Mountains, lakes, not too hot and no driving

[zeddybrek]

Does this type of holiday exist. Please help.

Trying to plan a trip to make everyone happy. Kids are 11 and 9 and most holidays are AI resorts as they love swimming and making friends in the pool or on the beach etc.

DH only likes lakes and mountains. Anything nature based. Since having kids we did the Swiss Alps twice and that's it. We went to Lake Leucern and he absolutely loved it. However it's expensive and fancy somewhere new but same vibe. Easy trails and beautiful scenery.

Most places recommended in Europe involve driving and we both hate driving in general.

Can anyone suggest a base that ticks the boxes with easy hiking trails and possibly good public transport. Thanks!

There are 2 outdoor pools in Seefeld and you get a summer card giving free transport on local buses etc. I can really recommend Hotel Haymon. The food is lovely.

Seefeld is stunning.
I would recommend a Scandinavian country if you enjoy actually swimming in lakes.

Thank you again. I was feeling really down last night as everything I found was only really accessible with a car.

Over the moon now, there are some really good options!! For this year and next too.

We went on a great holiday to Austria with inghams very reasonable. Good package deal. Zell am zee is great. I went with my kids in 2006.

Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj in Slovenia. Oh and Vintgar Gorge is also very close. Taxi ride from Ljubljana airport wasn't too costly.

We did this and used the trains and buses. It was all very easy.

If it helps, we’ve done Zell am see twice, no car.
Thomson’s / Tui lakes and mountain package.

stuff we did over those two trips:

Gorge board walk in Kaprun (bus and short walk - included on guest card).
3000m kitsteinhorn (bus and cable cars - included on guest card).
walk from top of mountain down to lake - cable car up on guest card.
mountain walk on well signed paths to mountain hut and over to another cable car - 6 hours walking. Cable cars on guest card.
hired bikes and bike ride through the valley mainly on off-road cycle paths or very quite roads.
Train to another village in the valley and walking there.
swimming in the lake at the lido - and the lido pool.
swimming in the public indoor pool one day the weather was rough.
boat trip round the lake (included on guest card)
funicular trip up to the high mountain dams for the hydro scheme and walk around the area round them. Bus and funicular. Included on the guest card.
bus to Kaprun to local wine festival thing (included on guest card).
train to Salzburg from Zell.

Stayed in Hotel Lebzelter half board, and picked up lunch from the mini supermarket in town. Breakfast were fairly standard European hotel buffet (cold meat, cheese, bread, fruit, muesli, yoghurt)
Dinner was soup, main and desert. Choice of two mains you ordered at breakfast. Mainly local mountain fayre.

Also did similar trip to mayhrhofen. Was a bigger town, and didn’t have the guest card set up so activity costs were a lot higher. The packages came out better than we could do ourselves for flight, room and transfer.

This was going to be my suggestion.

@ScaryM0nster wow thank you for taking the time to share so many details. Really appreciate it. Which month did you go?

The various summer tourist cards that some of the resorts offer are great. Usually they are free, and give free access to the cable cars, buses (see comment above about all public transport in Salzburgerland being free this summer), attractions such as the local museum, outdoor pool, noddy train etc.

Both Zell am See and Saalbach-Hinterglemm offer this type of card free to their guests - the accommodation or tour operator actually provides the physical ticket when you arrive. For somewhere like Saalbach-Hinterglemm, the savings compared with having to pay for individual tickets come out at around €900 for a week for a family of four - so make sure to choose a resort that has this type of free offer.

Madeira - but not in summertime - it's too hot!
The levada walks are wonderful, the nature's great too (DH is a butterfly fanatic and I am into wild fowers), there are mountains - the highest one has great big black millipedes living on the top...

Staying near Funchal you can get buses to anywhere and they will transport your bike too.

First week of September / late august type time I think.

One of our mountain trips was start of summer, which was also good but the lakes are an awful lot colder for swimming so if that’s important that’s definitely a factor to take into account.

