The best European countries for an outdoor workout

For most people, a trip abroad means sitting on the beach sipping a refreshing cocktail. But many travellers still miss going to the gym regularly or being in a fitness routine while they're away. So, we’ve compiled a list of the best European countries for an outdoor workout to inspire a little wanderlust and get your blood pumping.

To discover which countries have the best conditions for outdoor exercise in Europe, LiveRugbyTickets analysed six different environmental variables*:

1. Average temperature
2. Average relative humidity
3. Average wind speed
4. Total precipitation
5. Total sunshine duration
6. Average pollen count
7. The number and variety of hiking trails

From these variables, we gave them a score out of 100 before ranking them to identify the best countries for outdoor exercise in Europe. Whether you’re looking for the best place for hayfever sufferers, want to dodge the rain or are itching to pull on your hiking boots, we’ll show you the best country for it. The best part? You’ll never get bored with the scenery.

Top 10 European destinations for your outdoor workouts

We can reveal that Spain is the best country for an outdoors workout, with a score of 97 out of 100. With consistently good conditions of an average temperature of 22°C and the lowest average relative humidity out of the top 10 at 50%, you’ll be able to get in a satisfying training session without being drenched with sweat by the end of it.

The total precipitation during the summertime sits at just 142mm in Spain so you won’t have to worry too much about a sudden downpour in the middle of your squats—instead leaving you to bask in 1,289 hours of sunshine from June to September.

Coming in second place is France with a score of 93. And what better way to burn off the delicious pastries and cheese this country has to offer, than an outdoor workout overlooking the scenic views?

Indulged in a bit too much pasta and on the hunt for a gym? No need! The third best European country for some outdoor exercise is Italy with a score of 90 out of 100. This popular destination has the third-highest number of sunshine hours during the summer. So, whether you’re a morning jogger or prefer to burn the midnight oil, there’s plenty of lovely weather for you to enjoy.

Following on from this in fourth place is Germany (score of 86) and in fifth place is Mediterranean paradise, Greece (score of 83). As the origin of the Olympic Games, it’s no wonder the Greeks are fond of a bit of outdoor training.

When you think of Switzerland, your first thought may not be an intense HIIT workout. However, with weather conditions that lend themselves to exercising outdoors (temperature of 14°C, wind speed of 0.16 miles a second and pollen count at 0.16 grains per cubic metre), perhaps more people should give it a go.

A survey found the Dutch are some of the most active people in the world, and with a score of 76, it’s easy to see why. Looking for a breeze to cool you off during a workout? The Netherlands is the place to be with an average wind speed of 1.19 miles a second.

Rounding out the top 10 best European countries to exercise outside in eighth, ninth and tenth place are Croatia (72 out of 100), the United Kingdom (69) and Hungary (66). Although, we can’t promise it’ll stay dry during your outdoor training!

 

European countries with the best hiking trails

If hiking is your thing, we have the countries for you. This perfect outdoor workout mixes exercise, sightseeing and socialising but is often still overlooked. We’ve not only rounded up the total hiking trails in each country but also given them a score based on how many different activities you can do there.

Germany comes out on top with the highest trail activity score. This means there are loads of places you can try trail-running, backpacking, or even bike-touring—35,092 to be exact.

Brits love a good walk. There’s nothing better than wandering around a field, wading through ankle-deep streams or getting lost in dense forests. Pair this with brisk walking being an NHS-approved type of exercise and you’ll be asking yourself why you haven’t been taking advantage of the 23,000 trails this country has to offer!

France, Switzerland, and Italy make up the rest. All countries have over 10,000 trails available and plenty of activities to keep you energised.

Best countries to exercise outdoors for hayfever sufferers

While a lot of people look forward to summer with the lighter evenings and sun to relax in, there’s one group of people who dread it. Hayfever sufferers. They have to take on summer armed with a tissue in one hand and antihistamines in another.

If hayfever usually stops you from working out outside then perhaps Cyprus would be the place to go. With the lowest number of pollen grains per cubic metre (0.073), you should be able to get through your exercise routine without sneezing.

Nordic countries Finland and Norway are also in the top five for hayfever sufferers, with just 0.117 and 0.143 pollen grains per cubic metre respectively.

