Walking Adventures is a Tour Operator
Walking Adventures International (WAI) is a tour operator; we provide programs based upon our own onsite planning. We are not a travel agency which books individual airline tickets or hotel rooms, or sells a variety of travel services purchased from other travel organizations.
WAI is a team of dedicated travel enthusiasts in Vancouver, Washington who have been offering travel programs combining walking with conventional sightseeing since 1989. Our travel strategy is to identify the distinctive characteristics of a destination and capture those special attributes in a travel program using walking as the primary medium of interaction. Our flagship tour is an inclusive package that provides all land arrangements, including hotels; transportation by motorcoach, trains, or small ships; many of the meals; sightseeing excursions; and, of course, the walks. We call this the Classic Curated Tour. We also offer three other tour types detailed below: Volkssport Tours, Self-Guided Tours, and Faith-Heritage Tours.
Our Guide Service
We send one or two WAI tour leaders on each trip. When overseas travel reemerges, groups will likely be led by one WAI guide in partnership with our national guides. In some cases, our most trusted local guides (e.g., Hildrun Mathies in Central Europe and Amanda Whitehead in Great Britain) may lead the tour without a WAI guide. Local guides also make cameo appearances to add commentary and share insights.
Tour Types
Classic Curated Tour
A Classic Curated Tour has been the hallmark of Walking Adventures for 30 years. Each Walking Adventure is created from scratch—it is not a pre-packaged program purchased from another travel company. Each new tour involves months of planning, including on-site research to plan walks, work with local walking guides, review hotels, and handcraft the schedule for each day. Customized routes and itineraries are intended to showcase the history, culture, and natural wonders of local areas. Subsequent editions of these trips are refreshed with research from our office and collaboration with in-country guides and suppliers.
Most WAI Adventures fall into this category of Classic Curated tours.
Volkssport Tour
Volkssport is a German name for an international network of walking clubs that started in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in the 1960‘s. These clubs organize noncompetitive walks (usually 10 kilometers — 6.2 miles) through scenic and/or historic areas. The idea is to get people of all ages outdoors to participate in healthy events where everyone is declared the winner. In some destinations, our travel plans include joining these local Volkssport clubs for their walks, which generally becomes a cultural highlight of the trip.
Compared to a Classic Curated Tour, a Volkssport Tour, streamlines the tour planning process and focuses more on walks and less on sightseeing. The objective is to feature more walking, offer more volkssport stamps (a record of walks volkswalkers keep in a passport-like walking book), and keep the price lower. Primary differences between Volkssport Tours compared to Curated Classic Tours include:
- Walks offered are hosted by clubs, not planned by WAI staff. Usually, they are self-guided walks using club-provided maps and directions.
- Itineraries focuses more on local club walks, and less on sightseeing and cultural activities.
- Itineraries tend to be paced faster, giving us the ability to offer walks in more locales.
- Extensive work is done by in-office, but on-site planning is generally not done by WAI tour planners (experience gained on previous editions of the tour, however, produces improvements to subsequent itineraries).
- Volkssport Tours tend to be limited to the USA. International tours generally follow the Classic Curated model.
Examples of Volkssport Tours include tours that feature the biennial walking conventions of the American Volkssport Association and the Internationaler Volkssportverband (IVV).
Small Ship Cruising
Small ship cruising has become highly popular amount WAI travelers. These itineraries provide access to many fascinating corners of the work on small vessels that are much more intimate than huge oceanliners which can accommodate several thousand passengers. As such, they allow access via rivers to more remote parts of a country and are less intrusive on the culture, the economy, and the environment than larger vessels.
Another popular feature of small ship itineraries is the appeal of unpacking once for a cruise that may last a week or 10 days and not having to change rooms as often as a land-based itinerary.
It’s important to understand, however, that WAI planners have little say in the ship itinerary and instead maximize ports of call offered by ship crew and management.
Examples of Small Ship Cruising include: Danube River Cruise, Rhine River Cruise, Voyage to Antarctica, Egypt ~ Land of the Pharaohs, and several others.
High Adventure
“High Adventure” is a tag we add to tours to warn travelers of possible additional challenges. These challenges could stem from a variety of sources including:
- A higher percentage of 1-night hotel stays
- More time driving than usual or challenging traffic settings (e.g. India)
- Walks routes that are more challenging on average (e.g. Camino de Santiago, Swiss & French Alps)
- More walking distance per day than usual (e.g. Hiking the Camino de Santiago)
- Walks and/or travel at high altitude (e.g. Peru; Colorado; Bhutan)
- A greater number of mid-tour flights (e.g. Chile, Brazil)
- Cultural factors that can be stressors (lack of public toilets; extra caution required regarding food and gastro-intestinal challenges – e.g. India, Hiking the Camino de Santiago)
Hiking
The distinction between “walking” and “hiking” is subjective. One person’s walk is another person’s hike. With this lack of precision in mind, please consider the following factors before you book a “Hiking” Adventure.
