This fall, walk inn-to-inn through New England.
Whether the trail takes you through woods swept with fairy-tale reds and oranges, into a canyon cut by streams and waterfalls, or along a rocky coastline marked by sea caves, walking lets you experience the landscape as no other vacation can.
On most of the trips, an experienced guide leads you, but some tour companies will give you a map and route and arrange your lodgings.
On a walking tour, instead of driving through a national park or a state forest or simply looking at the seacoast from your bus window, you move through the landscape. This is a hands-on encounter with nature.
"It's a healthy vacation, but you still have all the little luxuries," says Clare Grabher, owner of New England Hiking Holidays in North Conway, N.H. "People want to go walking and be in the wilderness, but they do not want to think about where to stay or what trails to use. We've chosen the inns and the hikes."
Your stroll gives you the wilderness by day via walks that generally total from six to 12 miles and lets you savor life's little luxuries by night -- a good dinner plus a comfortable room in a country inn.
More bonuses: These tours are relatively inexpensive -- usually almost all-inclusive -- and offer a vacation that returns you in better shape than when you left. It's no wonder that walking tours are becoming the health-conscious vacations of the '90s.
But can you keep up? For most walking trips, all that's required is a reasonable degree of physical fitness. Those in better shape walk more quickly or opt for a more strenuous path, while others can easily keep to a slow pace if they desire.
"The trip is really designed to please the senses, not to test the endurance," says Dawn Mann, a group leader with Country Walkers. But inquire carefully before stepping into the scenery: some trips are off-road hikes that require a certain amount of uphill striding. Whatever your style, these fall tours combine New England's spectacular foliage with comfortable country inns.
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With some of the best foliage in the United States, the Vermont woods are enticing in fall, with sweeps of yellow birches and patches of deep-red maples. On Hiking Holidays' Vermont-to-Quebec excursion, start your trek in Montgomery, Vt., -- a small village dotted with antique shops and set near covered bridges -- that lies south of the Vermont-Canada border. The Black Lantern Inn, a renovated tavern, offers a pub for apres-bush camaraderie and a big porch with rocking chairs that allow a comfy way to admire the stars in a cool, autumn sky.
