First things first, please introduce yourselves and your role at Inntravel
Charlotte: Hi, I’m Charlotte. I’ve been at Inntravel for 11 years and have worked in various roles but currently work as Marketing Manager. I’ve been on five re-walks with the company.
Katharine: Hi, I’m Katharine. I’ve worked here for just over a year as a copywriter in the Marketing team and my trip back in July marked my very first re-walk.
So, in a nutshell, what is an Inntravel ‘re-walk?’
Charlotte: A re-walk is when staff members go out and walk the routes of a holiday – just like a customer would. However, it’s their main priority to check the routes, check the walking notes that we provide to customers, and track the GPS route. The staff members have a responsibility to change the notes, where required, to ensure that they are up to date with any new signage on the ground. It’s also an opportunity for staff members to ensure that the notes make sense – possibly the notes might need clarification or bullet points condensed to read more accurately – as well as check that restaurant recommendations/hotel information within the documents are up to date.
It’s a fantastic opportunity – not only because it allows us to experience the routes exactly as our customers do, giving us valuable first-hand product knowledge within the office, but also because it plays a vital role in maintaining the quality of our walking notes.
Katharine: It’s also about feeding back to our Product team (who design and put together the holidays) what works well and where we think improvements could be made – for instance, if we feel one of the walks is too long and strenuous for the grading of the holiday, we might advise that they shorten it with a bus journey or transfer so customers have more free time to enjoy around the walk.
It’s good for testing travel arrangements too – we can book flights and rail journeys for our customers to and from their holiday, so it’s useful to get the customer experience from that point of view too. On my re-walk, we flew out to our destination but returned to the UK by train, accessing the holiday in two of the ways our customers might.
Where did you go on your re-walks and who did you go with?
Charlotte: This was my fifth re-walk and I was joined by my colleague, Tilly (it was her first re-walk), and we walked the
Palaces & Pathways of Sintra, which is a grade 1-2 (easy-to-moderate) holiday.
We worked particularly well together because she brought a completely fresh perspective. While I'm naturally an overthinker and often wanted to include more detail in the notes, she encouraged me to question whether that level of detail was really necessary. We challenged each other's thinking in a positive and constructive way, which is one of the reasons re-walks work so well when completed in pairs. Combining fresh eyes with previous experience helps us produce the clearest and most useful route notes possible.
Katharine: I went to the
Bavarian Alps with my colleague, Becky, and it was a first re-walk for both of us! The Bavarian Alps holiday is graded as 2-3 (moderate-to-challenging) so we were definitely in at the deep end, but that made it all the more rewarding. It was great to share this experience with Becky; I’m quite an overthinker too and it was really good to have someone else to make decisions with, especially as it was new for both of us. I think the trip was useful in so many ways – not just in terms of fine-tuning the holiday experience for customers but in boosting our individual confidence too, facing challenges and putting our skills to the test.
What is the day-to-day process?
Charlotte: While some people may see these trips as a holiday, the amount of work involved each day is considerable. A typical day includes walking at least one route (and sometimes more), recording the walk using a GPS device, checking every bullet point of the directions for accuracy, verifying distances, and gathering any information needed to update the route notes. This might involve recording revised directions on a dictaphone, annotating the notes by hand, and capturing supporting photographs or videos.
Once the route is complete and we've arrived at the hotel, I usually take a short break before writing up any amendments that same evening while everything is still fresh in my mind. I find this makes the updates much more accurate and ensures no important details are overlooked.
This process is repeated every day, so while it's an incredibly rewarding opportunity, a great deal of work goes into keeping our route notes accurate and up to date. On top of this, as part of the Marketing team, I'm also focused on capturing as many high-quality photos and videos as possible to help promote the routes and showcase the experience to future customers.
Katharine: Alongside this, sometimes there is a bit of digging for more information to be done too, so in the spare time we had around walks, we were speaking to the hoteliers to get details on local transport links, events, etc., or checking bus timetables at particular stops.
What are GPX tracks and are they easy to use?
Charlotte: When we're out walking the routes, we use a Garmin GPS device to record the tracks and verify distances. Once we're back in the office, the GPX files are downloaded and made available to customers so they can upload them to a third-party app, such as Komoot or AllTrails.
During this re-walk, I also used Komoot with our current GPX tracks. I found it very easy to use and, although our route notes are detailed and accurate enough that the GPX tracks shouldn't be necessary, I appreciated having them on my phone as a source of reassurance if there was ever a moment when I wasn't completely confident about the route.
Katharine: I hadn’t used GPX tracks before, other than in re-walk training, so I was slightly nervous about them – but I needn’t have been! We had the GPS device going on all of the walks to make sure they were correct too, but, like Charlotte, I set them up on my phone as well so I could experience and test them like a customer would. I used AllTrails and it was really easy – you just upload the GPX file to the app and when you’re ready to set off, hit go! It gives you the elevation profile and other details of the walk too (which we also give in our notes), so it’s just a handy tool to have ready if you want complete peace of mind.
