When it comes to booking a holiday, our personal preferences have the biggest impact on where we go and what we choose to do while we are away. While some prefer spending their holidays relaxing on a beach, others want to get their adrenaline pumping on an outdoor adventure.
With Google searches for ‘adventure holiday ideas’ up by +100% over the past twelve months, online travel agent loveholidays investigated which European countries are the best for thrill-seeking adventurers.
The index highlights the top 30 European countries adventurers may want to consider travelling to when booking their next outdoor adventure. The countries were ranked based on different factors, including the highest elevation, largest lake surface area, number of national parks, coastline length in kilometres, and number of roller coasters, ski centres, biking trails and rock-climbing sites.
Looking at the ranking, the top 20 countries are:
| rank | country | highest elevation (m) | largest lake surface area (km2) | number of national parks | coastline length (km) | number of roller coasters | number of ski centres | number of mountain biking trails | number of rock-climbing routes | Overall score |
| 1 | Germany | 2,962 | 536 | 16 | 2389 | 268 | 680 | 61911 | 100313 | 5.140 |
| 2 | France | 4,809 | 582 | 7 | 4853 | 218 | 250 | 10164 | 96842 | 3.756 |
| 3 | Italy | 4,809 | 370 | 25 | 7600 | 133 | 287 | 12162 | 65244 | 3.665 |
| 4 | Norway | 2,469 | 369 | 47 | 25148 | 16 | 172 | 146 | 22089 | 3.106 |
| 5 | Sweden | 2,104 | 5648 | 30 | 3218 | 35 | 256 | 197 | 19243 | 2.897 |
| 6 | Switzerland | 4,634 | 582 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 356 | 37525 | 42539 | 2.712 |
| 7 | Austria | 3,798 | 536 | 7 | 0 | 66 | 440 | 24906 | 29123 | 2.616 |
| 8 | United Kingdom | 1,345 | 392 | 15 | 12429 | 205 | 83 | 2452 | 52990 | 2.606 |
| 9 | Spain | 3,718 | 3.48 | 16 | 4964 | 54 | 33 | 3213 | 89245 | 2.499 |
| 10 | Finland | 1,324 | 4400 | 40 | 1250 | 23 | 78 | 48 | 8342 | 2.228 |
| 11 | Poland | 2,499 | 113.8 | 23 | 440 | 70 | 270 | 2617 | 17796 | 1.917 |
| 12 | Czechia | 1,603 | 48.7 | 4 | 0 | 21 | 317 | 6989 | 82195 | 1.893 |
| 13 | Greece | 2,917 | 98.6 | 15 | 13676 | 10 | 25 | 121 | 17412 | 1.730 |
| 14 | Denmark | 3,694 | 40.72 | 5 | 7314 | 47 | 12 | 1813 | 963 | 1.401 |
| 15 | Romania | 2,544 | 511 | 14 | 225 | 13 | 98 | 27 | 7609 | 1.188 |
| 16 | Netherlands | 887 | 1100 | 21 | 451 | 57 | 61 | 480 | 1104 | 1.152 |
| 17 | Slovakia | 2,655 | 35.2 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 129 | 696 | 10395 | 1.066 |
| 18 | Albania | 2,764 | 530 | 14 | 362 | 1 | 5 | 227 | 203 | 0.991 |
| 19 | Estonia | 318 | 3555 | 6 | 3794 | 2 | 6 | 99 | 360 | 0.981 |
| 20 | Croatia | 1,831 | 30.7 | 8 | 5835 | 5 | 11 | 3635 | 5257 | 0.924 |
Germany ranks as the best thrill-seeking hotspot in Europe, boasting the highest number of ski centres (680), biking trails (61,911), rock-climbing routes (100,313) and an astonishing 268 roller coaster rides.
Second place goes to France, which shares the highest elevation (4,809m) with third place on the index, Italy, while Norway and Sweden make up the remaining countries of the top five thrill-seeking hotspots in Europe.
Italy offers ample national parks for those interested in exploring nature (25), while Norway offers the longest coastline to explore (25,148 km2) and Sweden (5th) is home to one of the biggest lakes with a surface area of over 5,600 km2.
As highlighted by the index, all European countries have plenty to offer for those looking to explore the great outdoors.
To find out more about loveholidays, please visit: https://www.loveholidays.com/
