Why Your Best Hiking Or Biking Trip Might Be Self-Guided Active Travel

Sometimes when we travel, having the best guide can make all the difference. Sometimes the best guide is you.

Self-guided active travel has been booming in popularity, and not just because it’s cheaper—and it is much more affordable, even at the luxury level. There are a number of other reasons besides price why if you enjoy hiking or biking trips, you might want to consider going self-guided.

But first a definition: Self-guided is not the same as DIY (Do It Yourself) and in this case does not mean just going it alone like a backpacking or bikepacking or camping trip. These are the same kinds of supported, itinerary-based active trips with hotels and great food that have boomed in popularity in recent years through companies like Backroads, Butterfield & Robinson, Vermont Bicycle Tours (VBT), DuVine, REI Adventures, Sojourn and many others. They include detailed daily directions, hotels, meals and special attractions along the way (winery visits, museums, etc.) and perhaps most importantly, baggage transfers from one hotel to the next so you don’t have to carry more than a day pack (if the itinerary involves moving, which most do).

In short, these self-guided trips are just like fully guided trips except for three things: no guide, no other guests besides the ones you choose to travel with, and no obligation to choose pre-set departure dates to join a group. They are ideal for both couples and groups of friends or families who want to spend more time together. And did I mention they cost less?

Self-guided travel has been more popular in Europe for decades, and one of the biggest and best-established companies in the space is UK-based Macs Adventures, whose motto is “Active Travel Led By You.” Unlike other companies that offer self-guided as an option, it is all they do, for the past 20 years, with a broad array of walking and biking trips all around the globe, hundreds of them. Addressing the growing U.S. market, Macs opened an office in Denver that ramped up from 11 to more than 40 employees in less than 12 months, and last year, 2023 trips by Americans jumped 70% over the previous year. Last September was their busiest month ever in terms of travelers. Walking and hiking trips have always been more popular, but cycling grew 90% last year over the previous year and is closing the gap, and Macs now also offers e-bikes which are proving popular.

“Traditionally, adventure tour travel involved integrating with a group of strangers. As Americans seek to travel for personal discovery (which include celebrating major milestones, personal and spiritual growth), it’s much more meaningful and adaptable when you’re traveling on your own, and not with a group of strangers who are unlikely to share your priorities or values,” said Campbell Levy, spokesperson for Macs, in an email. “Personalized, authentic and immersive experiences are desired today, and self-led perfectly delivers this. And yes, price. Self-guided trips are definitely less expensive, making them more accessible to a broader range of travelers.”

Price is important in travel, but it’s hardly the only appeal of self-guided. I love cycling and you might love cycling, but we probably don’t share the same passions for culture, food, museums, or history. Self-guided allows travelers to be more independent with their time off the bike or hiking trail, to do more of what they enjoy and further customize the experience. Also, some people don’t want to travel with strangers, and self-guided is great for groups of friends or families.

It also caters to people who are like minded about fitness, like a group of people who all hike roughly the same pace and mileage. Every guided active trip I have gone on has been very clear and honest about the physical expectations, but almost every time, paying guests ignore this. When I did the Tour du Mont Blanc, an iconic but strenuous long-distance hike through three countries in the Alps, there were people signed up who simply could not manage the physical effort required, forcing the guides to split up, disadvantaging everyone on the trip. Unlike a van supported bike ride, many hiking trips don’t cross roads often and offer no way to cut the trek short once you’ve started.

“Self-guided tours are cheaper than fully-supported tours, but price is not the main motivation for all guests, especially the ones who come to us,” said Heather Dowd, co-founder of Tourissimo, an active travel company based in Turin with a U.S. office, specializing in hiking and cycling trips in Italy, a favorite destination of American travelers. “They tend to be a bit more independent and want to have that time on their own during the day for discovery and adventure while still having the harder logistics (route planning and luggage, etc.) taken care of. They also like that there is someone they can call to assist them in the event of an emergency.”

Macs Adventures has several different trip categories from more budget-oriented to In Comfort and In Style, the most upscale, but as a whole, their trips are quite affordable. For instance, the 8-day Best of the Bernese Oberland in Style through the Swiss Alps has one of their highest accommodations levels and at $3,585 per person is very reasonable in this sector, but quite pricey for the company, which has weeklong trips starting at under a thousand dollars. Cycle the Loire Valley in Style is a 6-day trip with their highest level of luxury accommodations, using 4-star Châteaux hotels, and runs just $2,965. Other categories include Discovery Trips that cover more ground using trains and/or ferries and Pilgrimage Trips for more spiritual journeys.

