Destination advice - a multistop holiday

[Merula]

Hi!
I'm thinking ahead to holidays for summer next year and would be very grateful for any destination ideas. We are a family of 5 with teens ranging from 15 to 19 at the time of travel (although they may well not all want to come). Holidays that have worked well for us are where we spend 2-3 weeks away, with a few stops at different places eg Vancouver, Whistler, Vancouver island was a great trip, and closer to home; ferry to Santander, drive up through France and home from Roscoff.

We're quite active and like a bit of city, but also beaches, lakes, biking, walking etc. My husband doesn't want it to be too hot, so eg Greek island hopping is probably out. We'd like it to be short haul. Any suggestions of successful holidays that you could recommend would be great. Thanks in advance!

Scandinavia? I've been to Norway, Sweden and Denmark, but too long ago to recommend a specific route.

French Alps? Or Austrian mtns the ski resorts have great summer facilities with water sports, trail running, hiking, mountain biking. Good for active families.

Scandinavia is a good shout. Copenhagen & Stockholm both good for teens with lots of options and plenty outdoors / lakes / activities in between. Kalmar could be a good stop in Sweden too as it’s a university town so likely to have things of interest to the older teens. Can’t comment on Norway as I haven’t been (yet!) but imagine more of the same!

I appreciate that you have said no to Greece so apologies in advance for this but it is too amazing not to mention. I have in the past been to Meteora which is absolutely incredible, northern greece is more forested so naturally cooler. You could pair it with Vikos gorge and that surrounding area.

if Greece is definitely out I would suggest Switzerland. You could add in Italy or France, especially Annecy though it’s closest to Geneva which isn’t the best. We have been on a trip that went Zurich to interlaken (incredible views on the railway line), stated around the whole jungfrau area, then we went off to Chur (underrated and unexpected city!) to catch the Bernina express over the Alps and into Italy. We went to Milan but it’s also close to Como, both of which are far enough North in Italy not to kill you, especially Como which of course has the cool water!!

Germany, Austria, northern Italy?

i recommend europaparc on the German french boarder, across to Bavaria for the castles dropping down to north of Venice (lots of holiday parks, visit Venice and Verona) over to the lakes, up through the alps taking in Liechtenstein for lunch for the all important “countries I’ve visited count!) back up to Calais. I took 16 days when I did it

We are off to Svalbard with our teens. Active and adventurous. Tagging on Oslo as an extra.

We needed to be at Lake Como for a particular weekend but wanted to use a week around it to see a bit more. I made the decision of where to go and what to see by finding 2 cheap Easyjet/Ryanair flights and then joined the three dots with buses, trains and boats with the help of Seat61 and Rome2Rio. I don't know if that's something you'd be up for...

Thank you all. That's really helpful. We had considered some of your suggestions so I'll look into it further. @Specialnameforanoutingthread We would like to use public transport where we can, and I do follow The Man in Seat 61, so that's a good shout.

I've never been to Scandinavia, so I'm quite interested in that idea in particular, plus I imagine it might be less busy that some parts of Europe? Austria was another place I'd considered. @summertension I love the sound of the Greek place that you mention and will remember it for a time other than peak summer! Thanks again everyone.

Sounds like a great adventure!

We are in a boat so moving on every night. Hopefully lots of wildlife!

We never do the fly and flop though as it’s not really our thing.

Iceland was also pretty cool, but public transport wasn’t a thing. Great ‘cool’ location for summer

Interrailing! You could do the whole thing by train...

Absolutely ideal if you want to do a multistop holiday.

Train to Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Stockholm or a bit father afield West Coast US Big Island and Maui in Hawaii

Galicia and Northern Portugal, although you’d need a car to get around.

Some great ideas here, thanks so much. One idea that I had was Rovinj in Croatia, and up to Ljubjana in Slovenia - has anyone had any experience of a trip around that area? We've been to Croatia before, but Split and Zadar area. Maybe we could include a trip to Italy or Austria, but I don't want to try and cram too much in.