European destinations for cooler outdoor workouts

Sweating is an unfortunate side effect of exercising, but if you’d like to keep that at bay as much as possible then try an outdoor workout in Norway. The average temperature in the summertime is just 7.4°C, over three times lower than the hottest country of Greece!

Sweden, Finland and Switzerland are also ideal places for a cooler exercise routine with average temperatures of 13°C, 13.4°C and 13.8°C.

Known for grey skies and drizzle, the United Kingdom has at least one highlight of the weather. It’s perfect for a cool round of training at 14.4°C.

Best European spots for keeping the rain at bay during your outdoor training

You don’t want rain getting in the way of your lunges or planks. If you don’t mind a bit of heat in exchange for dry days then Cyrus should be your go-to for outdoor workouts. An average, there’s just 24mm of precipitation during the summertime—that’s over five times less than the rainest country, Switzerland.

Other scorching countries that promise a rainstorm-free training session are Spain (142mm), Greece (177mm), Bulgaria (243mm) and France (264). And with outdoor workouts potentially burning up to 20% more calories, why not pop them on your bucket list?

*Methodology:

1. Liverugbytickets.co.uk conducted an index study to find out the best country in Europe for outdoor workouts during summer months (June to Sept), considering temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, precipitation, sunshine hours, pollen counts, number of trails and variety of types of trails.
2. The raw data was in NetCDF format (or extracted to NetCDF format), which was gridded with equal spacing between the latitudes and longitudes. The data that was used had a resolution of 0.1 in both directions of the grid. In other words, there is a value for every 10 km in the X and Y direction. Experts at Liverugbytickets.co.uk clipped, collected, and calculated the average for the grid points inside the country boundaries using Europe administrative boundary shapefiles from Eurostat.
3. The measurements for each weather factor explained:
   • Temperature: latest 5 years ‘t2m’ was collected from copernicus.eu, Liverugbytickets.co.uk experts calculated the average temperature for each month, and selected the summer month to get an average temperature for every country.
   • Relative humidity: latest 5 years ‘t2m’ and ‘d2m’ was collected from copernicus.eu, Liverugbytickets.co.uk calculated the average temperature and dew point for each month, and then used RH = 100 × {exp[17.625 × Dp/(243.04 + Dp)]/exp[17.625 × T/(243.04 + T)]} to get relative humidity. The summer months were selected to get an average relative humidity for every country.
   • Wind speed: latest 5 years ‘u10’ and ‘v10’ were collected from copernicus.eu, Liverugbytickets.co.uk calculated the average wind speed in u and v direction for each month, and then used WS = sqrt(u^2+v^2) to get the wind speed. The summer months were selected to get an average wind speed for every country.
   • Precipitation: latest 5 years ‘tp’ (in mm/day) was collected from copernicus.eu, Liverugbytickets.co.uk experts calculated the average daily precipitation in each month, then used TP= (days in Jun * daily precipitation in Jun) + (days in Jul* daily precipitation in Jul) + (days in Aug* daily precipitation in Aug) + (days in Sept* daily precipitation in Sept) to get the total precipitation in the summer time for each country.
   • Sunshine duration: the last 3 years ‘SDU’ was collected from CM SAF, Liverugbytickets.co.uk calculated the total sunshine hours for each month, and then got the total sunshine duration in summer for each country.
   • Pollen count: latest 1 year ‘Alder pollen’, ‘Birch pollen’, ‘Grass pollen’,
   ‘Mugwort pollen’, ‘Olive pollen’, and ‘Ragweed pollen’ data was collected from copernicus.eu, Liverugbytickets.co.uk experts calculated the monthly average concentration for each pollen and got the monthly total pollen count by adding them up, then Liverugbytickets.co.uk averaged the summer month data to get a number for each country2.
   • Number of hiking trails and trail activity score: AllTrails.com was used to collect vast data on the number and type of trails across each European country. The study focused on general hiking, running, backpacking, walking and bike touring trails, collecting the total number of these trails in each country and representing the level of variety of the trails by a trail activity score.
4. Using the above metrics, a final index score and ranking for each country were calculated. The higher the score is, the better the conditions are for people to work out outdoors in that country. Overall the study looked at European countries with a population of over 5 million (the 23 largest European countries) and due to a lack of data, 3 countries were excluded, leaving the final study including 20 of the largest European countries.
5. Data was collected as of 16/05/22 and is subject to change.