Resorts along the route are all certified by Slovenia Green, which encourages recycling, renewable energy, car-free arrival, environmentally friendly cleaning, local food, natural building materials and so on. Spas offer hot spring-fed pools, mineral waters for drinking, and wellness experiences that include salt, saunas, massages, and barefoot trails. During the route cyclists can visit the world’s oldest noble vineyard in Maribor or drink a crystal glass of magnesium-rich water in Rogaška Slatina. Slovenia’s temperate Mediterranean climate means good cycling for most of the year, although April to October is recommended. The Wellness route has several accompanying trails, including a Green Gourmet cycling route or a three-day Pannonian route through the Pomurje region. The Gourmet Trail starts with a train ride on the Bohinj Railway under the Julian Alps. A free pass encourages the use of public transport in the area for those who want to linger.
Sustainable city break in Berlin, Germany
A recycled caravan in Neukölln’s Hüttenpalast. Photographer: Jan Brockhaus When luggage storage company Bounce recently looked at sustainable hotels and transport, Berlin emerged as Europe’s greenest city. According to her analysis, 84% of tourists and residents get around by bike, on foot or by public transport. And Germany’s summer scheme, which offers unlimited travel on local and regional trains for €9, has gotten even more people out of their cars. From upscale caravans to a hotel with a hammock overlooking the zoo, Berlin is full of beautiful places to stay Berlin joined the World Council on Sustainable Tourism in August 2021 and Visit Berlin lists eco hotels, restaurants and attractions. They include places like SPRK Deli, which makes everything from surplus food. Klub Kitchen is popular with Mitte’s hipsters, serving salad bowls with sweet potato, ginger, pumpkin seeds, edamame and other tasty things. From recycled East German caravans in a former vacuum cleaner factory in Neukölln’s Hüttenpalast to the 25 Hours Bikini string hotel with a hammock overlooking the zoo, the city is full of beautiful places to stay. To explore the wildest corners of Berlin, buy an all-zone travel card (€10 per day, including Potsdam with its parks and palaces). Buses 100 and 200 are good routes for sightseeing, running from Alexanderplatz to the zoo via the leafy Tiergarten. Head to Grunewald on bus 218 to find Berlin’s best hike, the Havelhöhenweg cliff top. Follow this six-mile signposted walk past sandy beaches for wild swimming and relaxed woodland cafes.
YHA Festival of Walking
The festival will feature a guided Snowdon Dark Sky Challenge Those lonely months of walking during the Covid lockdown sparked a lot of interest in walking. The UK’s Youth Hostel Association hopes to capitalize on this with its new Festival of Walking. There will be group walks, download routes, free tea or coffee for walkers and 25% off at various youth hostels. There is a guided challenge for Snowdon’s dark skies – climb the mountain by torchlight and down as the sun rises for breakfast at the lodge. Many hostels, such as Eskdale in Cumbria and Blaxhall in Suffolk, have pioneering sustainable practices: energy-efficient lighting, solar hot water and community recycling schemes. The festival runs from September 4th to October 20th. “We want more walkers to discover our hostels and all they have to offer,” says YHA chief executive James Blake. “Whether it’s a bed for the night, a daytime visit for a cuppa, filling a bottle at a refill station, using a tumble dryer or a toilet break.” Individuals and groups can log their miles on the festival website to go around the world in 46 days. Blake points out that if 5,000 people walk five miles each, together they will have walked around the world. The YHA was founded in 1930 to help promote a “greater knowledge, love and care for the countryside – a goal that seems as fresh and necessary as it did 92 years ago.
Bird watching in Extremadura, Spain
Common crane in Extremadura Extremadura is one of Europe’s top birding destinations, with everything from bee-eaters to magpies. Birds of prey are particularly dramatic, with 23 breeding species, including 1,200 pairs of black vultures. More common cranes winter here than anywhere in Europe. Covering 16,000 square miles, Extremadura is larger than the Netherlands, with a human population of just over a million and a huge range of habitats. As most birders arrive here independently, Extremadura’s tourism board has created the world’s first birding club, modeled after wine or whiskey tours, to help travelers find information, guides and places to stay. Travel can actually help conserve biodiversity because the cash of birdwatching provides a strong economic rationale for habitat conservation. More common cranes winter here than anywhere in Europe A magnet for visiting birds since it opened in 2005, Casa Rural El Recuerdo (three nights from €216 room only) is a renovated farmhouse with an organic olive grove and vegetable garden. The hostel generates half of its energy from solar panels. Owners Claudia and Martin Kelsey encourage year-round wildlife trips for the large number of migratory birds, as well as summer butterfly and dragonfly tours. As a local guide, Martin can take visitors to see species they want to find without having to drive very far, which means less fuel and more time in the field.
Green Velo, Poland
The Green Velo Trail passes through marshes near the Narew River With more than a thousand miles of connected cycle paths and quieter roads through wild natural landscapes, Poland’s longest fully marked cycle path tours the eastern regions of the country. Five regions, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund, have teamed up to create the epic Green Velo trail. The miles of bike lanes are designed to be low maintenance with no impact on water supply or vegetation. there are benches, refill points, bike racks and waste bins. Accommodation varies from campsites to castles. The trail crosses 12 regions or “bike kingdoms”, such as the Świetokrzyski National Park, with its vast forests and mountains. In another realm, the marshes around the Biebrza and Narew rivers are ideal for bird watching and moose spotting, cycling alongside golden marigolds and purple Siberian iris. The signposted Green Velo route circles the edge of sheltered valleys, overlooking vernal bogs. There are bats, beavers and lots of other wildlife along the Narew Valley towards Łomża with its monastery and cathedral. Other sights along the route include the mysterious Krzyżtopór Castle near Ujazd and the city of Kielce, with its palaces and galleries. The Green Velo runs through the center of Kielce, passing the Kadzielnia refuge at a limestone quarry. there are concerts here in a natural amphitheater among fossil-filled rocks.
