With our brother-in-law Albert and his 15 year old son Raf we went for a hike in the Vanoise from July 18-27. This is a National Park in the French Alps and turned out to be a beautiful mountainous area. Our nephew Raf wanted to have a real outdoor experience, so we made a mix of staying in huts and camping.

Camping near the huts

Since it is not allowed to bivouac in the National Park, we camped near the huts which is allowed. It is recommended to book these nights in advance since we were in high-season; also for camping near the huts one has to reserve a place.  

Weather

We were there in July (mid-summer) but fortunately it was not too hot and we did not receive a lot of rain. Especially the moderate temperature made the hiking conditions really good.

Our trek

We started our trek in Pralognan-la-Vanoise going to refuge du Col de la Vanoise (2517m). As always on a first day of a trek, we had to climb substantially. This refuge is a serviced hut and we stayed in the hut. That was a nice start where we could play chess and relax. The next day, we went south mostly following the GR5 and stayed rather high reaching refuge de l’Arpont (2309m). The camping close to the refugio was poor: only a few places and camping on the deck (as was recommended) was not really convenient. We kept on following the GR5 on the next day again staying rather high to reach refuge de Plan Sec (2320m). This is a beautiful old hut with nice camping spots just outside the hut.

After having been in Northern Norway in 2012, we wanted to see another part of Norway: the national parks in the middle of Norway. We started our journey in Utrecht on August 14, 2025 and ended the journey with a visit to our Norwegian friends Tormod and Turid, who have a cabin two hours driving from Oslo to the west in an area called Blefjell. That was a very nice ending of our holiday! We returned to Utrecht on Thursday September 18. Hence, we were late in the season which has the advantage of less crowded tracks and huts.

Traveling, camping and staying in huts

Norway can be reached by car in different ways. Driving there is quite a distance and taking a boat partly solves this problem. We drove to Hirsthals in North-Denmark and took the boat from there to Larvik (takes about 4 hours). The drive to Hirsthals takes one day (about 950 km) and especially the part through Germany is awkward: many road works, traffic jams and ugly scenery. When doing our multi-day hikes, we parked the car at a safe place and left it there during our hike. This was always possible and reliable.  

Most campsites in Norway are not very nice. There are many caravans and mobile homes and the terrain is sloppy. We had one nice campsite for tents and the others were simply not nice.  Huts come in different varieties. There are huts to rent on campsites which are mostly rather run-down and sometimes good. In the national parks there are three types of huts: unserviced ones with no food, unserviced ones with food and serviced ones. The last ones are almost hotels: full board and in most cases small rooms where we could stay alone since we were late in the season. The unserviced huts with food had a very good system of acquiring food and paying for this: simply us the app Hyttebetaling of DNT (Den Norske Turistverening) and pay the bill after being online again. This whole system is built on trust and no-one is checking whether you have paid which is a very appealing feature. Some of the huts of the DNT require a special key which you can obtain as a member. The huts are very well maintained by the visitors: they are clean and they also contain requests for cleaning after a visit. Apparently, most visitors do that. Becoming a member of DNT is very convenient!

Weather in Norway

From our Norwegian friend Tormod we got the advice to use an app called YR (which means drizzle in Norwegian) for the weather forecast. That app turned out to be quite accurate in predicting rain and we used it a lot for planning our trips and which park to visit next. Overall, we were quite lucky with the weather. Now and then a bit of rain (drizzle) and only once in Dovrefjell a morning with heavy rain and strong wind. The latter can happen more frequently; we also had a day with strong wind in Trollheimen. 

Traveling and destinations

It has been already a destination high on the wish-list of Age to travel to Laos and Cambodja. Many years ago we wanted already to do this trip, but then flights were cancelled and instead we went earlier to New Zealand (in 2011). Now, Age’s sister Rineke joint him and with the two of them they booked an organized trip through Laos and Cambodja with Djoser from January 17 to February 7, 2025. This turned out to be a very good choice including an excellent Dutch guide (Willemijn). The trip started in Thailand and then went all the way through Laos and then entered Cambodja finishing at Angkor Wat (for the route, see figure below).

The traveling consisted of parts by boat along the Mekong river, which was very nice and relaxing. Parts went by train and the most traveling was done by bus. These buses were comfortable; the driving was careful with enough stops for coffee along the way. The nights were spent in hotels and lodges which were generally good.

In June 2024 we were in the Sierra de Guara and the Spanish Pyrenees. We had been in the Sierra de Guara before. It is a mountain range in the north of Spain and known for its wildlife, especially the vultures. The last time we were there, we only spent a few days and now we wanted to spend more time there. This time we took the car with us, since we preferred a bit more flexibility and not depend too much on public transport (like in 2023). The second part of our holiday we went to the Spanish Pyrenees and this time we went a bit early in the season – the month of June – which has advantages (not too crowded) and disadvantages (snow in the high mountains).  

Camping

We stayed at a variety of campsites, from small and isolated ones to large scale family campsites. A particular nice small campsite is the one in Nocito (Sierra de Guara) run by an older couple who also run a small restaurant and shop in the village of Nocito; a quiet and beautiful place. Larger ones are campsites El Puente (close to Rodellar) and Valle de Anisclo; both in the Pyrenees. These are less quiet: in El Puente we struggled in the night with some drunk French people who were harassing your tent. The advantage of larger campsites is that they have a canteen where one can drink a beer and watch soccer games! 

Together with our friends Danny and Désirée we visited Iran in October 2018. Iran is a beautiful country and interesting from several perspectives. It has a very old history and modern-day Iran is reflecting that mingled with contemporary history.

In the summer of 2017, we traveled together with Margriet her sister and family (husband and three kids) to Costa Rica. Since we were with a big group, we made most arrangements (4WD and housing) before we left. You need to be a bit on time with this since Costa Rica is becoming popular. All-in-all we have stayed around four weeks in this beautiful country.

We have already spent some holidays in the Pyrenees but we keep coming back. We simply like the mountains and atmosphere: quiet and rugged spots, nice old villages and friendly people. Especially the Spanish part is our favorite. That is why we wanted to go back there and continue through Aragon; a very old part of Spain. It used to be a kingdom together with Catalonia and stretching out to parts in Italy. It was also the place where the old Christian and Muslim cultures met (and clashed). For this reason, there are many castles and fortresses in Aragon which together with the nice landscape makes it a nice hiking experience with lots of old history.

In August/September 2013 we travelled during a month in Ladakh, the northwestern part of India in the Himalaya, together with our friends Danny and Désirée. The basis of our trip was Leh, the capital city of Ladakh. We made treks through parts of Ladakh and visited Buddhist temples, always returning to Leh. This has advantages and disadvantages: you can leave part of your luggage behind in a guesthouse (reducing the weight of your backpack), but it is less adventurous. Ladakh is situated at an altitude of 3500 meter, so some customizing is necessary (actually, we did not have a lot of problems perhaps due to the Diamox we took).

Leh

Leh is a small and touristic town. It has very many shops and outdoor/adventure companies. It has a nice selection of restaurants, but getting a beer is a problem at times (not to mention a good glass of wine!). For religious reasons, they do not always serve beer. Sometimes it is available and then they may sell it as ‘tea’. We stayed at the Shanti Guesthouse, in the quiet outskirts of Leh, which is operated by friendly and helpful people. We could leave part of our luggage there in-between the treks