Europe’s best car-free beach holidays
Whisper it: it’s becoming increasingly easier to visit Europe without hiring a car. Rental prices have, luckily, fallen, but a boom in cross-country train networks and operators offering alternative transport options means that often, holidaymakers can leave the car keys at home.
The consummate city-breaker, of course, already knows this. Those visiting the continent’s capitals can, as a rule, rely on public transport networks to get around, moving from gallery to attraction to restaurant without so much as touching a steering wheel. Still, there’s a sense that a more remote holiday – or a beachier one – might be more difficult. Yet even that doesn’t have to be the case. Across Europe, there are some beautiful coastal destinations that are easy to navigate by foot or bike, and that can be reached easily enough via public transport from the airport.
And going car-free doesn’t mean having to resort to package-holiday high-rises with the hordes. The key is to look between the obvious honeypots and over-touristed hotspots, and find an under-the-radar little place that has all you need for a beach holiday: namely, a fantastic coastal spot, a handful of restaurants and bars where locals drink, and a charming place to stay. So here are 20 appealing destinations that fit the bill for offbeat beach breaks in Europe – no car required.
Ile de Groix
Brittany, France
In this most British corner of France, the beaches have echoes of Cornwall – deep bays bookended by rock pools and green and heathered headlands. Except here, 200-odd miles due south, the weather’s a bit better – the Ile de Groix even has its own microclimate. It’s a laid-back, timeless little island, perfectly cyclable with kids. Grands-Sables is Groix’s poster girl, a convex arc of fine, white sand – but there are numerous others, including pinot-blush Sables-Rouges and, a scramble down the rocks, the hidden nook of Poulziorec.
How to do it: Train from London St Pancras to Lorient, then ferry to Groix.
Stay: Three-star Hôtel Ty Mad Groix has 24 rooms, three apartments, a sequestered pool and a nautical-vibe restaurant terrace. Doubles from £80.
Porquerolles
French Riviera
The glitz of the French Riviera didn’t make it across the water to Porquerolles, 20 minutes off the Côte d’Azur. This car-free crescent of land is old-school Riviera, unspoilt and unfussy: a sleepy village square resounding with the clonk of pétanque, herb-scented maquis wilderness, pine-forested bays edged with bone-white sand shelving into emerald water and little sailing boats all facing the same way.
How to do it: Easyjet flies to Toulon-Hyères, with fares starting at around £40. Then take a shuttle boat from Toulon/Giens port to Porquerolles.
Stay: Blue-shuttered Le Mas du Langoustier is the smartest spot; it has a Michelin-starred restaurant, and its gardens lead directly to two beaches. Doubles from £350.
Binibeca
Menorca, Spain
With its coves of pale sand shelving into safe, iridescent turquoise shallows and ready-made villa resorts, Menorca is set up for family beach holidays. Unassuming Binibeca, 20 minutes from Mahon, has everything you need to happily stay put all week: a couple of heavenly beaches of fine white sand, a bunch of low-key restaurants and decent beach bars.
How to do it: Fly to Mahon; Flybus shuttle/taxi.
Stay: Vintage Travel offers three villas in Binibeca, including Alba Dorat, which sleeps six. Prices start at £2,698 per week.
Tropea
Calabria, Italy
Southern Italy’s great sandy beaches are not easily reached without a car, directions from a local and dogged persistence – so a great Italian beach with its own train station is a precious thing indeed. On the instep of Italy’s foot, Tropea is the jewel of Calabria. Teetering on a clifftop, the plaster-pink town is Cinque Terre-stunning, only barely anyone knows about it – at least, barely anyone outside Italy – and lying 330ft below is the most beautiful curve of creamy sand, bright against the crystalline Tyrrhenian.
How to do it: Fly to Lamezia with Ryanair, then train to Tropea station.
Stay: Villa Paola must be one of Italy’s most romantic boltholes: a 15th-century strawberries-and-cream convent, terraced gardens high above the sea. Doubles from £230.
Lopud
Croatia
You couldn’t drive even if you wanted to on Lopud – this dot of an Elaphiti island is car-free. In Sunj, it also has one of the loveliest sandy beaches on the Dalmatian Coast, reached after an up-and-down hill stroll through pine forest, towel tucked under your arm. You needn’t carry much else – relaxed beach bars serve grilled fish and cocktails to revivify after a swim in the sea-green Adriatic.
How to do it: Fly to Dubrovnik; ferry to Lopud (55 mins).
Stay: The sun-splashed Lafodia Sea Resort has rooms from £215 per night.
