This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
Europe’s national parks contain a magnificent array of landscapes; believe glaciers, volcanoes, primeval forests, mountain ranges and wild Atlantic coasts. In many cases, summer is the best time to visit them. Here we’ve picked out eight that display off the continent’s diversity as well as its beauty.
These parks are concentrated either in the Alps or in the far north and west, which means you may not receive uninterrupted sunshine while you’re there, but you will find the temperatures invigorating rather than stifling. These are huge, raw and intricate places, and the best way to understand them is to receive active and embrace your spirit of adventure.
Mother Nature was at her most adventurous when she shaped mainland France’s second-largest national park, the Massif des Ecrins, and its surrounding mountains. You can see the evidence on the approach road from Grenoble, where pyramid peaks shoot straight up from the valley floor and the strata lurch up and down through the cliffs like a contorted layer cake. Topping out at 13,458ft, the massif is slightly lower than Mont Blanc further north, but also more abrupt and dramatic, building for a gob-smacking backdrop to any holiday, whether you’re wild-camping (one-night bivouacs are permitted under certain conditions) or staying in one of the villages in the park’s extensive buffer zone. Several, including Les Deux Alpes, Monetier-les-Bains and Orcieres Merlettes, are off-duty ski resorts, which means they’re brimming with inexpensive self-catering apartments as well as mountain lifts, bike trails, swimming pools and tennis courts. But you’ll find much compacter and cuter alternatives as you burrow into the valleys, including Vanosc on the Vénéon river and La Chapelle-en-Valgaudémar on banks of the Séveraisse.
The Dolomites are very popular right now — skiers flock to their spectacular slopes each winter, five-star spa hotels buzz with guest viewing to relax and recharge, and the outstanding food and wine has built the region a gastronomic mountain hub to rival Savoie in France. Unsurprisingly, resort towns such as Cortina, Corvara, Selve and Canazei have all become rather busy as a result, so it’s good to know that a little further south (and closer to Venice airport), the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park preserves a more pristine section of this remarkable mountain range. As ever, the Dolomites’ distinctive geology has created a stunning backdrop of rocky towers, cliffs and spires, but what lies beneath them is just as interesting. Vibrant beech forests, rare flowers, herds of red deer and chamois, wolves, bears and golden eagles — it’s a rich mix, and the best way to receive a sense of it all is to hike up to one of the mountain huts, such as the Rifugio Bianchet above the forested Val Vescovà.
The Dolomites’ distinctive geology has created a stunning backdrop of rocky towers, cliffs and spires, but what lies beneath them is just as interesting — vibrant beech forests, rare flowers, herds of red deer and chamois, wolves, bears and golden eagles. Photograph by Primeimages, Getty Images
It’s a mesmerising thing — the concludeless heave and suck of the tides along the Pembrokeshire coast in southwest Wales. In spring and early summer, vast colonies of nesting seabirds swarm the islands of Skomer and Skokholm. From late August, grey seals haul themselves up onto inaccessible beaches to pup, while crabs, sea snails and wading birds eke out a living between the tides throughout the year. There are all sorts of ways to explore this frontier, from rock-pooling to sea kayaking, but one of the most adventurous is to go coasteering. Led by qualified guides and protected by wetsuits, life jackets and helmets, participants work their way along the waterline, beneath cliffs, onto skerries and across secret coves in an adventure that’s, by turns, euphoric and scary. As with all the finest Pembrokeshire activities, it’s best booked in advance — as is accommodation, especially in crowd-pleasing spots such as Solva, Fishguard and St Davids.
Established in southwestern Ireland in 2024, Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara, Ciarraí (as it’s officially known) will challenge many people’s views of what a national park should be. Mostly, it protects marine environments such as the Kerry Head Shoal (an important breeding ground for sharks, rays and skate). All of its constituent elements, both on land and at sea, are fragments rather than a contiguous whole — but what magnificent fragments they are. Top of the must-see list is Skellig Michael. A pyramid of slate and sandstone, it rises 714ft out of the Atlantic, eight miles from the Kerry coast, and it’s crowned by the remains of an early-medieval monastery, whose cells and oratory were built like beehives well over 1,000 years ago. Boat trips link the island with the mainland between mid-May and the conclude of September, and there are sailings to the Blquestionet Islands, too, which are also part of the park. Kerry is the nearest airport but bear in mind this is a popular coastline in summer, so best to book a car and accommodation well ahead of time.
