On the east side of highway Prague - Berlin, just a few kilometers before the border there is a beautiful forest for the break: Jeleni vrch near Telnice. The peak is covered with forest so it is not crucial to get there, but the area itself is nice and offers diverse nature to experience.
Białowieża is a village int the east of Poland, surrounded by Białowieża Forest - the last part of the virgin forest that once stretched across the European Plain. If you wanted to feel the original nature it is a place to go.
Do you want to try how is it to swim in a water with 24% salinity? Do you want to swim outside in October? Try the fun in Bad Wilscnack thermal spring. It is healthy too. The salinity is a bit lower then in Dead Sea, but it gives the impression. Two hours in the salty pools where just enough for us, but also the city Bad Wilscnack is nice to walk and spend some thine there. You can get to Bad Wilsnack by RE2 from Berlin, it is faster and more comfortable then with a car. Caution: Make sure to not have any scratches or better do not shave a day before. Salty water can then bring you more pain the pleasure.
Eurovelo 6 from Bratisalava to Butapest is prepared but, but not 100%. There are parts of the road that lead on the usual roads with cars traffic. Also the signs are not always on the place, so be sure to take good map or download some gpx before. You can also use ours (althought small part is missing):
LevelThe terrain is nearly flat all the time and therefor it is perfect to cycle with kids. The youngest participant from our group that cycled on his own was 5 years old! We did around 30 km per day, with maximum of 50 km per day.
There are lots of attractions on the way. Beautiful cities: Budapest, Bratislava, Komarno, Eszegrom...Druging the first night we stayed in the camping in Čunovo with lot of water sports attractions including rafting and surfing. In Komarno and Štúrovo are thermal baths of a great smell and taste. We have eaten lot of Langos - local specialties, Bryndzove Halusky in Slovakia and many fruits and vegetables cooked on our one, that we bought from local people. Hungary is a free country, you can sleep on the beach and have a fire place there. Great atmosphere. People are very nice and friendly. Only sometimes it is hard to communicate. It is good to learn a few Hungarian words before.
Start in Bratislava, on the bridge through the Danube
Beach at the Danube
Most of the campings have a smaller or bigger swimming pool
Komarno, Europa square
Štúrovo, thermal bath
Camping at the beach
In beautiful Budapest
Along all the polish coastline you can enjoy the clean, soft sand, the dunes full of green, sunsets and in the summer lots of tasty food. Perfect holidays with kids how can jump on waves, build from sand, play and eats gofry - one of local sweet specialties. You can not expect everywhere such a beautiful beaches in Finland or in Latvia.
You do not have to go to Alps to give a try to rock climbing via ferrata. In Zittau Mountains gives more of via ferrata secured paths. Ferrata on Nonnenfelsen is one of them. As other, is short ( about 30-40 minutes of climbing) but interesting and gives the real feeling of the contact with rocks. Rocks in Zittau Montains are quite porous and therefore easy and nice to climb. On the top leads also usual walking path so non-climbing members of the trip have a fun too. Ferrata is suitable for beginners. Our 7 years old son made it and had fun.
At the foot of the mountains, at the joining of two streams, among meadows and forests...there is a tripoint: Czech - Polish - German. Nice place for the walk and breath of history.
Polish and Czech side are connected by the bridge, to Germany you have to go throughout the river, or walk to Bogatynia along the river to the first bridge (1-2km).
At this symbolic place, every year there are popular celebrations, the Ecumenical Worship, in June the villa of Nisa swim here on the river and in December the inhabitants send a message in a bottle, throwing it to the water to the tripoint.
Ġgantija are the ruins of the gigantic (the name comes from the word gigantic) temple about 5500 year old! Nobody really know what people build them and what happed to them. Visiting such a UNESCO heritage objects is a perfect occasion to make kids (and adults) aware of the short horizon of the humans history that we know.
