Short Haul Nature Holidays Without a Car

[Soso3]

Looking to book next year's summer holiday. Somewhere in nature, in Europe without needing to have access to a car to get out and about and do things.

The ideal would be something like staying in a hotel/ farmhouse somewhere in the mountains/forest with option for bike or canoe rental and some easy walking routes or cable car options. Not really looking for accessibility to large towns or museums.

Looking for something similar to Hotel Schwaigergof in the Austrian mountains which is the destination I was originally looking at but it's not going to be accesible for us without a car.

St Johann im Pongau. It’s a small town on the train line from Salzburg, and is well served with buses to the various villages with summer ski lifts, and the public transport to further afield is good too.

Lake Bohinj, Slovenia. Easy to reach from the airport using public transport. Plenty of walking/nature when you get there. Lots of hiking/SUP rental, cable car etc right there. You can also easily visit Lake Bled for the day using the public bus, or book onto tours to visit the Soca Valley or various other attractive places. It gets very busy in the summer, but if you like to walk a bit, apart from at the most obvious spots, you will easily leave the crowds behind.

We did Alpbach in Austria without a car. There are buses and cable cars (included in the cost of an Alpbach card), easily accessible mountain walks and lakes. The buses have cycle racks on the back and there are lots of bike hire options. However the buses only run once an hour, which can be a bit limiting.
, and there are quite a few places which seemed impossible to reach by bus (but perhaps would be possible by taxi, though it also wasn't easy to book those either).

There’s lots of places you can get to in Switzerland by train of course.

We stayed in Uppsala, near Stockholm. Excellent public transport, lots of lakes and rivers to swim in, forests.

Thanks everyone. Some good suggestions there. I hadn't even thought of Slovenia but it could be a good option.

Fontainebleau forest is a short train ride from Paris. You can stay there on the edge of the forest or I think there is a village inside. We did it completely without a car. There are so many boulders scattered around, and with a sandy floor, it’s very unusual. And there’s a massive chateau to visit.