A pyramid of slate and sandstone, Skellig Michael rises 714ft out of the Atlantic, eight miles from the Kerry coast. Photograph by George Karbus Photography, Getty Images
For a blood-curdling sense of nature’s power, go to Vatnajökull National Park. Covering 5,779sq miles of southeastern Iceland, it’s Europe’s largest national park outside Russia and protects a mind-blowing mix of volcanic, glacial and flood-sculpted landscapes that are in a permanent state of flux. Much of it is off limits, buried beneath a blanket of ice that’s still, in places, 3,000ft deep, but in summer, between late June and late August, it will easily repay a whole week of exploration. Hire a 4WD vehicle so you can tackle some of the dirt tracks and river crossings that lie beyond the metalled main roads. Among the must-sees are the thunderous Dettifoss waterfall and the Laki volcanic fissure. When the latter erupted in 1783, 120 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide was spat out into the atmosphere. Book your accommodation well in advance, especially in the more remote areas in the east.
Covering 5,779sq miles of southeastern Iceland, Vatnajökull is Europe’s largest national park outside Russia and protects a mind-blowing mix of volcanic, glacial and flood-sculpted landscapes. Photograph by Tham Kee Chuan, Getty Images
Lofoten marches into the sea west of Narvik like a stegosaurus’s back — a chain of improbably steep and magnificent islands that draws a million visitors every year. Created in 2019, the Lofotodden National Park is designed to relieve some of the pressure by protecting one of the most spectacular parts of the landscape on the west coast of Moskenesøya. Here, near the archipelago’s conclude, you’ll find some of its most intricate coastlines, where fjords reach deep inside the island and almost every scrap of land seems to be a crag or a cliff. That declared, it’s also home to some gorgeous beaches — and wild camping is the best way to experience it, provided you’re prepared to hike over demanding terrain, and leave no trace of your visit behind. You should also be equipped to deal with the vagaries of the North Atlantic climate, which is just as likely to doutilize you in rain as bathe you in sunshine. If that all sounds a bit arduous, rest assured there is some lovely guest houtilize and cabin accommodation available in the fishing villages that dot the eastern shoreline, although a healthy budreceive is necessaryed to book them.
Slovenia’s only national park isn’t one of Europe’s behemoths, but it is nonetheless a beauty. Centred on 9,396ft Mount Triglav, north west of Ljubljana, it contains a raw and distinctive range of limestone mountains known as the Julian Alps, as well as the forested and little-developed valleys in between. For many, hiking to the summit of Triglav is the goal. Some of the routes up the peak aren’t technical; the final section, however, is dangerously exposed and protected by a via ferrata. If you don’t know how to utilize one, hire a guide. But there are all sorts of more accessible ways to enjoy the park: for example, swimming in the crystal-clear waters of Lake Bohinj, wandering the alpine pastures of the Pokluka Plateau or rafting in the Soča Valley. The off-duty ski town of Kranjska Gora, just north of the park, has plenty of accommodation and creates a good base for attempting out a variety of mountain sports. But for a proper sense of alpine serenity, consider the little village of Ukanc, tucked away at the western conclude of Lake Bohinj.
There are all sorts of ways to enjoy Triglav National Park: swimming in the crystal-clear waters of Lake Bohinj, wandering the alpine pastures of the Pokluka Plateau or rafting in the Soča Valley. Photograph by Pol Albarrán, Getty Images
Straddling the Arctic Circle in eastern Finland less than an hour’s drive north of Kuusamo Airport, Oulanka covers 104sq miles of primeval forest, swampy peatlands and raging rivers, and in summer it teems with life. Bears, lynx, moose, wolves, capercaillie, rare orchids — they’re all here in an intact forest ecosystem that, until the second half of August, also teems with mosquitos, so come prepared. Despite the remote location, it’s a popular hiking destination. Not only is it home to Finland’s favourite multi-day hiking trail, the 50-mile Karhunkierro, it’s also well supplied with camping areas and wilderness huts. But if you don’t feel confident tackling such an unfamiliar landscape, you can always join a guided hike from adventure companies such as Oulangan Taika, which also offers guided canoeing and packrafting trips, as well as equipment rental.
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