Tour du Mont Thabor

The Tour du Mont Thabor, the French Alps' best-kept secret. In Vallée de la Clarée you can find unspoiled Alpine scenery, away from the beaten track, the most hospitable gîtes and refuges, and to top it all off: The option for a family-friendly trek. Forget the Tour du Mont Blanc, the Walker's Haute Route, and the other big names. Around Mont Thabor you can enjoy quality mountain time without having to take too much time off and without breaking the bank. We wanted to keep it all for ourselves, but happiness is only real when shared. So, allez! Let's discover the Tour du Mont Thabor and the trails of Vallée de la Clarée together! Grande Randonnée GR57 is better known as the Tour du Mont Thabor. This is a loop around the lesser known but still very prominent Mont Thabor, in Vallée de la Clarée in the Hautes-Alpes. Vallée de la Clarée is a sheltered, dead-end valley north of the fortified town of Briancon, on the border between France and Italy and forms part of the unspoilt Massif des Cerces. There are no ski slopes or other large-scale tourism, this valley is there only for hikers, cyclists, and other nature lovers. When doing the full circuit, you can expect a total distance of around 85 kilometers and more than 5,000 meters of elevation gain. You don't have to, though. The Tour du Mont Thabor can be easily divided into segments, making it accessible and enjoyable for the entire family.

Hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) is more than just an adventure through stunning landscapes. Along the way, you’ll cross paths with hikers from all over the world and sleep at local huts where you can enjoy the feeling of truly being in the mountains. I recently completed the Bookatrekking.com TMB hut-to-hut hike in early September 2024 as a solo female hiker. Over the course of 10 days, I trekked 176 km through three countries. The experience was amazing, with great weather and fewer crowds than in peak season. Continue reading for my personal experience and some practical tips I’d like to share with you.

Santiago de Compostela is well known to everyone. For over 1,000 years pilgrims have walked to this place to visit the tomb of the apostle James in the cathedral. The Camino Francés is the most popular route to complete this journey. The Camino Francés starts in France and has a length of 784 kilometres. To complete the trek in its entirety, you need a lot of time! That's why in this blog post we focus mainly on the last 100 kilometres of the route, the distance required for a compostela. Curious? Bookatrekking.com tells you everything you need to know about the Camino Francés!The Camino Francés is one of the routes to Santiago de Compostela and, as mentioned, the most frequently chosen variant. The route starts in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France and takes you across the Pyrenees to Spain. Along the way, you pass cities such as Pamplona and Burgos and walk along elongated paths. Surrounded by lavender and wheat fields and perhaps a snow-covered mountain peak, you can let your mind wander to finally bring your journey to a close in Santiago de Compostela.