THE MARITIME ALPS | Cicerone hiking guide

hiking guide

This handy guidebook contains detailed route descriptions for 18 day walks and 6 long-distance treks. The walks range from 6km to 20km in length and the treks include traverses of both the French Mercantour National Park and Alpi Marittime Regional Park. The routes in this guidebook are suitable for both novices and experienced trekkers alike.

With summits soaring to over 3000m above sea level, the marvelous Maritime Alps straddle the Franco-Italian border for 190km, and form the southernmost realm of the mighty Alpine chain. This is a region of striking contrasts, from quaint picture-book villages crafted in stone to herb-scented foothills and dramatic backdrops of jagged rocky massifs to thick woods and scores of beautiful lakes that glitter like gems.

The Maritime Alps is a spectacular area for all walkers no matter their ability. The routes in this guidebook are suitable for novices and experienced mountaineers alike. The waymarking on each route is clear and they are spread across both the French and Italian areas of the Maritime Alps with 18 single day walks and six fantastic long-distance treks which crisscross back and forth across the French Mercantour National Park and the Italian Alpi Marittime Regional Park as well as traversing the Maritime Alps themselves.

All of the route descriptions begin with headings that list essential information for both the single and multi-day routes. The walking times do not account for lunch stops or for any time spent admiring the scenery so you will need to take that into account when planning the trip. The routes are graded on a scale of 1 - 3 depending on the difficulty. Grade 1 refers to a fairly straightforward route on easy terrain with no special difficulty, grade 2 is suitable for reasonably fit walkers with minimum mountain experience and grade 3 refers to routes that may entail exposed passages and/or orientation problems.