Roadbook Pyrenees: feedback from a customer

An enthousiastic client

From Enrico de Jong I received this mail after their trip through the Pyrenees guided by the roadbook Andorra to Vielha (Translation).

Hi Mark,Roadbook Pyrenees

We have finished our trip through the Pyrenees. A beautiful journey. Each track without exception was exceedingly beautiful. The excursions were also worth the effort. The variation in scenery, the differences in altitude, the tracks ranging from easy to challenging made for an unforgettable experience. We took two days for most tracks. We had sufficient time and used it to take beautiful walks and visit picturesque villages. With the roadbook app you can enjoy the trip much more instead of being busy with the route. I highly recommend it.

All the best,
Enrico

 


Video impression of the tour through Central France

Beautiful individual journey

For a trip relatively close to home we have developed a great tour leading you through Central France. Drive it by yourself or with friends, with our Roadbook for Discovery as your virtual tour guide. Enjoy the peace and quiet, the scenery, fine hotels or campsites and good food – after all, you’re in France.

Below you see a video impression of the journey. Have a look at the details and order the e-roadbook by clicking here.


Video impression of the tour from Andorra to Vielha

This is a video impression made by Remco Pakker, one of the participants, of the group trip of July 2018. This video is also representative for the tour described in the e-roadbook, even if the itinerary is not exactly the same. Enjoy the video!


Covid-19 protocol

Our trips are inherently safe

Given the circumstances in which the new corona virus that causes covid-19 thrives or not, our trips are relatively safe in themselves:

  • We travel in small groups of usually not more than 10 people.
  • You sit in your own car, usually with just one other person, who is someone you know and in whose neighbourhood you probably already are a lot of the time.
  • We stay in thinly populated areas, where there is a low risk of the virus being present.
  • When we get out of our cars, we are in the open, there is usually a wind and sun (we hope), which is an environment in which the virus quickly disappears.
  • There is a lot of space around us when we stop, so social distancing is easy.
  • The hotels and restaurants we go to provide a safe environment, otherwise they wouldn’t be open and we wouldn’t visit them.

The guidelines we stick to

We have to be careful and have developed a number of rules to make our trips as safe as possible. These rules are based on rules and guidelines from the health authorities of Portugal, The Netherlands and other EU countries.

  • We take care of good hand hygiene and actively encourage you to do the same.
    Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer that has at least 70º of alcohol. Cover all surfaces of the hands and rub them until they are dry.
  • We keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in our car and provide each customer car with one.
  • If you have to cough or sneeze, make sure the aerosols don’t spread.
    Cough and/or sneeze in the inside of your elbow. To blow your nose, use a paper tissue, which you throw away at once. We have a special garbage bag for this in our car.
  • During stops and picnics we stick to the 1.5 meter rule of social distancing.
    So no standing close together in groups, no shaking of hands, hugs or kisses between people who are not in the same car. This is a tough one, but we must do it.
  • No sharing of food, utensils, glasses and towels.
  • At the start of a trip, we ask you to sign a form that says you don’t have any symptoms that could point to covid-19.
    The most prevalent early symptoms are: coughing and sneezing; a fever; feeling of being tired.
    You cannot join the trip if you show two or more of these symptoms.
    Your guide(s), too, have to declare that they are free of symptoms.

Before the trip starts:

  • We will have found out where the nearest testing facility is on our itinerary and we will share this information with all participants.
  • We will have found out what the local protocol is in case of infection with serious symptoms and will share this, too.

What if…

Here’s what we do if a member of the group starts to show mild symptoms at any moment during the trip:

  • The person involved tells the tour guide at once.
  • Everyone keeps calm.
    Since the symptoms are mild, and if you are otherwise in good health and not in a high-risk group, our focus will be on preventing further contamination.
  • You stay in your car as much as possible.
    If you have to get out, for instance because nature calls, you keep as much distance as possible.
  • You get yourself tested as soon as possible.
    We will support you as much as we can.
  • Until the test result comes in, you stay in self-isolation.
  • If you have been tested positive, you have to stay in isolation for the remainder of the trip.
  • We will make sure you are registered as infected with the health service.
  • You self-assess every day.
    Measure body temperature twice a day and record the value and time of measurement; check for cough or difficult breathing.
  • Inform the tour guide how you are doing every day.

