This season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is a fine time to get out hiking across Europe. The weather is regularly bright and sunny in most places, but free of summer’s scorching temperatures. Nature puts on a vibrant show of colour from September, and accommodation is more affordable outside the peak weeks of the school holidays or Christmas. Forest light shows in Scotland, fungi foraging in Sweden, and Italy’s Prosecco Hills are among our pick of the walking trails for experiencing autumn at its best…
Forest magicFaskally loch & woods, Scotland
Perthshire – the dramatic divide between the Lowlands and Highlands – has exceptionally tall and old specimens of trees filling its expansive forests.
Autumn, then, is glorious countywide. But Pitlochry’s Faskally Woods stand out, as a stroll here is illuminated during October evenings, with the installations of the “Enchanted Forest” spectacularly lighting up trees and loch shores on a 1.8km woodsy circuit (£27.50/£15).
A longer 5km loop from Pitlochry brushes the woods and also passes the fish ladder that enables the annual migration of Atlantic salmon over Pitlochry dam. The fish swim upstream through a series of 34 tiered pools linked by tunnels. It is estimated that around 250,000 salmon have used the ladder since it was built in 1952.
Cosily refurbished Victorian B&B Craigatin House is one of Pitlochry’s best, and only 1.5km south-east of the woods. B&B from £171. The Caledonian Sleeper stops down the road, too.
In Stevenson’s footstepsFrance
The Cevennes National Park in France (Photo: PurpleImages/Getty)
It was in September 1878 that writer Robert Louis Stevenson began his jaunt through France’s wild Cévennes mountains – his stubborn donkey Modestine in tow. It inspired one of his first works, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes.
That, together with the dazzling reds and golds of changing foliage and temperatures being more bearable than summer, makes this an opportune time to try the Stevenson Trail that traces the route he took.
Start in Le-Puy-en-Velay, the capital of the Haute-Loire in central France, to begin the complete route of 272km (allow about a fortnight if you plan to do the full thing). There are 13 stages, with villages or towns to overnight in at the end of each; consider breaking the trail at the former commune of Chasseradès (in the Lozère department) after six days of walking, or 124km, if you require a shorter break.
Refurbished in 2024, turn-of-the-20th-century Hotel La Regina is in Le Puy at the Stevenson Trail start point, doubles including breakfast around £92. A couple of options en route include Chèvre & Chou in the commune of Le Monastier sur Gazeille (doubles from around £72 with breakfast) and the lakeside Appart’Hôtel Les Lofts du Grand Lac de Lozère around 35 minutes’ walk from the market town of Langogne (studios from £85 with breakfast). Lyon is around two hours’ drive north of Le Puy, with several flight routes from the UK, as well as fast trains from Paris (three hours).
Sparkling sceneProsecco Hills, Italy 
The prosecco hills near Conegliano Veneto (Photo: GitoTrevisan/Getty/)
Toast the terrain that gave the planet prosecco with a roam through the terraced vineyards of this winsome wine-growing area as the September grape harvest begins.
With DOCG status – the highest-quality Italian wine designation – the steep, fertile hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene districts north of Venice are ribboned with walking trails and dotted by sleepy, winemaking settlements. This can all be traversed via the 51km five-stage Prosecco Hills Trail that threads through the area. Pick this up in the town of Vidor and follow it in three to five days of walking to Vittorio Veneto.
Most major UK airports have flights to Venice Treviso. From the airport, catch a bus to Treviso then change for bus 110 or 131 to Vidor. In Vidor, Agriturismo Colvidor immediately sets the scene for your adventure: a farmhouse with views out on to the vineyards. Doubles from £77.
Figs and pigsSierra de Aracena, Spain
Everything conspires to make the Sierra de Aracena an alluring outdoors autumn break. This western end of the Sierra Morena mountain range is rural Andalucia at its most authentic, and ablaze with woodland on the turn. But there are also groves of just-ripening fig trees in September and October, plus a festival championing the region’s prize food product, ibérico ham, in the main town of Aracena (24-26 October).
A five-night, four-day self-guided walking holiday with Macs Adventure, including posada (country inn) accommodation, excluding flights, starts at £455pp. You will take in lush rolling landscapes around the idyllic town of Alájar and Almonaster la Real’s 10th-century hilltop mosque over 24km of trails.
For those who prefer to travel independently, Posada San Marcos in Alájar is a six-bedroom country house with a pool and pretty gardens. Doubles from £117 B&B, with a two-night minimum stay. The closest airport is Seville, around 90 minutes’ drive from Alájar. Several airlines offer direct flights from UK airports.
Poetic exileDante’s Way, Italy
The view on Dante’s Way in Emilia Romagna
The picturesque Dante’s Walk that loop through the farmland of fabled foodie regions Tuscany, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy is themed around the route revered verse-maker Dante Alighieri took after being exiled from Florence.
Literary pilgrimage lovers can appreciate such sights as Dante’s tomb at the start point of Ravenna – a city best known for its Byzantine mosaics – and the Dante House Museum at the finish in Florence.
However, stages four and five of the walk – a pastoral 33km between the medieval village of Brisighella and the town of Marradi – are of note for their gastronomic bounty.