The verb “hiking” is included in a tour title when featured trails are generally more difficult than a typical WAI tour. Factors reviewed when we move an itinerary into the “Hiking” category include:
Elevation gain and loss is generally greater across the series of the tour’s walks. Some trails offered on a “Hiking” tour may be considered “challenge” trails to send an additional signal of a walk that is particularly difficult. Mitigating these “challenge” walks is the fact that a standard walk is offered concurrently, with a lower level of difficulty.
Trail surface conditions are generally rougher with fewer groomed trails or smooth surfaces such as sidewalks or paved trails. Travelers are required to give more attention to where they place their feet; uneven surfaces and occasional sections of trail covered by roots or rocks are more common.
Altitude could be higher. Our trails in the Canadian Rockies are not as high as Utah (Bryce Canyon), the Colorado Rockies, or the Swiss & French Alps tour. We are in the mountains, however, not at sea level or in the prairie states or provinces. Still, we consider altitude only a minor factor in the Canadian Rockies; hotels are always below 6000 feet and our trails are mostly in the 3000 to 5500 foot above sea level range.
The elevation of hotels—where we overnight—has a greater impact on us physically than where we travel or walk during the day. That is, the elevation of where you sleep overnight is usually more important than the elevation of activities during the day.
When altitude is a factor, walks are usually geared down both in distance and difficulty to allow for altitude. Altitude sickness can be a serious ailment and travelers will be reminded to pace themselves and drink plenty of fluids.
Consider checking with your doctor
It is important to pursue any concerns you have about altitude with your doctor. As always, travelers are free to opt out of any activities. For most of us who live near sea level, acclimation to high altitudes is an important aspect of a successful tour that includes high altitude walks or activities.
Walking LITE
A Walking LITE itinerary widens the range of travelers who can comfortably enjoy a WAI travel experience. Travelers who prefer a slower pace and less walking than a standard WAI Adventure, but still appreciate an experiential approach to travel, can join a Walking LITE group knowing that the itinerary will be less demanding physically.
Most Walking LITE tours are small ship cruises. These tours allow travelers to enjoy the standard ship itinerary knowing that, where possible, WAI will also offer walking and hiking opportunities on an optional basis. Further, travelers have the assurance that the ship, our floating hotel, is always a ready refuge where they can relax and transition from participant to observer as they choose.
In addition, using itineraries of trusted small ship cruise partners, WAI planners are able to take advantage of a wider range of destinations, confident that our creativity and the wide WAI knowledge base (30 years’ worth) allows WAI guides and planners to amplify and enhance any itinerary by inserting walks of various lengths, some directly from the ship, and some using land transportation to nearby trails with which we are familiar.
Two primary aspects contribute to the designation of a “walking like” If a small ship cruise, the program offers itinerary options for travelers who prefer not to walk or to walk very little; second, the walks themselves may be easier and shorter.
Finally, adding Walking LITE small ship cruise experiences captures the value of unpacking only once and enjoying the floating hotel model of small ship cruising with its slower pace and relaxed tempo.
Walking LITE itineraries that are not ship based offer the advances of easier walks and more flexibility in scheduling that our normally fast-paced tours. They do not, however, feature the advantages of a ship itinerary referred to above.
Faith-Heritage Tours
Our Faith-Heritage Tours are a new style of travel incubated during tours in Israel and Turkey (Seven Churches of the Revelation) over the past 15 years, but will be much broader in scope. In a world moving increasingly in a secular direction, itineraries explored on Faith-Heritage Tours will include reminders of a God-centered universe. These trips will resemble our Classic Curated Tours, but presented from a faith-based perspective.
Walk Details
We typically walk an average of 2 to 6 miles per day. Walks can vary in focus and generally fall into one of three broad categories: 1) nature, 2) city sightseeing, and 3) rural/cultural. Walk difficulty is rated with a numeric indicator (1 to 5) for incline, and an alpha indicator (A to E) for terrain, rising from easier to more difficult as the alpha-numeric indicator rises. We try to keep walks on the easier side—rated 1A to 3C—but often offer “challenge” trails with higher levels of difficulty on an optional basis.