Here’s what we do if the symptoms are severe or develop into severe:

  • We will follow the local protocol.
  • We inform the other participants.

Winter Tour Galicia

We offer a wonderful tour through Galicia in North-West Spain. The video below gives a good impression of the kinds of tracks that we drive:


Impressions of the Pyrenees

If you want to make trip like this, click the following link: From Andorra to Vielha

This is an impression in pictures of our trip from Andorra toVielha of July 2018. Enjoy.


Impressions of Morocco

Pictures to whet your appetite

We have made a photoalbum of our tours through Morocco. Click on the picture below to view it:

marokko


Dream holiday!

Eight days in North and Central Portugal

How Helmut and Justine experienced this trip.

The two days through France and Spain were already a small adventure. When we arrived in Bragança, the starting point of the tour, our first pleasant surprise awaited us: the location of the hotel is fabulous.

The Tour starts on easy tracks and increases in technical difficulty as we progress. All hotels were truly excellent, with extremely friendly people and warm welcomes every night. The local food we had each evening was lovely. The atmosphere during the tour was relaxing, we drove each day and yet felt on holiday straightaway. Especially the mix of driving stunning tracks during the day and nice relaxing evenings enjoying the local culture, plus our two excellent guides, turned this holiday into something really special.

Many thanks and we’ll definitely see each other again soon!

Justine and Helmut


Roaming Morocco

Discovering the unexpected

In November 2016 we did our first roaming tour of Morocco: 14 days of which only the first four were planned. For the remaining 10 days we had a number of things we wanted to see, without a fixed itinerary or planned overnight stays. Our clients had said they wanted to learn how Moroccans live; they wanted to drive through the desert and sand dunes, while the Atlas mountains were also very attractive.

Tetouan

We spent the first of our four planned days in Tetouan, a nice place with an unspoilt medina, as yet not much discovered by tourists. We were in a beautiful hotel, El Reducto, a riad in a tiny ally right in the centre of town, with a wonderful atmosphere.

Its terrace offers great views over the town and the Rif mountains in the background.

Like every  old town in Morocco, Tetouan has got a medina, a maze of alleys with small shops, craftsmen, traders in livestock, mosques, bath houses – and lots of people.

At the edge of the medina there is a tannery which, though a lot smaller than the famous one in Fes, is interesting because you can walk into it and come up close, making you realise how hard the work in such places is.

Chefchaouen

From Tetouan we  went on to Chefchaouen, very different in atmosphere. This has been discovered by tourists – its maze of allies painted in attractive blue and white, its prosperous looks making you feel not too guilty about your own prosperity, its manageable size all combine to make the tourist feel comfortable. Chefchaouen is truly worth a visit, especially if you go outside the tourist season as we do and if you stay in the wonderful hotel Alkhalifa, where the sheep stand right next to your window and you have a perfect view over the town.

You cannot but fall for the charm of Chefchaouen.

Volubilis

After picturesque Chefchaouen, we headed in the direction of Volubilis. We took a track through the mountains, where hardly a foreign vehicle comes, so were much stared at by the locals, who were clearly wondering what on earth brought us there. We had lunch between the marihuana plants.

Volubilis is the site of the most southern town of the Roman empire. At this time of day the light was beautiful. We parked near the ruins, went through a hole in the fence and just wandered around until a guard came up to us saying we still had to pay our entrance fee. Which we duly handed over and for which we were rewarded with a guided tour. We paid him a little extra, of course, because that’s the way things work in Morocco.

Meknes

We drove on to Meknes, the smallest of the four Imperial Cities. Here we stayed in another wonderful hotel, the Riad Lahboul, comfortable, hospitable, excellent breakfast.

