Any recommendations for self-guided walking holidays?

[Seeingadistance]

I'm thinking of going on a self-guided walking holiday in mid-late April this year. Probably in Spain or France, but am open to ideas. Ideally somewhere quite warm and sunny, but not too hot!

There seem to be quite a few companies offering these kind of holiday and I wondered if any MNers had experiences they could share. I'll be travelling solo.

I want to walk the Gozo Coastal Path and think it would be something ideal to do solo, and also in April, weatherwise.

It's designed to be walked over about 5 days and because Gozo is such a small island, if you stayed in Victoria in the centre, it would be easy to get the bus back and forth to the start and finish points each day.

I'd just book it all independently and download info from the internet or buy a book for the route, but I've been to Malta and Gozo a few times so know my way around etc. You need:

Flight to Malta
transfer to Gozo, using bus, ferry foot passenger (cheap, regular and no need to book) and another bus to your hotel
Hotel or apartment etc in Victoria or somewhere else, but Victoria for ease. or you could stay in different places each night.
Weekly bus pass and timetable etc
Information about the route, which I think is signposted.

Depending on how long you want to be away, a couple of days in Valetta, Malta if you want a bit of a city break too (Gozo is very quiet and laid back, but the food is nice and heavily Italian influenced - if I was on a walking holiday I would have a pizza or big plate of pasta at the end of every day).

@BarbaraofSevillle

That looks ideal. I had been thinking about paying more for the self-guided thing partly so that someone would miss me if I managed to break an ankle while out walking on my own, and so that luggage was transferred between hotels, and I didn't have to carry it. But if I do as you suggest, with a base in Victoria, that would get round both those problems.

Thank you so much!

Off to look at flights and hotels now!

This is my 50th birthday treat to myself.

Tadah! All booked! Well, apart from getting from the airport to my hotel in Victoria, but they apparently offer an airport shuttle and I've emailed them about that. My flight gets in after 9pm, so might be a bit late for the usual buses.

All set, and looking forward to it!

Oh wow, hope you like it .

People on Gozo are generally so friendly and helpful that if you tell the hotel what you're doing and check in with them when you get back every day they'll know if you have broken an ankle or whatever.

And I would have thought there would be enough walkers around at that time of year for help to be available if you need it.

@BarbaraofSeville

Thank you so much for the recommendation! I'm just back from a lovely, relaxing week in Gozo. I did the walk in 3 1/2 days, and it was ideal for me. It's a beautiful island, in every way, and I'm already planning to go back!

If you do plan to do the walk yourself - and I highly recommend it - you do need a fairly detailed guide as the walk isn't signposted. Most of it is indicated by red painted dots, but sometimes they take you off on another route, so must be part of a slightly different circuit round the island. They were very helpful though, especially when the path goes across bare rock or is one of a number of possible options.

Again, thanks for the sign post you provided. It was a good one!