Charlotte: It’s worth mentioning that the GPX tracks are provided as a useful backup, but we wouldn't expect customers to rely on them as their primary source of navigation. Unlike our written route notes, GPX tracks don't provide the same level of detail or context. If someone were to follow only the GPX track, they would miss much of the additional information we include, such as suggested detours to particularly scenic viewpoints, places of interest, museums, or other recommendations that enhance the overall walking experience.
Let’s turn to the holidays themselves – what were your favourite walks?
Charlotte: The walk from Azóia to Colares. It starts at the lighthouse at Cabo de Roca, mainland Europe’s most westerly point – which on a clear day is stunning. This is a tourist hotspot, but tourists are shipping in on buses, and the beauty of the route is you get further and further away from people. Whilst you watch the groups hop back on the bus, you start walking along the coastline – passing the cove of Praia da Ursa as well as the traditional town of Ulgueira. You then head back to the coast walking along the cliff tops before turning inland again to head for the workaday town of Colares. For me this day had it all – incredible coastal scenery, traditional villages, hotspots ticked off (the lighthouse), but also just quiet walking trails. It helped that we had incredible weather in February – but I’d do this walk over and over.
Katharine: This is a tricky question, because I really did love all of the walks for different reasons. I’ll name two particularly special ones – the first would be the Blaueishütte walk, where you head up the forested mountainside to a hütte (hut) at 1,680 metres above sea level which serves cakes and beverages. The hütte is surrounded by the rugged peaks of the mountains, topped with clouds and the traces of a glacier just about visible, but what’s fantastic here is the view from the terrace – it looks out over a huge slope that cuts down the mountain and culminates in the beautiful Hintersee lake at the bottom.
My second would be the itinerant walk on this holiday, where you walk from Ramsau to Schönau am Königsee. The route does involve a steep ascent but it’s absolutely worth it for the view from the top of the Grünstein – a vast valley far below on one side, with lush-green fields and villages, and an uninterrupted view of the great Watzmann mountain on the other – the third highest peak in Germany.
Were there any changes made to the holiday as a result of your re-walks?
Charlotte: Re-walks are invaluable because they allow us to identify changes on the ground that we simply wouldn't be aware of through office-based research alone. A good example was on the route from Azóia to Colares, where we encountered a newly constructed boardwalk being built by the local authorities. Although this boardwalk was intended to become the official route, it had not yet opened, meaning we couldn't access the section we needed to assess. Tilly and I spoke with the construction workers, investigated the area, and identified a suitable alternative route while the work was ongoing. We were then able to update our route notes and notify customers travelling in the near future about the temporary change. This highlights why it is so important to walk our routes regularly rather than relying solely on online research or existing documentation.
Katharine: One of the main changes from my trip was on the itinerant walk from Ramsau to Königsee. Feedback from customers had told us they felt this day was a bit too long, so this was a walk that we were particularly interested to investigate. We found that a landslide had covered the path on the descent to Königsee and, while it was still walkable, it did involve a little bit of scrambling, so we needed to amend the notes to make customers aware of this before walking and provide them with a couple of other options should they prefer to avoid this section (or if they are walking in bad weather).
We reached Königsee, where we had previously recommended getting a local bus to the hotel (which was two kilometres out of town) if you wanted to shorten the walk, but upon arrival we found that the buses only ran twice each morning and twice each afternoon, and at inconvenient times. Becky and I spoke to the lovely hotelier at the Alpenhof when we arrived, and she confirmed the bus timetable for us and advised that a better option would be for customers to use the WatzMobil if they wished to shorten their walk (which is basically like an Uber). We dug out more information on this to bring back to the Product team, and it has now been updated in our notes.
We did feedback that the day was long and quite a challenge – potentially out of grade for the holiday – as previous customers had said, but it was also really worthwhile, so we worked with Product to advise where sections could be swapped for a transfer and where we could suggest to customers to focus on if they wanted a shorter day. Now, customers have a transfer at the beginning of the route, dropping them off at the start of the main section of the walk, and a couple of options for the end stint, so they can choose how much or how little walking they want to do while still getting to experience the wonderful views and scenery of this day.
And, finally, any top tips for those embarking on an Inntravel holiday?
Charlotte: You don’t need to take the full booklet of notes with you each day – I’d recommend always carrying the emergency numbers with you, but then just taking out your day’s walking notes.
I’d also recommend reading the notes for your next day of walking the night before, as it will allow you to ensure you are fully prepared – for example, our recommendations on where to have lunch or what to take. It’s always better to prepare in advance.
Katharine: Keep stocked up on blister plasters, snacks, and water, as well as having some cash at the ready – just in case you come across somewhere that doesn’t take card (this is especially the case up in the mountains).
And make the most of mountain hütte – the cakes and views are marvellous!