Hiking With the In Crowd

For a truly unique trip, take a walk with the locals

by: Dan Carlinsky, from: AARP The Magazine, March/April 2010 issue

Hiking with the In Crowd - AARP Magazine

— Eoin Clarke/Age Fotostock

En español | It's a warm, sunny day on the Normandy coast, but my wife, Nancy, and I aren't lolling on the beach or visiting the area's World War II monuments and museums. We are, instead, strolling alongside the coast road at Ravenoville-Plage with several dozen members of the Marcheurs de la Sinope, a local walking club. Our new companions—many in shorts and T-shirts, a few sporting walking sticks—chat in twos, threes, and fours as they walk. Nancy talks with Jacques, an Air France retiree who wants to practice his English and who shares her obsession with cooking. It's clear that everyone is out for socializing as much as for exercise.

The European Ramblers' Association

Another umbrella organization, this group can direct you to walking federations in 26 European countries (011-420-251-627-356; era-ewv-ferp.org).

A footnote: Before you add a walk to your itinerary, make sure it's appropriate for your experience and physical condition. Find out the length of the route and the kind of paths you'll be on—and bring footwear suitable for the terrain. Then get ready to get acquainted with a place from a local's unique perspective.

See also: 6 great hiking trails

That's what Nancy and I find on our French adventure. As we wander with the Marcheurs along the coast of Normandy, we pass a few abandoned German Army concrete blockhouses, then walk inland on grassy farm trails and narrow back roads lined with hedgerows, the terrain little changed since GIs trudged through here 65 years earlier.

We listen to frogs, admire swans in a pond by a lovely restored manor house, and take turns crowding into a small 15th-century church for a look before retracing a bit of the coast route back to our starting point. It is exactly the kind of rich, beneath-the-surface experience we were looking for.

Adventures Afoot From Coast to Coast

Winter Park, Florida

Explore a 19th-century resort town with its elegant houses, historic buildings, museums, lakes, and thousands of live oaks.

Mid-Florida Milers Walking Club

407-695-9181; midfloridamilers.org

Denver, Colorado

See the Mile High City on foot, taking in the capitol building, college campuses, gardens, bike trails, and the statue of the Big Blue Bear.

Rocky Mountain Wanderers

303-680-7118; rockymountainwanderers.info

Folsom, California

Take a stroll back in time to gold rush days and visit a gold-panning exhibit, a Pony Express station, an old powerhouse, and a Chinese cemetery.

Sacramento Walking Sticks Club