Nine nights, one village, and nothing on the schedule between lunch and the sea
Ten travellers, one base for the whole week, and no coach. You unpack once and walk, swim or take the ferry out from where you are sleeping. We never run in July or August, because avoiding the heat and the crowds is the whole proposition rather than a compromise we are apologising for.
10
Travellers on a week, capped
1
Village for the whole week
6–12 km
On foot on a typical day
3 hrs
After lunch with nothing scheduled
The next weeks with places left on them
The seat count on each line is read live from the booking system at the moment you load this page, not copied from a page somebody remembered to edit. A week showing places left is showing the exact number.
Prices are per person, land only, two sharing. A deposit holds your dated place and the balance falls due before departure — both figures are on the week's own page, so open the week first if you want them in front of you before you hold. Every week runs on minimum numbers: if a date has not filled we tell you no later than 60 days before it starts and you choose a transfer, a credit or a full refund.
Slow, in numbers
- Nights in one village
- 7–10One base for the whole week on four of the five; two on the Cyclades Nights in one village: 7–10
- Walking on a typical day
- 6–12 kmMeasured on our own tracks, door to door, 2025 average Walking on a typical day: 6–12 km
- Times you move your bag
- 1Once, at each end of the week. Twice on the Cyclades, for the ferry Times you move your bag: 1
- Unscheduled hours after lunch
- 3Nothing in the itinerary between roughly 14:00 and 17:00, every day Unscheduled hours after lunch: 3
- Travellers on a week
- 10Ten and one leader. The cap is contractual, not aspirational Travellers on a week: 10
Method. Distances are measured from our own GPS tracks, door to door, averaged across every departure that ran in 2025 — not taken from the local walking literature, which measures trailhead to trailhead and is consistently short. Bag moves count every time your main luggage is loaded into or out of a vehicle or a boat between arrival and departure day. Unscheduled hours are the gap in the written itinerary between the end of lunch and the first thing in the evening; they are real hours, not a euphemism for a coach transfer.
Four things worth knowing before you look at prices
The questions the desk is asked most, answered here so you can compare us properly against whoever else is on your list. None of the answers is a range that quietly widens when you telephone.
What exactly is a week?
Seven to ten nights in one village, in a family-run hotel or a house we take for the season. You unpack on the first evening and repack on the last morning. There is no coach, no nightly hotel change and no internal flight in the middle of it.
How much walking, really?
Six to twelve kilometres on a typical day depending on which week, with a long lunch in the middle of it. Every day has a shorter version that starts and finishes in the village, and taking it is normal rather than a concession.
Why never July or August?
Because thirty-four degrees at two in the afternoon is not a holiday, and the ferry queue in August is longer than the walk. We run mid-April to late June and September to early November, when the sea is still warm and the village is still a village.
How do you hold a place?
Choose a dated departure on the board and hold it. You get one email with your reference and the time that hold expires; if the deposit is not paid by then the place goes back on sale. The deposit, and how far before departure the balance falls due, are set out on the week's own page — open it first if you would rather see both figures before you hold.
Written by people who came back
Every review below is left on Trustpilot by a verified traveller after their week, with the week and the month it ran. We do not edit them and we cannot remove them.
“I have done the coach version of this coast and spent the week in a car park at eight in the morning. Here I woke up in the same room for nine days, walked to Agia Sofia and back before lunch, and swam every single afternoon. Nobody once told me how challenging it was going to be.”
Frances Ibbotson
The Mani, from Kardamyli · May 2026
“Sixty-eight, two replaced knees, and I did every day of it because there was a shorter option every morning and taking it was not treated as failing. The page told me the cliff path was unshaded for most of the day and it was. Nothing was dressed up.”
Michael Aherne
The Alentejo Littoral · June 2026
“The thing I did not expect was the three hours after lunch. No optional excursion, no upselling, nothing. I read on a terrace for the first time in about four years. The sea in October was warmer than the Atlantic has any right to be.”
Rina Chatterjee
The Madeira Levadas · October 2026
Ask the person who booked the rooms
Four people answer this telephone and all four have stayed in the village they are describing. Ask what the walk from the harbour is actually like in the heat, or whether the blue room has the step, and you will get an answer rather than a brochure line.
09:00–18:00 WET
Desk staffed Monday to Friday
Every day
Line for travellers already on a week
Under 3 hrs
Median first reply in office hours
Where your money sits
Long Meridian Viagens Lda is the principal for every week sold on this site — we are not an agent for anyone else, and no other operator’s licence number applies to your booking. We are registered with Turismo de Portugal under RNAVT 8412 and your money is protected against our insolvency by the Fundo de Garantia de Viagens e Turismo. Every number above can be checked with the body that issued it.