Formentera
Spain
Two wheels are all you need on this barefoot beauty of the Balearics. Bike trails connect its beaches of white sand and luminous turquoise water – Ses Illetas is more Caribbean than Mediterranean – along wooden boardwalks through the wildflowers.
How to do it: Fly to Ibiza; ferry to Formentera; rent a bike.
Stay: You’re spoilt for choice here: Gecko Hotel & Beach Club offers morning yoga and afternoon DJ sets at its hot-ticket beach club. Doubles from £512. Or stay at Hotel Casbah, a five-minute walk from Playa Migjorn. Doubles from £197 per night.
Göcek
Turkey
Between resorts, most of the Turquoise Coast remains untouched, sleepy and serene as it was a century ago, when only fishing boats and traditional gulets sailed its shores. The ragged coastline carves out uncountable coves, forested peninsulas and places to swim, virtually inaccessible except by boat. Gocek – where Icarus is said to have plummeted to the sea – has been spared mass tourism development. Tavernas dot the waterfront, where you can eat octopus while cooling your feet in the sea, and the marina is a playground for rich Istanbulites and the superyacht set.
How to do it: Fly to Dalaman; taxi to Gocek.
Stay: D Resort Gocek is super-stylish enough to lure international stars from their usual Euro holiday circuit, with its fabulous restaurants, bars, spa and divine sandy beach. Doubles from £143 B&B.
Serifos
Greece
This unsung Cyclades island is where in-the-know Athenians go for beaches without the crowds – they outshine anything on Santorini or Mykonos, and you can find an empty stretch of sand even in summer. There are no glittering resorts, but several discreetly stylish places to stay.
How to do it: Fly to Athens; Seajet from Athens Piraeus port to Serifos.
Stay: Nostos Hotel’s contemporary Cycladic aesthetic is characterised by soothing neutral tones. Rooms start at £135.
Ischia
Italy
Once pulling as glamorous a crowd as neighbouring Capri, the island of Ischia has become more of a multi-generational holiday destination in recent decades, with its bays of golden sand, thermal healing springs for ailing oldies, and seaside trattorias abuzz with extended families. A ferry speeds you across the Bay of Naples, wind in hair, shoulders dropping by the nautical mile.
How to do it: Fly to Naples; ferry to Ischia. Circolare buses beetle around the island.
Stay: Created from an Aragonese lookout tower, Mezzatorre – one of the illustrious Pellicano trio – is top digs. Doubles from £314 per night.
Naxos
Greece
A playground first for the gods – Zeus grew up here, Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne – and now for mortals on their hols, the Cyclades island of Naxos is blessed with some of Greece’s most wonderful and easy-to-reach beaches. Agios Prokopios is a mere stroll from the town, while a couple of miles south is wilder Plaka beach – a long, pale stretch of sand edging clear turquoise waters and backed by dunes and whitewashed cottages, from which you can walk straight out of your room and on to the sand.
How to do it: Fly to Athens; then to Naxos with Olympic Air; or fly to Mykonos, then ferry to Naxos.
Stay: There are lots of low-key casitas on Plaka; try Medusa Beach Resort, with a fab beach/pool bar and dazzling white suites in palm-shaded gardens. Doubles from £154 per night.
Ile de Ré
Charente-Maritime, France
Popular with Parisian families, the Ile de Ré stretches out from La Rochelle into the Atlantic, ringed with golden sand and aquamarine shallows. Holidays are lived at its edges: cycling the coastal paths, horse riding on the beaches, messing about in boats offshore and, in the evenings, eating and drinking in its waterfront restaurants and oyster shacks.
How to do it: Fly to La Rochelle; then take a bus or taxi over the bridge and hire a bike.
Stay: Hotel Senechal is an understatedly stylish option, offering charming, artistic rooms. Doubles from £125.
Biarritz
France
Before Europcar was invented in 1949, les rosbifs were obliged to choose holiday destinations where everything was within perambulating distance. Biarritz, the pearl of the Basque Coast had it all: grand hotels and cocktail bars, illustrious visitors from Charlie Chaplin to Winston Churchill, a colonnaded prom and beaches where one could roll up one’s trousers to the ankle. Now it is reborn as cool surf capital of France, with buzzy new bars and Basque restaurants.
How to do it: Train to Biarritz, changing in Paris – et voila!
Stay: The beachfront Sofitel Biarritz le Miramar Thalassa Sea & Spa is a suitably glamorous spot. Doubles from £221 per night.
This story was first published in June 2022 and has been revised and updated.
