UKC

Hello UKC! My girlfriend and I are considering taking a career break. We would like to travel in southern Europe for a few months (some countries we are considering are: Portugal Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Greece...). What are some climbing destinations that you can reach without a car? (e.g. via train, bus or short taxi journey)

The period would be Sept - Nov

Thank you!

Portugal. There is a coast cycle path around Lisbon that accesses the bolted and trad sea cliffs, and busses along the road. Sintra has great bouldering and some bolted granite, a train journey from Lisbon.

El Chorro by train from Malaga

A big chunk of El Chorro is very close to where the train stops.

Montserrat near Barcelona for sure. There is a Norwegian artist colony there that did accommodation a few years ago, all a bit hippy, which I like.

Also nic up at the Eco refugio in Abella Dela conca encourages car free travel.

Obviously, el chorro.

Read Tom Chesshyres book about trains in Spain 🇪🇸 

Depends if you want to fly there, or reach the destination by reasonably fair means (train, bus) as well. If the latter, any big area that does not need a car locally (or has good bus connections) will do. Some that come to mind I have experience in (with walkable campsites / huts): 

- Siurana,

- Orgon & Orpierre

- Sperlonga & Ferentillo, San Vito, Arco, Italy

- Osp, Misja Pec & Crni Cal in Slovenia

- Paklenica and Omis in Croatia

With the time you have at hand you could easily combine a few of these and visit some interesting cultural sites along the way if you are so inclined. All are reasonably well documented on UKC to get a first impression.

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What type of climbing are you interested in? Bouldering, sport, trad?

Cham is easy to do, September is kind of the tail end of the season and huts will start closing but you can still have some brilliant days at the Plan de l'aiguille, the Aiguilles rouges, Brévent. TGV to Bellegarde then slow train to Saint Gervais then another slow train to Chamonix. Have done it plenty of times, reckon it's about 7hrs in total?

There's a sleeper train that goes from Paris all the way to Briançon. From L'Argentière la Bessée you could take a taxi (or maybe a shuttle as far as Vallouise, unsure what it's like outside July/August) till Ailefroide and stay there, plenty of single and multipitch sport. Then you can work your way downvalley, there are several crags easily accesse from L'Argentière, stop at Guillestre and you're a stone's throw from Mont-dauphin and Rue des masques. Further west you can stop at Die, from there a 5km walk takes you to Romeyer or Valcroissant, a quick train ride to Luc-en-Diois and a 15mn walk will take you to Le Claps.

The Calanques are very doable too, a regular bus service takes you all the way to Luminy, which is the starting point for Sugiton, Morgiou, Candelle, Cancéou... Loads to do for sure. If you can book the Auberge de la Fontasse you could also go as far as Cassis (can't remember if by train or bus), and from there walk to the Auberge from which you can access Castelvieil, Oule, Devenson, En Vau. Better saved for the latter part of your trip, otherwise it gets pretty toasty.

Annot has excellent trad climbing (but you'll need quite a few cams) and can be reached by train from Digne les Bains or Nice, although rockfall can disrupt the service.

From Aix TGV a regular bus service takes you to Sisteron (1h30?) which has about 90 routes right in town.

Font is very doable too, from the various train stations it's a 15-30mn walk to Calvaire, Canon, Petit bois, Gréau... I understand there's also a bus that goes to Barbizon, from which you can easily walk to Apremont (maybe even Cuvier?).

Alternative view: career breaks are fairly rare in life and hence worth making the most of. You want to be aiming for the very best crags rather than being limited by transport. In short, learn to drive, it’s worth it. My other recommendation for career breaks would be don’t go to places that you can easily reach in regular week-long holidays when you’re working. All the destinations suggested on here so far can even be done in a long weekend. Whereas say climbing in Heuco Tanks, Thailand or Arapiles cannot. 

To be fair Sean they don't say they can't drive.

In which case I’d strongly advise either buying a car or hiring one for at least a part of their trip. Even if they have to pay for it afterwards.

You could get to the karst edge stuff in osp and crni kal in Slovenia, train to trieste, 20 min taxi to osp, stay in osp which is literally at the foot of the massive crag, crni kal is a short taxi ride/longish walk away.

@Font, the bus goes from Melun to Acheres le Foret, passing Barbizon and the whole of Apremont, but also giving Access to Bois rond, Canche aux Merciers and a host of other places.

Chulila, fall out of bed onto the crag. And Kalymnos of course. That place in Turkey that I cannot pronounce or spell, Gey summat.

A lot depends on how hard your no car rule is, are taxis allowed, if so why not short term car hire. You could hire a car in Zaragoza and drive to Riglos in a couple of hours, here you can climb for weeks without needing to drive. It is pretty poorly served by public transport, the railway line is dug up.

Edit, El Chorro is often touted as an ideal car free venue. It isn't and there are many that are much better, see above for a few examples.

Thank you everyone for your support! some great ideas and crags! I haver started to put together a Google Maps with the different crags and it is piecing together nicely. 

I can also confirm we can drive just trying to do it as little as possible, we are not against renting a car for short hire or to use a taxi.

We are also very keen in mixing up with cultural destination, any idea of ideal town/cities for this?

Thanks again, Martino

You mentioned Greece in your original list, which would be ideal towards the end of your window (November).

Leonidio is accessible from Athens via a twice-daily bus route and once you are there I reckon you'd have almost a thousand routes within walking distance from the village. 

https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/category/greece/leonidio/

There's an absolute tonne of climbing elsewhere in Greece, but with the exception of Kalymnos it's a bit scattered for a no-car trip. The exception would be the crags around Nafplio which would keep you going for a week and would be an easy stop-off on the way to / from Leonidio. Also a decent chunk of culture to be had there, as well as Athens of course! 

https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2019/01/29/nafplio-sector-neraki/

Enjoy! Cheers, Dom