Champsaur Valley Self-Guided Hiking Adventure: Alpine Trails and Cultural Treks

Discover the enchanting and little known Champsaur Valley with our meticulously crafted self-guided hiking holiday. This package offers you the freedom to explore at your own pace while we handle the logistics. We provide GPX tracks, detailed walking maps, and baggage transfers to ensure a seamless experience as you hike. Each segment of the route has been handpicked to offer a varied and intriguing hiking experience, promising breathtaking landscapes and cultural enrichment.

Holiday Highlights:

The Champsaur Valley:

The Champsaur Valley, gracefully poised on the southern edge of the Ecrins National Park in the Southern French Alps, serves as an idyllic setting for a self-guided hiking holiday. Renowned for its genuine Alpine farming practices and charming traditional villages, the valley offers a deeply enriching cultural and natural experience. Its distinctive bocage landscape, marked by fields enclosed by hedges, not only provides vital soil protection but also creates diverse habitats for local wildlife, thus boosting the area's biodiversity.

Unlike some of the more austere and rugged Alpine valleys, Champsaur's mountains are open and welcoming, offering a less daunting and more varied hiking experience. This accessibility allows for a broad spectrum of hiking opportunities, from leisurely walks along historical canal paths to more demanding ascents leading to expansive vistas. We have chosen a selection of varied hikes for this tour so that you can experience this diversity from mountain summits to riverside paths and immerse yourself in the local culture as you hike.

Who will love this trip?

This self-guided hiking trip in the Champsaur Valley is perfect for those who cherish the blend of adventure and culture in the great outdoors. Nature lovers and wildlife enthusiasts will be drawn to the diverse flora and fauna, while cultural aficionados will appreciate the traditional Alpine farming practices and the historic charm of the valley’s villages. Photography enthusiasts will also find endless inspiration in the scenic landscapes and panoramic views. Moreover, those seeking a sustainable travel option that allows for deep immersion in local traditions without the rush of typical tourist trails will find this trip particularly rewarding.

You will need to be a regular walker with a good level of fitness to enjoy this trip. The itinerary includes hikes with reasonable daily distances and ascents that are interspersed with less demanding routes, allowing you to recover and enjoy the scenery without feeling overwhelmed.  This approach ensures that while there are days that will challenge your stamina and hiking skills, there are also ample opportunities to stroll, explore, and relax, making it an ideal choice for those seeking an active yet balanced hiking holiday. You can expect to be walking between 10-15km per day with between 250 and 900m of ascent.

Itinerary

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You need to get to the town of Gap for the start of this holiday which is served by an SNCF train station with links to the major TGV train stations and airports.

From Gap train station, we will collect you and take you to your accommodation.

WE OFFER A 3% DISCOUNT TO ANYONE TRAVELLING BY TRAIN INSTEAD OF PLANE TO GAP FROM OUTSIDE OF FRANCE. To claim your 3% discount, you will need to show us proof of train travel for routes of over 3 hours that could have been taken by plane. Please ask when you book.

BY TRAIN / BUS: 

There is a regular coach service which operates from Aix-en-Provence TGV directly to Gap. Plan your journey here

There are also direct train links to Gap from Grenoble TGV station, Marseille and Valance TGV stations and there is also an overnight sleeper train from Paris to Gap.

You can plan your train journey using the Oui SNCF website. This works from all major European cities.

BY PLANE:

The nearest airports are Marseille and Grenoble. From Marseille airport there is a regular coach service directly to Gap every two and a half hours.Plan your journey here. From Grenoble you would need to get the airport shuttle to the train station and then a train from Grenoble to Gap - this is a bit more faffy than the links from Marseille which are direct and regular.. 

Please ask us about transport options when you enquire as we have become pros on getting people to this beautiful region!

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