Alps 4X4 Adventure

Ten days on the high tracks of the French and Italian Alps, in your own 4×4 and in a guided group. The route runs anti-clockwise, working south on the French side from Val d’Isere towards Nice, then turning north again through Italy.

The driving is the point. Three national parks sit on the route, the Vanoise, the Ecrins and the Mercantour, and the named sections read like a list of everything worth driving in the range: Hannibal’s Trail, the Col del Finistre, the Strada dell’Assietta and the Parpaillon. These are unsurfaced military and mining roads that run above the treeline, and they are a long way in character from the tarmac passes the coaches use.

Two of the nights are wild camping in open Alpine country rather than on a site, which is the part people tend to remember. The days are broken up with rafting on small rapids and a downhill off-road scooter run on the Parpaillon, so it is not ten days of nothing but steering.

Active 4×4 Adventures include all three meals a day for the whole trip, every campsite fee, the two wild camps, the rafting, the scooter run and guiding and support throughout. What you bring is the vehicle and its fuel, plus the drive to the meeting point. The price is per person based on two adults sharing a vehicle, with a supplement for a single traveller or a third adult. For anyone who owns a 4×4 and has wondered what it is actually for, this is the answer, and no hire fleet is involved.