I think quite a few places do the summer card / guest tax type system, definitely worth looking into for areas you’re considering.
(have also done annecy, but a lot longer ago. It’s a much much bigger town, so the getting to places is more reliant on public transport rather than being able to walk to lots of stuff fairly tight together in a resort village which is what you get in the places that are ski resorts.

If in your hunts you stumble across anything with apartment style accommodation please do let me know. 3yr old is wrong age for hotel room type accommodation for us at the moment. She’s awful to share a room with and too young to be in a separate hotel room even with adjoining doors.

Annecy in France. Gorgeous lake, super old town, cycle and walk everywhere. Can drive to Lake Leman and other places if you feel like it. Can even get the train from Paris if you opt for no driving at all.

Zell am See and Salzburg?

We had 8 nights in Zell am See at the start of the summer holidays this year.
Teens aged 14 and 16.
Summer card with the hotel - free cable cars, free local buses which are super efficient, Aircon, regular (car hire would have been pointless), free attractions, free entry to lidos (kids liked the one in Zell town best as it had a high diving board).
Fly to Salzburg and get the bus from the airport to Zell. There's a family ticket for 19 euros (it's the 24 HR Salzburg region ticket).

Salzburg itself was good for a 4 night stay too if you want to mix it up.

I can't imagine there'd be any point in a package as it was so easy to organise and get around.

Peak District, for a change? UK driving may not be so bad.

Sorry same idea as @ScaryM0nster
We did similar! It's fab.
If you like a proper hike you can do the Pinzgau Hike which takes you to Saalbach, where the cable cars down (not up) are free - then free bus back with your summer card.

@ScaryM0nster

Apartments are easy enough to find in the Alps - look on the tourist office websites or the usual rental sites such as airbnb, booking.com, VRBO etc. Many hotels also have an annex with apartments, while others are actually apartment-hotels. Organising your own trip to the Alps, whether Austria, France or Italy, is really not difficult - and is far more flexible than the Tour Operator packages.

As @House4DS explains above, getting to places like Zell am See, Saalbach (and many other places) from Salzburg airport is really easy as public transport is frequent and efficient. The Postbus from Salzburg airport to Zell is really a comfortable coach and the route goes through stunning countryside and small villages.

@Havanananana

When I’ve looked, finding apartments hasn’t been the challenge. It’s the transport that is difficult to do outside of a tour operator booking. We’re in Scotland so not nearly the same range of flight options as if you’ve got a london airport or three to choose from.

@ScaryM0nster

Flights from Scotland to Austria are clearly limited, but there are options, even if you don't want to fly via Stansted. Skyscanner gives the following options:

Easyjet fly Edinburgh-Munich, which is then an easy train transfer to the resorts in Salzburgerland and Tirol.

Lufthansa fly Edinburgh-Salzburg with a change of plane in Frankfurt.

Go by train. More fun, more civilised and less hassle https://www.seat61.com

Chamonix has excellent (free) railway and food buses. More mountains than lakes though.

Also benefits from being in France, so cheaper than Switzerland.

Look at Alpine Elements. They’ll pick you up from the airport

Oooh, Edinburgh - Munich is one I hadn’t thought of.

Edinburgh airport is a fair trek for us to get to, so connecting flights from there are getting into silly journey territory.

Hence why the charter Glasgow - Salzburg have a massive appeal if can find suitable accommodation to go with them.

Scotland, great for easy access to cold wet hills. Tricky for warmer or colder ones.

OP said "DH only likes lakes and mountains."

That's pretty rigid imo.

Anyway as I said this is a complete aside.

There is a seaside town called Binz on the Baltic coast of Germany. Obviously seaside not mountains, but there are bike paths through the forest and lots of bikes for hire where you can ride off road along the coastline. You can get trains there from nearly all major German cities. Fly to Berlin and get a train. It's absolutely beautiful.