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This spring I'm planning to spend 4-5 days for sport vacations. I want to go hiking and biking. I know a lot of different places in Central Europe to do that, but I'm asking here to get new hints.

The place should be in Central Europe (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France) and should be also easy reachable by train (I'll have to take the bike with me into the train). Ideally, I should be able to start some cool hiking and biking tours (e.g. to glaciers or high mountains) directly in front of my accommodation. Obviously, the cheaper the accommodation the better, but I don't want to sleep in dorms.

Considering all these requirements, what are good places to go to?

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  • Can you explain the close vote please? That would make it easier to edit my question or to establish the details of our policy what is in scope of this site
    – RoflcoptrException
    Mar 10, 2012 at 14:20

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Val di Sole in Northern Italy (near the Dolomites) is a great place for hiking and has some excellent bike trails, as well. Also, the valley's Noce river is perfect for whitewater rafting, if you're trying to mix up your sports activities.

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I like to think Croatia is a part of Central Europe as well so I could recommend a bunch of places to go hiking and biking. If you would consider it, I'll update my answer with a couple of places.

Depending on how experienced you are with biking, you could even start your trip in our capital, Zagreb and then head towards our seaside. On your way there you get to ride your bike through Gorski Kotar which has amazing mountain views and a couple of great and refreshing lakes and rivers.

You could also head east and visit Slavonija which is predominantly flat but has some nice hiking/biking spots here and there.

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  • I do not doubt that Croatia is very nice to hike and bike, but unfortunately it is a little bit far away from my place for just 4-5 days. Additionally, I'd like to stay at one place and then do day-trips from there.
    – RoflcoptrException
    Mar 10, 2012 at 14:20
  • Oh well... I'll still update my answer once I get some free time. BTW, Croatia is very well connected by trains and you can get you bike on one for about 3-4 bucks. There are also some nice smaller towns in Croatia that can be used as daytrip hubs so I'll reference these as well once I update this answer.
    – rlab
    Mar 10, 2012 at 14:27
  • Yes the problem is, I need 14 hours from my place to Zagreb. But thanks for your answer, I think I'll reconsider it some day... I have already spent some weeks in Croatia traveling along the Adria down to Dubrovnik and it was really nice!
    – RoflcoptrException
    Mar 10, 2012 at 14:28
  • Yeah, you reminded me of another great route - going down the Adriatic coast and visiting all of the picturesque towns along the way. I did that last summer by bike and it was very fun but unfortunately I had too much stuff to carry so ended up being exhausted afterwards. This summer I'm going for a two week bike ride from Zagreb to Šibenik and then a short biking trip around Istria.
    – rlab
    Mar 10, 2012 at 14:35
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I like the Virgental in Austria for hiking. It is reachable through the trainstation in Matrei, at the entrance of the valley, if I have Googled correctly.

The north side of the valley is the west part of the Hohe Tauern, the highest mountain range in Austria, including the Grossvenediger (3674m, 4th highest in Austria). The south side is somewhat lower, but for instance Lasörling is 3098m and quite hikeable, and this side has a great view of the mountains on the north side.

There are lots of mountain huts connected by hiking trails, and according to the linked site there are good mountain bike trails as well, though I've never done that.

There are hotels in the valley, but you can get a "Huttentaxi" to get up to a first hut, these are 4WD cars that can probably take a bike too, but you'd need to check that beforehand.

Most huts have private rooms, but if those are full you might have to sleep in the dorm rooms. Call ahead (also if you're going to hike from one hut to the other, call ahead in the morning so your destination hut knows you're coming and can ring alarms if you don't show up).

Unfortunately, it's not cheap. You can easily spend 100 euro/day on rooms and food.

Edit: Only now do I notice the date on the question...

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