Have you ever wondered how we create the perfect walking holiday for you at Inntravel?
Meet Malcolm, creator of our new
Walk Normandy's D-Day Beaches holiday who spent months researching, picking the hotels, and designing the routes (it’s a hard job, but someone has to do it!).
We ask Malcolm how he developed our new walking holiday in Normandy.
Why Normandy? What made it stand out for you?
We haven’t had a walking holiday in Normandy since pre-Covid and not only is it a fantastic region for walking, it’s also rich in historic importance. Our routes take in four key landing beaches, including Utah Beach, which isn’t featured in many itineraries. This is a less busy part of Normandy with soul-stirring walking and where we have hand-picked some superb independent hotels.
So, how did you go about creating the holiday?
I really wanted to create a walking holiday in this special region, and from ideation and research to finalising all the details, it took a few months to develop.
I travelled to Normandy during August to find the region’s out-of-the-way pockets and most fascinating sites and to hand pick the hotels we would partner with. I met with all the hosts, visited the hotels, and found out the heritage of each place and what makes them great places to stay (be it location, harbour views to watch fishing boats coming in and out, or their history of hosting some notable guests). What’s more, with the help of a local specialist, we found the routes to fit our vision of the holiday, helping me to bring it all to life.
We visit the Landing Beaches, how long can people spend there?
OveralI, it’s a seven-night holiday with six walking days. You get to visit a different Landing Beach on each of the first four walking days, and on the last two days you head to Pegasus Bridge and historic Bayeux.
The beauty of self-guided is that you get to choose how long you spend at each site. We only have one post-walk transfer (on day four), which can be arranged at a time to suit you. While the walks include Landing Beaches and historical sites, you’re free to stop and take it all in, or carry on walking.
Are the walks suitable for all fitness levels?
It’s grade 1-2 but there’s the option to shorten the two longest days with a longer transfer on those days. You can decide what you do on the day if the weather isn’t looking so good, or if you’re tired from the previous day’s walking (or you prefer shorter walks). The terrain is easy-going with very few ascents and descents, taking you along the coast and into the countryside.
Is there an opportunity to explore Normandy’s countryside beyond the D-Day sites?
Yes, there is only one day (day four) which mainly follows the coast but on all the other days there will be a combination of walking through countryside and along the coast. The first walking day starts with a loop through countryside; on day five, you walk along the canal into Caen; and on the final walking day you enjoy a town trail around fascinating, medieval Bayeaux.
Other than the walking, what’s the holiday highlight for you?
For me, it’s the combination of hotels throughout. You spend two nights in a renovated farm mansion in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, where your included dinner features locally sourced food from the neighbouring farm. Then for the final two nights, you stay at 4* Le Lion D’Or in Bayeaux, a former post office, which has hosted numerous famous guests over the years, including famous politicians and movie stars.
The cuisine of Normandy is a true highlight, too, thanks to the region's coastal location and fertile grasslands. Normandy is renowned for its seafood, cheeses (creamy camembert being just one of the four PDO cheeses from here), and meats as well as its abundant orchards that provide the apples for tarte tatin cooked with local Calvados (brandy).
Sustainability is a big part of our holidays, can you tell us how this holiday allows people to travel more sustainably?
Walking is the main activity on the holiday; and this has a low carbon impact.This is also a holiday that works well with train travel. There are good connection from Paris to Carentan (the nearest train station to the first hotel) and from Bayeux back to Paris at the end of the holiday.
There’s also the chance to travel by car and leave it at the first hotel free of charge until the end of your holiday, when you can catch the train back to collect it.
Finally, if people want to explore further afield, can this holiday be combined with any other Inntravel holidays?
Definitely. You can add a few
nights in Paris at the start or end of the holiday and you can also combine this with any other of our
France walking holidays. Board a high-speed TGV train in Paris, and you could be in Bordeaux in two hours and
Provence in under three hours, for example, making the rest of France easy to explore.