Following in father's footsteps' could be the motto of Laura Whinney's new travel company, Upland Escapes. Her father, Christopher Whinney, set up the Alternative Travel Group in 1979, offering journeys on foot in Italy, expanding it into a major player in the market for walking holidays.

Now his daughter has joined forces with two former ATG colleagues to set up her own walking holiday company. But does her dad mind about this new competition?

Ms Whinney said: "No, he is being very supportive. He is interested to see how it develops. He is such an entrepreneur himself that I think he does understand our desire to do something for ourselves."

She added: "There is an element of overlap in our potential client base, but we are very different and much more specialised. As well as longer holidays, we offer short breaks from three nights, and people who take those tend to be younger and not the typical ATG client.

"Also, our holidays are very flexible, because you don't have to walk from A to B."

Indeed, relationships between the two companies are close. Laura's husband, Dick Bayne, is continuing to work freelance for ATG while developing walks for Upland Escapes.

The third founder, Ed Granville, was still working full time as executive director of Burford-based Abercrombie & Kent, and putting in weekend and evening hours for Upland Escapes.

Ms Whinney said: "The beginning was pretty tough during the set-up period of July to November 2005.

"Dick was abroad almost constantly researching and creating the holidays themselves, while I was juggling the extraordinary amount of administration involved with the setting up of a new company."

Reports from their first customers last month were upbeat. Mr Granville said: "The Slovenia group saw 14 eagles, so they were ecstatic."

The first four destinations in Italy, France, Slovenia and Gran Canaria, were carefully chosen, Mr Granville said. "They are all very beautiful mountain areas which are relatively unspoilt and unknown, with traditional mountain agriculture."

Ms Whinney said: "We were looking for breadth and variety of scenery, not just high-level mountains, but also shady forests, wildflower meadows and rivers for picnics.

"We are trying to interest people in the area so that they can settle in and understand how people live, rather than moving on every day or two.

"You can then experience the rhythm of life when the bread van calls, when villagers gather around the fountain at weekends to chat.

"Also, we wanted to open up walking holidays to a much greater range of people. Traditionally, you are tied to a schedule.

"We offer flexibility for families where one of the children might not want to do much walking, or couples where one partner wants to scale a mountain in the morning, while the other half ambles along a river."

The parallels with the early days of ATG, which now employs about 20 people in Oxford and another 80 overseas, are uncanny.

Mr Whinney conceived the idea for his business while walking across Europe from London to Rome to write a commissioned book.

The birth of his daughter's business followed an epic 1,500-mile walk the length of Italy with Mr Bayne, who has written a travel book describing the journey.

After a childhood in Tuscany and a spell living in Italy as ATG's contracts manager, she had fallen in love with the country.

On their journey north, they discovered the Majella region.

"We thought it was so beautiful that we went back and bought a cottage, which we have restored and done up as a bed and breakfast place," she said.

Before the seven-month Italian trek, Ms Whinney had left ATG and taken an MBA at Oxford Brookes University.

Inspired by Professor Roger Mumby Croft's module on entrepreneurship, she decided to take the plunge and branch out on her own.

Mr Granville, meanwhile, had decided he could not face commuting from his home near Burford to Cheltenham, where Abercrombie and Kent was relocating. The threesome are particularly keen that their business does not destroy the traditional lifestyle of the places where their guests stay.

Ms Whinney said: "We hope that our input will allow young people to stay in these villages and not move away, and stop them decaying, without changing the way of life.

"Everything is sourced locally we would rather buy picnics from the villagers who are growing tomatoes and making cheese."

In Kosec, their Slovenian destination, the local manager, Urska, is a young graduate who feared she would have to move to Ljubljana to find work.

"She is now showing visitors around her family farm and leading tours of the mountains she knows like the back of her hand," said Ms Whinney.

The sustainable tourism concept carries over to their brochure, printed by Windrush Press in Witney with recyclable and recycled materials, and their carbon emissions caused by cars and flights offset by the CarbonNeutral company.

Ms Whinney, who lives at Eastleach, said: "We also minimise energy costs by having a home office, which is also ideally placed for us to tempt brochures into the hands of the countless walkers who pass the door on sunny weekends."

Contact 01367 851111, or visit www.uplandescapes.com