Best EU countries for nature and the outdoors: all 27 ranked

Last updated: 2026-08-21

Some people choose a country for its cities. Others choose it for everything around them: the mountains they can ski or hike at the weekend, the coast they can swim off in summer, the space to get outside. If your weekends matter as much as your work, this guide ranks all 27 EU countries on the two things outdoor lovers care about most, mountains and coast.

Mountains or sea, or both

A handful of EU countries give you serious peaks and a great coastline at once; others lean firmly one way. Here is how all 27 compare, the most well-rounded for the outdoors first (illustrative ratings only):

Country	Mountains*	Coastline*
Italy	80	90
Greece	65	98
Spain	65	95
Croatia	60	95
Cyprus	55	95
France	80	70
Bulgaria	75	70
Slovenia	90	55
Portugal	45	95
Ireland	45	85
Romania	75	55
Sweden	55	70
Germany	70	45
Poland	65	45
Malta	5	98
Finland	35	65
Austria	95	0
Denmark	10	75
Belgium	25	55
Estonia	10	70
Latvia	10	70
Slovakia	80	0
Netherlands	5	70
Czechia	65	0
Lithuania	10	55
Hungary	45	0
Luxembourg	40	0

*MoveMap EU's rough ratings (0-100), illustrative only. Higher means more of a draw for mountains or coast. They reflect the country overall, not how close you would actually live to either.

Access beats raw scenery

A country can be full of mountains and still leave you hours from a trailhead if you settle in the wrong place. What really shapes an outdoor life is how close you live to it, how good the transport is, and whether the seasons suit what you love, whether that is skiing, surfing or long hikes. Pick the region as carefully as the country.

Match it to your weekends

Whether you dream of alpine winters, a Mediterranean coast or rolling green hills, the MoveMap check folds your scenery and lifestyle preferences in with cost, work and documents to rank all 27 EU countries for you.

Frequently asked questions

Which EU country is best for nature and the outdoors?

Italy leads our combined mountain and coast score at 170, followed by Greece at 163, Spain at 160, Croatia at 155 and Cyprus at 150. They rank highest because they offer both: you can ski and swim in the same country, sometimes in the same week, which is rarer in Europe than the map suggests.

Which EU country has the best mountains?

Austria at 95/100, Slovenia at 90 and France at 80. Austria and Slovenia are the ones worth knowing about if mountains are the point of the move, because in both the Alps are close to the main cities rather than a long drive away, which turns skiing and hiking from a planned trip into a weekend habit.

Which EU country has the best coastline?

Greece and Malta both score 98/100, with Croatia at 95. Greece wins on sheer variety, with thousands of islands and a coastline longer than most continents' worth of countries; Croatia on accessibility, since the Adriatic coast is a short drive from Zagreb and much of Central Europe.

How these numbers are made

Updated 2026-08-21

The 0-100 figures in this ranking are MoveMap EU's own comparative estimates, not official statistics or a third-party index. They are built to rank the 27 countries against each other from public cost, wage, language and institutional data, and they are calibrated to be directionally right rather than precise to the point. Where a figure comes from a dated external dataset, such as the tax pages, the source and check date are named on that page.

The full weighting is written up on our methodology page. Published by Dobreon sp. z o.o., Krakow, Poland (VAT PL6772528744). Spotted something out of date? Tell us.

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