They also have a focus on “Classic Routes” around the world which are offered in sections or as a whole, with some much longer trips than most active travel companies offer, such as the entire Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain, 40-days, along with more than a dozen different sections or variations of the Camino in Spain and Portugal. One of the most popular categories is the Tour du Mont Blanc, often considered the best multi-day hike on earth—I’ve done it and it is absolutely fantastic, a Bucket List for avid hikers. The 12-day Complete Tour du Mont Blanc in Comfort, the highest level of accommodations they offer on this route (some sections have no luxury hotels no matter who you go with) is $3,960, while the Complete Tour du Mont Blanc in mountain huts is $3,145 for almost two weeks of travel.

Campbell mentioned celebrating major milestones, and that’s exactly what my wife and I did when we booked a self-guided cycling trip in Burgundy with Butterfield & Robinson for our 20^th wedding anniversary. B&R is known as the inventor of luxury guided active travel way back in 1966 and is atop the category in terms of white glove service, posh hotels, VIP experiences and amazing food. They are a fantastic company with a very high repeat rate and loyal customers, but all of that comes at a price, and in my case, the affordability of self-guided was important. B&R is the only company in the top luxury tier of active travel offering a self-guided option, and besides price it appealed to us for several reasons. Burgundy is a classic cycling dream destination, but our anniversary did not coincide well with the scheduled group dates. Also, while it is enjoyable to meet new people and I’ve had a lot of fun on active group trips, for this we wanted a more romantic experience. But we got the same great luxury lodging, food and special experiences along the way.

As an example, the B&R Self-Guided Burgundy trip includes an expert-led wine tasting at the luxury hotel the first night, a meet up with a local guide for a guided tour of medieval Beaune the second day, another private expert-led tasting in a wine cellar the third day, and a farewell dinner at a fancy hotel restaurant off the regular a la carte menu, all included. The only thing missing was someone actually riding with us, and other guests. The first day we were met at our hotel by a local B&R guide who delivered the bikes, did the fitting and gave us an orientation. Today, with GPS loaded routes in bike computers doing self-guided is easier than ever. They pick up and move your luggage every time you change hotels and have 24/7 emergency support available.

Butterfield focuses their offerings on the places best suited to self-guided travel, with two dozen hiking and cycling trips in Slovenia, Switzerland, Tuscany, Vietnam, Provence, Spain, Croatia, the Dolomites and several others regions of Italy. Perhaps the most iconic trip in cycling is a week in Tuscany, and in this case, B&R’s self-guided version is a thousand dollars per person less ($5,695 vs. $6,695). It’s still pricy, it’s still luxury, but that’s two grand a couple you can use to splurge on anything from daily massages to jewelry while having the same quality active experience.

Among U.S. companies self-guided is still a bit of an obscure niche with some smaller players in it, mainly at the budget end. One exception is Vermont-based Country Walkers, another large well-known active travel company that offers a self-guided option to its “regular” guided trips. It’s all walking and generally a little less physically challenging, and as their website explains, “When you hit the trail on a Self-Guided adventure, you’re armed with route notes written by insiders who know the area. Without a large group of traveling companions, you’ll be able to blend in with locals, make new friends, and discover the highlights that guidebooks miss. Want to know the best local spot for dinner? Check your route notes…” They offer 10 self-guided trips in Scotland, Portugal, Maine, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland, Italy, France and England, with 6-7 day itineraries from $2,345 to $5,195 with most in the $3-4,000 range, and in general these are about $1,000 less than their similar guided trips.

Country Walkers’ sister company, Vermont-based VBT Biking Vacations, also offers elf-guided trips across Europe and the U.S., with E-bikes available. A 6-day Italy trip in the Dolomites is $3,795 while the guided option is $4,695.

“We’ve been getting more and more requests for self-guided tours. It’s not our main product, and a typical self-guided tour isn’t really our style. So, what we offer is what we called “Co-pilot Tours,” said Tourissimo’s Dowd. “These are private, unsupported tours, but you’re not completely on your own. You get the same attentive customer service before the trip, and at the start you are met by a Tourissimo guide who introduces you to the program and assists with bike fitting. You’re on your own for the rides, but we can arrange meals and activities. Some people have taken one of our fully-supported itineraries and asked for it to be run as self-guided. So, they get all of the services of the fully-supported tour, but without a 24/7 guide and support van. Our Co-pilot tours are cheaper than fully supported tours, but they are not as cheap as other self-guided programs.”

I’ve done both hiking and biking trips with Tourissimo, and highly recommend the company, whose focus is on showing their Italy to visitors, with a deep dive into local food wine, usually including cooking class, and curated family-owned small hotels (in castles and wineries and such) that would be very hard to find on your own.

“Why go self-guided on a Co-Pilot tour?” asked Dowd. “For the independence and adventure, with the harder details taken care of so you can focus on the riding and the fun.”

“Why not go self-guided? Many of our guests choose our full-service tours to enjoy being fully letting go while on vacation. They know the guides are looking out for them and they don’t have to make any decisions. Several of the people on our last hiking tour mentioned that they loved the fact that for the week they didn’t have to make any decisions. It’s freeing and relaxing.”

Either way, active travel makes for a fantastic vacation.