Ramala Bay means in local language The Red Sandy Beach. And really the beach is different from all other in Gozo and Malta. The sand has a gold color - the color worth of nymph Calypso which lived, according to the tradition, in the cave above the beach. The nymph Calypso is known from The Odyssey by Homer. Odysseus was slaved by her for 7 year in this cave before he resumed his journey.
It lakes about 15 minutes to walk up to the hill with entrance to the cave. Calypso Cave is in fact a series of caves and, according to some, these extend right down to the sea. Unfortunately we were not allowed to enter to the cave as it is dangerous because of the geological movements. Still, it is worth to walk up to the entrance as there is beautiful view to the golden Calypso bay.
Dwejra, before also well known by the name Azure Window, is a place that used to be the symbol of Malta: stone arch. During the heavy storm in March 2017 the arch felt down to the see. But the place is still worth visiting. There are lots of picturesque rocks formations. When the see is calm (and usually it is calm) you can swim in the see near the fallen arch. And with the swimming mask you can still see the arch: next one, underwater one! Just go to the blue hole. It is also very attractive place for diving.
A fantastic panorama on the Havel land, with the silhouette of Berlin, waits for the visitors of the viewing platform on the Gotzer Berg (109m high). To the top lead paths from all the side, through the forest. The direction signs on the platform inform about the cities and places near and far. The platform has high of 42m.
Little Venice is located in the area of Tiefwerder and is located in the north-west of Berlin. Nature lovers will have a great time here. It is also an ideal starting point for boat trips, preferably on a paddle boat or kayak. You can rent a needed equipment in for example in http://www.der-bootsladen.de/ ( 27 euro/3 hours/4 people).In the bootsladen you will also get a map of the area. 3 hours is enough for a round. Or you can take it for a whole day and also relax on the lake, beach or in some restaurant near the water.
In the areas in the basin of the river Spree on the North of Cottbus was established nature reserve. In an artificial way the industrialized river is made natural again np. bend in the river are build. In the same time the area is prepared for tourists and offers a nice picnic place and cycling/walking roads.
Among the fields, forests and lakes starts the river Havel - nice area for walking, cycling and during the summer also swimming. Near the source is nice official fireplace.
Havelquelle
Fireplace
Skiing areal Bublava - Stříbrná are actually two separated places: smaller one in Stribrna with one anchor lift and the bigger areal in Bublava. The first one as smaller is nearly empty - no waiting to the lift. There are three roads: blue, red and black, but already the red is quite difficult red and suitable only for better skiers. There is also snow part for the beginners. The areal in Bublava offers seating and anchor lifts and more roads. Is suitable for real beginners and for good riders: so for whole family. For the easies parts there are sometimes queues up to 10-15 minutes. The infrastructure around is better: ski service and rent, bar etc. To sum up: Bublava is worth of spending there few winter days and get really tired with different skinning options without much crowed.
Bublava
Bublava
Stříbrná
Swieradow Zdroj SKI & SUN is an attractive place for beginners and moderately advanced skiers. It has only one (but long) blue road. At the beginning it is a bit tougher and later easy, even flat in some parts. Suitable for kids how learn to ski. Big advantage is that there are no queues to the gondola which is able to lift up to 2,400 people per hour. We were skiing in the main season during the sunny weekend and still we never waited longer then 3 minutes. For the smallest one there is also a small snow park and lift to make first steps on the snow. Fully recommendable for families.
To the observation tower on Smrk (1,124 m) we walked from Świeradów Zdrój. All hiking to the top and back took us 5h. In the easier variant it is recommendable to take gondola lift in Świeradów Zdrój Ski&Sun and walk to Smrk from the upper station of Gondola. (2,5 km from station to the pick). On the way back in the winter we had a great sledges ride. From the tower on Smrk is beautiful view 360 degrees on Jizera Mountains, Giant Mountains (Krkonoše) and Polish lowland areas.
From the Špičácké sedlo (with big parking) leads the path to the top of Pancir (Horská Chata Pancíř) where you can get rest in the restaurant. By the good weather you can by lucky to see the Alps. The road is fully suitable for prams.