Meknes is very lively, with an attractive medina and a great many interesting building. This is not in the least thanks to Moulay Idriss, who, to his own greater glory, erected a vast palace, gateways into the city and the central square. The square is called The Square of Destruction because it was filled with the rubble of the houses he had torn down to make room for his palace.

 

Plain of Rekham

After all this high culture, it was time to head into the country. We decided to go east to Debdou and then south, across the Plain of Rekham to Boudnib. The road to Debdou was on tarmac and not terribly interesting. Just beyond this little town, however, we climbed on top of the plain, at an altitude of about 1400 meters, where the tarmac changed into a track. As it was getting dark, we set up camp a few hundred meters from the main road, with fantastic views over the area around us.

The next day we drove south over the plain. This is the Moroccan desert.

We camped once more in the wild in a dry river bed.

The next day we reached the campsite near Boudnib, run by a French couple. It is excellent!

To Erg Chebbi

The road to Erg Chebbi from Boudnib is beautiful. We pass an oasis, a little stream and, as we get further south, sand is slowly taking over the rocky desert.

The dunes of Erg Chebbi are famous. They conform completely to our cliché picture of the Sahara Desert: sand wherever you look. The light in the morning and evening is beautiful. It’s fun to drive through, though not without risk. You get stuck easily and going over the edge of a dune can be a hairy experience: if you haven’t done a reccce first (most people haven’t), you don’t know what’s at the other side and may be in for quite a surprise. The best thing to do is to hire a local guide who rides in front of you on his moped. And have a swim afterwards in our comfortable hotel.

Tinghir

Tinghir is a small town at the south side of the High Atlas Mountains. It is notable for its large oasis with palm trees, figs, pomegranates and olives. The old clay town is charming and well worth a visit.

From Tinghir the road leads north into the Gorge du Todra into the High Atlas.

Into the Atlas Mountains

The road winds through the beautiful landscape of the Gorge du Todra.

From the Gorge du Todra to the Gorge des Dades

There is a fantastic track leading from the Gorge du Todra to the more famous Gorge des Dades. Starting just north of Tamtatouchte, it leads over a mountain ridge down into a valley with a dry river bed. At first the going is easy, with great views, and then suddenly the track stops. You have to drive into the river bed and find your way. Interesting!

Gorge des Dades and Imilchil

We stayed overnight in a M’Semrir, in Hotel Aït, where we were treated to Moroccan hospitality.

The next day we set off for Imilchil, north through the Dades Valley.

We were lucky to be travelling on a Thursday, when there is a lively soukh in Iznaguen, a village some 30 kms north of M’Semrir. Here the production cycle from live animal to meat on the counter is a matter of minutes and a few hundred meters.

Towards sunset we reached the two lakes near Imilchil, Tislite and Isli (bride and bridgroom). The origin of these lakes goes back to the time when a girl from the Aït-Yassa tribe was not allowed to marry a boy from the AÏt-Brahims. The two lovers cried so hard, that the two lakes formed in the mountains. The beauty of their love shines through in the beauty of these lakes.

Imilchil lies at an altitude of 2120 mtr. It is often cold and today was no exception. We stayed in a hotel as the only guests. In the morning you could see the frost over the fields.

On our last day before we headed back to Tanger Med, we had breakfast near the lake and via a short track across the Middle Atlas Mountains reached the motorway for Casablanca.

 


Awesome tour in Portugal

4×4 Portugal

“It was awesome! A very energetic way to experience the Portuguese countryside and offroading”

Frank, one of the participants on our trip through North and Central Portugal, told us afterwards. Others, too, were enthusiastic:

“It was great fun. Especially the challenge of off-road driving” (Veronike).

And: “Great people to travel with and exploring an area that we didn’t know, especially one that is truly beautiful” (Paul). We’re proud.

The journey took place from 30 July until 6 August 2016.