Savor, at each stopover, the hospitality of Relais & Châteaux properties which distinguish each of the 146 Routes du Bonheur.
Take to the road! Follow itineraries through remarkable landscapes and characterful regions that lead to captivating encounters with the people who love and live on these lands. Where every stop at day’s end embraces you in the hospitality of the properties that line each of the 146 itineraries. Each establishment offering personalized services, exceptional and refined accommodation, and restaurants–some Michelin-starred, others perhaps not, but all of them environmentally enlightened, celebrating the produce of local farmers, fishers, breeders and beekeepers. These winding roads lead from medieval castles to 18th-century manors, from urban ryokans to beachside villas and from canvas camps to ships’ cabins. They invite you to farms filled with vegetable gardens and orchards, to lodges hidden in savannah grasses, or properties that hang from clifftops or are perched amid snowy peaks. Roads that may be short or long, traveled in two nights or twenty, packed full of ideas for cultural stops, wilderness hikes, river voyages, cooking and wine-tasting classes, and endless other experiences specific to each country and its customs.
To each their own journey, with trips designed to reflect their interests and capture their imaginations.
For painting devotees, perhaps the Impressionists Road of Happiness from Paris to Honfleur;
for wine lovers, the Road of Happiness between Drôme and Vaucluse along the Rhône; and for history buffs, the Road of Happiness traversing the cradle of the American nation, from New York to New England.
For those dreaming of infinite horizons, the Road from Argentina to Patagonia; for wildlife lovers, the Road of Happiness through the wilds of Africa, from Namibia to Botswana.
For those searching for authenticity, the Road to India and its Maharadjahs’ palaces with impenetrable fortresses in the Thar desert.
For romantics, the Road of Happiness offers the magic of Polynesia, from the lagoons of the Society Islands to the wild nature of the Marquesas.
And for music and movie buffs, the Road of Happiness through Japan designed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, the musician, composer, actor, and global environmental activist, a meandering itinerary taking you to temples, Noh theater, onsens and remarkable restaurants.
