The natural mountain amphitheater of Cirques de Gavarnie
Summary
For those beautiful Pyrenees views, its hard to beat the area just to the south of the town of Lourdes and, in particular, the easily accessible Cirques de Gavarnie with its sensational mountain amphitheater and laid back surrounding villages that provide a host of accommodation options. The mountain behind, Mount Perdu, is actually now a UNESCO World-Heritage site both for its outstanding natural beauty and human settlement going all the way back to the Upper Paleolithic period (40,000 – 10,000 B.C.). It’s only 1.5 hours walk from Gavarnie village to the the best views of the amphitheater and to see some of the waterfalls that are super impressive just after it has rained
Just one tip – the ease of accessibility of Cirques de Gavarnie means it is also the busiest of the three natural amphitheaters nearby. Be sure to also consider Cirque de Troumouse and the most remote – Cirque d’Estaube, if you are keen to avoid the busy spots
highlights
#1 The wonderful first view of the Cirques de Gavarnie as you walk through Gavarnie village
#2 Walking along some of the gorgeous (and freezing!) rivers that pass through the valley and the small villages on the way
#3 Staying in one of the relaxed guesthouses that are spread all across these valleys and enjoying the surrounding views of the mountains
#4 The windy, but beautiful, drive up through this part of the Pyrenees
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Mountain Experiences around the World
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone