We are looking way ahead at 2017, having been given some money and told to enjoy it…

We bike, walk hills and mountains, paddle rivers. Last years trip to Massif Central was near enough perfect.

We are happy (and would prefer) somewhere to book ourselves and make a holiday, somewhere that has local culture as well as nice hills and maybe sea/river. Happy to be creative.

We are thinking places in Eastern europe – Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary etc – but happy if it was Spain, Greece or France as well..Happy to do a week and move, or even tour if a camper was cheap.

Budget is as low as possible for all 5 of us – no Mark Warner suggestions, think easy jet flight and log cabin in woods self catering….

Please make me some suggestions of cheap flights, long drives or trains, to some cool places to stay and play for a fortnight.

Eastern Ukraine might be very adventurous.

German/Czech border country sounds about right. Lower Saxony IIRC, the bit with the funny rock formations along the path of the Elbe. Been through it on the train, absolutely stunning and was plenty of biking and canoeing etc. on offer. Not too far from Dresden by road or train.

There was a thread about it recently, something about the rocks someone saw on a random Microsoft picture.

Slovakia is supposed to be lovely, our au-pair was from a mountain town/ski resort and photos summer and winter looked great. I will ask her for the name. Hard to beat Eastern europe for price althoigh flights can be a bit expensive.

Pyrenees French and Spanish side, you could ask Doug at Basque mtb and @spekkie is setting up a holiday business, see his thread

http://dothenorth.com

Did this last year, was amazing. Just paddled around the archipelago, wild camped, swam etc. We did this for a week, then spent a few days in Norkopping.

Slovakia would be in the High Tatras.

Norkopping is fabulous, but we are trying for some warmth, and I think scandinavia is pushing it, unless long way inland…

Iceland. Not as expensive as you think and some incredible places.

Basque region. Surfing and mountain activities as well as vibrant and fiercely pursued local culture

Camping on the west coast of Corsica

If you like paddling, and I know you do, you’ll be absolutely made up in the Soca Valley in the Triglav National Park in NE Slovenia. Stunning countryside, made by a beautiful river, the Soca. Great for kayaking, good hire place at Prijon Sports in Bovec. Lakes for open canoeing at Bled and Bohinj, waterfalls, mountain lakes, climbing, via ferrata, mountain biking, hiking. Lodas of campsites, some with cabins.

You’d love it.

Plenty of history too, a lot of it bloody…

Moses jokes about Eastern Ukraine, but I can not recommend highly enough anywhere in the rest of the country outside of the conflict area (limited as it is to the far East).

Were you to base yourself in Lviv, you would be in one of the finest cities in Europe, with incredibly low prices (because of the virtually valueless hrivna), and you would have easy access to the Carpathians with wonderful mountain biking, hiking, and other exploring.

L’viv:

Ukrainian Carpathians:

You might also look up Odessa. In the meantime, if you’re interested, feel free to email me.

Heard great things about Romania as well, around the Transylvania area.
We are doing a bike tour later in the year around there though not mountain biking, more off road touring.

Tatras in Slovakia. We drove out there and had a great trip stopping off in Zakapane, Poland. If you want budget family accommodation, get in touch with my mate Dan at Chalet Slovakia
There’s a massive lake, river for paddling (and a proper paddle centre with rapids). Good walking, Jasna mountain bike park. Good history, cheap food, great thermal water park…

Masuren area of northern Poland, canoe and bike heaven…

Mercantour national park, an hour N of Nice is great. It’s not touristy at all. We stayed in St Martin Vesubie; a lovely town with a medieval centre. You can drive up valleys and walk up to passes (stunningly pretty, marmot spotting), mountainbike down somw GRs, do the spectacular via ferrata through the gorge at Lantosque (hire the gear at the start). usual rafting and canyoning.
have got to say the north end of Lake Garda for activities and stunning scenery; hire a Liteville + get uplift/guiding for a days riding. The peaks above Riva have easy, stunningly exposed via ferratas and WW1 tunnels to explore. Castles to visit in the main Adige valley. Rock climbing at Arco and the Brenta an hour up the road. Very busy though.
The Elbsandstein Gebiet mentioned by someone above in upper Saxony is indeed stunning; has the world’s most challenging rock climbing ethic (I had a couple of very scary trips there 25 odd years ago…!)

Took a group of scouts down to Brasov Romania last summer, a proper road trip going through 10 countries, did some hiking and white water rafting amongst other activities with city stopovers along the way.
My new bosses wife is Romanian and has a couple of holiday homes free for staff use, it won’t be long until we head back out there.

Talk to me about northern Italy as a destination – from French border area across to Italian Tyrol, thinking of a week in one place then move on.

Also, talk to me about hire bikes vs taking our own. How much is it excess baggage? Will hire car companies rent a set of bike carriers for five bikes?

I really enjoyed Slovenia. Good mountain walking between huts. Very nice indeed. some accessible but intrepid feeling tops. some of the mountain huts are WW1 bunkers. also other outdoor stuff possible – kayaking etc. accessabile by train from lubiyana where easyjet go
[url=https://flic.kr/p/5obkQt]View from Kanjavec[/url] by TandemJeremy, on Flickr
Or Sibbelini national park in Central Italy. We did a 9ish day walk around the park on a waymarked circuit. Fantastic spring flowers. again its reasonably cheap basic accommodation on the circuit

We just got back from the Mountains in Northern Tuscany. Between the Alpi Apuane and Apennines. I can highly recommend the area. There were a lot of canyoning and rafting type companies around. Loads of MTBers and amazing road riding. Very cheap too, in terms of accommodation compared to the more well know parts of Tuscany. Put it this way, I couldnt rent a cottage on Anglesey for the price I paid for a house with pool over there.
Florence, Pisa and Lucca all within 60 miles meaning culture is all there too. My kids loved Florence. We drove from Yorkshire and did the Alps as first base. Drive back was a slog but saved a lot of cash on flights

What about the dolomites? Hiking, biking and via ferrata? Not to mention getting strudel at the top of the hill at a hut! The via ferrata are of all different grades and exposures depending what your kids are up for. Loads of world war relics etc as well. Plus it’s Italy, so ace food.

Albania

Matt – depending when next year you could possibly have the choice of Umbria or Haute Viene.
About 35km NE of Perugia near Grello or about 40km south’ish of Limoge.
Both options are houses, with garage, secure storage, etc.

Slovakia would be a very good bet. Dirt cheap, amazing mountains with chairlifts, so uplifts, hiking etc a plenty. Not sure about water based activities as they’re not my bag, but I fell in love with the Tatras hiking there last summer. Going this winter Snowboarding!

Check out http://www.chaletslovakia.com

If you like paddling, and I know you do, you’ll be absolutely made up in the Soca Valley in the Triglav National Park in NE Slovenia. Stunning countryside, made by a beautiful river, the Soca. Great for kayaking, good hire place at Prijon Sports in Bovec. Lakes for open canoeing at Bled and Bohinj, waterfalls, mountain lakes, climbing, via ferrata, mountain biking, hiking. Lodas of campsites, some with cabins.
You’d love it.
Plenty of history too, a lot of it bloody…

This, with bells on.
Easy to reach from Northern Italy too. Years ago I flew to Trieste and cycled up the Soca valley then rode to Maribor via Bled (and a nudist camp in Austria, long story!!) and flew home in a week.

Having said that,spending a week or so exploring the Stockholm archipelago is good too. Weather changable though!

We had a good holiday in northern Italy a couple of years ago. Just booked flights to Treviso and booked a hire car. Took tents (two small ones and a tarp for sitting under). We’d intended going to the Dolomites to walk and via Ferrata but weather and injuries modified our plans. The weather was poor in the alpine areas that year so we just headed south a bit round Lake Garda and north of Verona. Plenty to do. Lovely people and food.

Would highly recommend Slovenia. After cycling there with Ride Slovenia last year, I returned this year with the family. 2 weeks of site seeing, it was beautiful

Adventure implies unpredictability.

Get to where you’re going, tear up the maps, buy some old clunker bikes, send your cards home, keep a bare minimum of cash and go from there. 🙂

@epicyclo

While I agree, I have a family who may be less keen on that…

Years ago I did a trip with huckfinn adventures in Croatia

http://www.huckfinncroatia.com/holidays/land-of-waterfalls.php

their website has come on a long way. When we arrived we weren’t entirely sure there was going to be anyone at the airport to met us. But there was and it was a great trip.

Mixture of walking, cycling, sit on top kayaking. Stayed in a nice village with a river. Used to walk up to the waterfall, jump in and swim back down.

We did that for one week then moved to Dubrovnik and seakayaked around the islands before spending a few days exploring the city.

You might be able to sort it out yourself, stealing some ideas but they were cheap pretty flexible.

matt_outandabout – Member

@epicyclo
While I agree, I have a family who may be less keen on that…

Aye, I haven’t been forgiven for some of my family holidays.

But as I point out, there they are reliving them and talking about them years later.

Usually accompanied by “bloody dad”… 🙂

Go a little further and see who can get from North Africa to the UK quicken with out a passport 😉