Does this holiday exist?

[GottaDoBetter]

I’ll be holidaying alone with my DC 10&11 next year after separation. I need to start saving and would like to be organised.
We would usually go on an “outdoorsy” holiday and enjoy nature/exploring - usually holiday in UK. If we go abroad we like places like Scandinavia, Iceland etc.

These holidays usually need a hire car but I don’t drive. Any ideas for self catering in an “outdoor” place without a car? Budget - 3-4k.
Whilst I don’t normally like hot beach destinations, I’d be open to consider a self catering holiday if there was some outdoor space.

Am I looking for something which doesn’t exist?! Please share your ideas with me!

Try the ski mountain resorts? Morzine thrives in the summer, there’s mountain biking if you want it, walks, the lifts are open, there’s an outdoor swimming pool. It’s about 1.5 hours from Geneva airport and transfers are probably easily available as there as various companies operating (Alpybus, skidy Gonzales)

How outdoors and what time of year? Antalya at either half term or Easter will be nice for hiking and swimming, for example the Lycean way. The regional buses are really good and you see an interesting selection of locals on them.

Summer do a bike tour of the Netherlands staying in youth hostels or B&Bs. If you hire the bikes yourself and buy satchels from Decathlon it's much cheaper than doing an official tour. The Black Forest is easy by public transport. Most of the French Alps are accessible by bus and local train, same in Austria. You can stay in a ski resort or a town like Chambery or Innsbruck. Italy is more challenging. Surfing in the Algarve is doable Oct or Feb. Bear in mind that a taxi is only about €50 for a half hour ride. It sounds a lot, but you'd easily spend €200 on a car with insurance, petrol and parking, so that gives you 2 remote day trips. We're mountaineers and outdoor junkies who don't own a car and try not to fly so it's definitely doable.

We had a lovely outdoorsy holiday last year at Huttopia Lac de Rille in France. We did kayaking, hiking, paddle boarding, lots of swimming and hired bikes. The dc did a couple of high ropes sessions and archery. We used the bikes to get to and from the bakery and supermarket, which were about 6 km from the campsite, but most nights we ate onsite. It’s about 20km from the nearest train station, so doable in a taxi.

Have a look at Naturetrek @GottaDoBetter, there might be something there that floats your boat. Lots of UK options, some energetic some deliberately not, they pick you up from a designated train station so no car/driving needed.

It is absolutely possible to do outdoorsy&exploring holiday without a car, but you need to think about it a bit differently. Instead of covering top 10 attractions in wider region, you'd want to based it around a point or two which have loads to explore relatively locally.

Decide the general location and try to find a smaller town in a great area (so there are at least two day options immediately there) which serves as a local public transport hub (so it is easy to get there and has direct routes to other interesting places.

The annoying part is checking the public transport in detail - many areas have different work days/weekends schedules, plus seasonal lines and public holidays can influence your plans as well (starting self catering holdiay at a place which close smaller shops on Sunday and public holidays on Sunday before public holidays Monday is not fun)

Morzine is brilliant without a car - easy prebooked bus transfer companies from Geneva and once you’re there you can get a summer pass which gives you ski lift access plus there is a brilliant free local bus service that can take you eg down to Lac
de Montriond or up the valley to the next set of lifts. It’s the only place we’ve ever self catered without a car. The only issue was supermarket shopping for heavy stuff eg drinks but we just went most days for small amounts.

There’s a place in Morocco called Michlifen which is beautiful in the summer, in the mountains. You could combine it with an organised hike and a couple of days in Maarakech (internal flights)

Wow these are all fabulous suggestions, I will check them all out - looking forward to doing some research!
Looking to go for a week either at Easter or July, seems there are loads of options here which would work for both - thanks all!

Agree with Morzine. Free local shuttle buses eg Lac Montriond, Avoriaz, lots of waterfalls. Zip wiring, horse riding, ice skating. Loads to do.

Look at the Alps - France, Austria, Italy. There are already several threads on MN. Don't go at Easter though (unless you want to ski) - wait until July when the summer programmes kick in and the cable cars and outdoor activities open for the summer season.

E.g. Fly to Salzburg, then public transport (free for tourists) to any number of ski resorts that also have extensive summer programmes and activities. Also easy to find and reasonably-priced self-catering accommodation. Some of the larger resorts such as Saalbach and Zell am See also offer free Tourist Cards to their guests which give access to local cable cars, buses, pools, museums etc.

I've always fancied doing the Inlandsbanan train that runs up the middle of Sweden - you can book packages like this: https://www.happyrail.com/en/rail-tours/norway/inlandsbanan-rail-tour-sweden or do it independently - if the latter I think you can hop on and off, and combine it with other destinations/rail lines if you fancy a longer holiday. It's mentioned here in this old Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/aug/20/scandanavia-adventure-holidays-norway-sweden-denmark-iceland

Was also going to say Morzine 😆

Will your older DC still be 11 next July? If so, you can get good deals on Interrail passes for travel to your holiday.

What about a cruise? Plenty of options and you can book excursions while visiting multiple places just for the day. I hasn’t tried a cruise until I was 45 but been on two since and going on another next week!

Have a look at Morzine with Alpine Elements. They’ll make things nice and easy but great fun and action packed.

All the ski-resort suggestions sound great to me. Innsbruck as a base would be fab (I keep meaning to return).

However, what about Northern Spain? Nice and cool (and occasionally wet) but green, beautiful, uncrowded and with an unexpectedly terrific public transport system along the coast. (Coaches and trains.) You can also get into the mountains.

I spent 6 nights in Santander with no car (lovely) and Brittany Ferries go there and back from Portsmouth. (Or there's a separate ferry service to Bilbao, further east.) The Santander boat parks pretty much by the centre of town. I can't comment on self-catering as I did B&B but there's a fab food market.)

If you go, don't miss the Altamira Cave and museum https://www.spain.info/en/places-of-interest/national-museum-research-centre-altamira/ (I took a coach and then a bit of a walk.)