The GR10 is a way-marked route running the length of the Pyrenees, a distance of some 500 miles,  between Hendaye, on the Atlantic coast and Banyuls-sur-Mer, on the Mediterranean.  It offers some really wonderful walking and a unique variety of terrains from the luscious greens of the Basque Pyrenees, through the higher mountains of the Haute Pyrénée to the temperate areas of  the Mediterranean.  The route is broken up into some 50 day stages which generally end at places that offer a roof over one’s head for the night - with this including many unforgettable small family-run mountain hotels.  These stages vary in length between a few hours to the longest of over ten hours (excluding stops).  Most stages involve both ascents and descents and it is typical to be climbing around 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) and to have an equal descent each day.  Not for the faint hearted.

There are several books detailing the stages and, as far as I can discover, these all assume that one is prepared to carry spare clothes, sleeping bag, equipment etc and also, where necessary, food and water for a day or two.  They also assume that places are available in either Gîtes d'Etapes (communal eating and dormitory-style sleeping) or mountain huts which may have no facilities at all.

However, as my wife, my friends and myself prefer slightly more comfort – being of somewhat advanced aged and keen to enjoy our holidays fully, I have devoted a lot of time to devising a way to get the pleasures of walking the GR10 with the type of accommodation that one usually gets in a hotel-to-hotel type walking holiday with one’s bags moved by road.  Obviously, this is a fair bit more costly, but not prohibitively expensive.  My objectives in planning have been:-

**  Hotel accommodation where feasible (which it is for the whole of the first half of GR10 and a good part of the rest) or...

**  Mountain Refuges of a standard where food is provided and where advanced booking can be made (only three or four).

**  Vehicle support where necessary (e.g. travel to and from a place where GR10 meets a road)

**  For baggage to be transported by road.

**  Day stages with no more than about seven hours actual walking (more with stops)

**  Some reliance on the use of a mobile phone (particularly text messaging)

**  Some local assistance in the administration (we have got this from a small British travel company with a Pyrenean office).

The purpose of this site is to offer other walkers the benefits of the research I have done and also, perhaps, to contribute suggestions from their own experiences.  I should add that our walk took place over 8 weeks between 2002 and 2006, with the first week from Hendaye done somewhat earlier - but revised in 2007.  Our party was mostly comprised of Senior Citizens.  Details and Pictures. 

Of course some choose to do the walk all in one go, but this obviously requires the time – and fitness – that most people don’t have.

So if you are interested in either the details I have discovered, set out in a suggested day-by-day chronology, or in contributing your own experiences, please e-mail me (Selby).   e-mail