For more details, check out The Walks page.
Transportation
For groups of 12 to 22, we use motorcoaches with a seating capacity of 45+ seats. Seating on vehicles will be arranged to allow maximum distance between travelers.
Airfare
WAI travelers originate from all over the 50 states as well as Canada and other countries; travelers are therefore advised to book their air with a travel agent, online, or directly with the airlines. Details about the start/finish points, flight arrangements, and contact information for a travel agent will be sent soon after registration for any tour.
For international tours which include point-to-point flights within the program, we usually provide an optional group air package. Doing so helps travelers take advantage of reduced fares for packaging international flights with domestic flights, and simplifies the objective of keeping the group together as we move from point-to-point within the itinerary.
Hotels
Our baseline standard is a superior tourist class or better hotel. However, hotels with lower ratings may be chosen due to factors considered in hotel selection, which include:
- Accessibility to local attractions on foot;
- Proximity to walk start/finish;
- Charm or location of the establishment;
- Remoteness of a particular region and scarcity of accommodations;
- Proximity to restaurants;
- and, of course, cost/budget.
Group Size
The number of travelers accepted on a tour is currently between 12 and 22, using a full-sized motor coach. This smaller-sized group is a result of current concerns over COVID-19. We will evaluate our experience with this group size and consider changes as we emerge into a post-COVID-19 reality.
Average age is around 65 years, with a wide variety from 12-year-old grandkids to peppy octogenarians.
Roommates
If you are traveling alone and would like information about roommate options, please contact us at [email protected].
Meals
Meal planning has been greatly impacted by COVID-19. As a result, group meals are generally not included in 2022, though there may be exceptions. Breakfasts are included when provided by our hotels. Restaurants are usually walkable from our hotels. Stops are made as necessary at grocery stores. Most USA hotels have refrigerators and microwaves in the room. And our coach is used, as necessary, to shuttle to dinners when restaurants are not nearby.
Pricing
Tours will be priced assuming 15 to 22 travelers. If, for any reason, the number of travelers drops to the point that using a 15-passenger van makes more sense, a small group surcharge of around $40 to $60 per day, depending upon the tour, may be considered, allowing the benefits of an even smaller group.
How to Join a Tour
- Tours under consideration for 2024 are first opened for “pre-registration”. Basic tour information is provided on their webpage, along with a tour map, and travelers are invited to hold their spots with a refundable $100 pre-registration deposit. Tours which are popular in the pre-registration phase are developed into final itineraries with firm dates, detailed itineraries, and final pricing.
- Once pricing and dates are available, pre-registered travelers are offered a Priority Booking Invitation for full registration by email. Full registration requires an additional $200 ($300 full registration). Pre-registered travelers have one week to fully register before remaining space on the tour is opened to the general public. Once the registration deposit is paid, it is non-refundable.
- Final Payment is due 90 days before tour departure and can be made online or mailed by check for a 1% discount. This Final Payment is non-refundable and non-transferable.
Wellness on Tour Policy
Please view our Wellness on Tour Policy for more details.
Travel Insurance
WAI believes strongly in the importance of travel insurance for financial and medical protection from any number of unforeseen circumstances that can arise before departure or during your Adventure. Many travel insurance providers are available. As always, do some shopping to ensure you are getting the best value. Using SquareMouth.com can be a good way to compare pricing.
NOTE: We suggest purchasing from a reputable, well-established insurance company (avoid buying insurance from an unknown company found only online). In addition, be aware that some travel insurance policies contain time-sensitive provisions—i.e., some benefits are available only if the policy is purchased within a certain number of days of the purchase of the travel package.
We hope we’ve addressed your questions. Please feel free to call 360.260.9393 during phone hours (Mon-Fri, 7 am to 10 am, PST) to chat about any further questions you may have.
How to Contact Us
Responsive, easily accessible customer service has been a WAI hallmark during our 30-year history. For the time being, the leaner look of WAI necessitates fewer staff. Therefore, email is the best way to communicate with our smaller team, using [email protected].
For now, our phone will be staffed on a limited basis; the WAI phone will be answered directly on Monday through Friday, from 7 am to 10 am, Pacific Time Zone. The office number is (360) 260-9393.
If you need to speak with one of us and those times don’t work for you, leave a voice message or request a call back by email, and we’ll do our best to get back to you within 24 hours—probably sooner. Our goal is also to answer emails no later than 24 hours after received.
General Tour Conditions
Please follow this link to read our full General Tour Conditions.