Brisighella produces some of Italy’s finest olive oil – its olive harvest taking place throughout November – while Marradi celebrates its chestnut harvest with a fair showcasing chestnut-based dishes every Sunday during October.
Fly into Florence (served by several airlines) and catch one of the regular trains (90 minutes) to Brisighella from Florence’s San Marco Vecchio.
Albergo-Ristorante La Rocca is a 15-room hotel-cum-restaurant in Brisighella, doubles around £90
Alpine autumnBergeSeen Trail, Austria
The Austrian Alps in Autumn (Photo: Bela Torok/Getty)
The BergeSeen Trail provides perhaps the most bewitching displays of Alpine scenery in Austria, circling through the Salzkammergut, the Austrian lake district east of Salzburg.
To catch the Alps in exemplary autumn colours, plump for stage two of this 350km trek. The 21km stretch, doable in a weekend, begins at Windlegern (an area of Alpine pasture). You will wander beneath the precipices of the Hell Mountains, passing mountain lakes Hinterer and Vorderer Langbathsee, framed in flaming beech, ash, maple and sycamore trees, before arriving at Attersee, the region’s largest lake. From Salzburg, Windlegern is a one hour 15-minute drive.
Hotel Fottinger sits on Attersee lakeshore near the end of stage two. B&B starts at £163. About 3km south-east of Windlegern is The Hochsteinalm, a traditional countryside hostel with rustically furnished doubles from £135.
Mushroom mania Tiveden National Park, Sweden
Tucked between two of Sweden’s (and Europe’s) largest lakes, Vänern and Vättern, and halfway between Stockholm and Gothenburg, the craggy, thickly forested wilderness of Tiveden National Park flares up in fine, fiery hues over the coming months. Tiveden is also renowned for its excellent chanterelle-foraging around now.
The final 12km stage of the 280km Bergslagsleden trail ends here, after passing through the swathes of the park’s old-growth forest where chanterelles are abundant, and there are 10 other trails (2-10km) to try.
From Stockholm, the drive to Tiveden takes around three hours 15 minutes.
Tivedstorp Hostel is a “hostel village” – a scattering of traditional-looking cabins in the heart of Tiveden forest. Double cabin from £47.
Bearing all Alutaguse, National Park, Estonia 
Alutaguse National Park Estonia (Photo: Provided)
A nation with well over 50 per cent forest cover should deliver stunning autumnal scenes – and Estonia willingly obliges.
The inky forests and primordial bogs of Alutaguse National Park offer a habitat for the Siberian flying squirrel, and one of the continent’s main brown bear populations.
Besides smouldering seasonal shades, autumn is also the best time for bear-watching, as the animals fatten themselves pre-hibernation on the plentiful berries.
The 5km Poruni Trail is the best for exploring the park’s native ancient forest, and you can climb the Lisaku viewing tower for far-ranging vistas across russet-tinged treetops.
From Tallinn, it’s around two hours’ drive to Kauksi, on the shores of Lake Peipus, where you’ll find the main park information centre. From here, you can be within the park in a further 15 minutes’ drive.
From Kauksi, it’s 16km north-east on the E264 to Lisaku or 39km along the lakeshore to Vasknarva and then north on the Jõhvi road for the turn-off to the Poruni Trail (16km further along).
You can book several, simple, bear-watching hides across the national park for the night, including one in Veneoja, 29km south-west of Jõhvi; £117 for a four-person cabin.
Riviera ramble Albania 
Hiking in Albania (Photo: Natalia Kurzova/Everste/Getty)
After the searing summer heat, fresher weather returns to accentuate the brilliant greens in the Albanian Riviera, a melange of mountains and sandy seaboard in the south-west of the country.
A guided hike, commencing in the Llogara National Park with its pine-cloaked massif and finishing with a walk between fetching seaside villages, starts at £929pp excluding flights with Much Better Adventures. During 44km of hiking over seven days, the turquoise Ionian Sea is almost always visible.
The hiking holiday sets off from the capital Tirana. Treat yourself to an extra night in beachside Geo & Art Boutique Hotel in Himarë, where the excursion ends. Sea-view doubles including breakfast from £117.
Livestock round-upHólar, Iceland 
Icelandic Horses in pasture (Photo: Kotangens/Getty)
September is the best month to experience Iceland’s rural soul. As the clement weather draws to a close, réttir, the ceremonial gathering of sheep from mountainous locales down into wintertime corrals, takes place. This is followed by a round-up for horses in late September and early October.
A hiking holiday to northern Iceland, the chief farming area, is almost certain to get you a gander at this centuries-old tradition. Base yourself in the community of Hólar, huddled below striking ribbed mountains.
A hiking highlight is the rocky, forested 5km ascent to Gvenderskál viewpoint and the altar stone of Bishop Guðmundur the Good, a figure in several medieval Icelandic sagas.
From Reykjavík it’s a four hours and 30 minutes’ drive north to Hólar. You can pick up a map of local hiking trails at the tourist centre in Hólar University. Simple one-bedroom self-catering apartments and cottages sleeping two people in Hólar start at £114.