Europe’s waterfalls are among its least-marketed natural assets. Most visitors come for the cities, the coast, the mountains — and entirely miss the waterfalls hidden in valleys and gorges that rival anything in more exotic destinations. Norway alone has more than a thousand named waterfalls. Switzerland’s glacier-fed falls thunder through limestone canyons above the tourist towns. The Pyrenees conceal cascades that most people drive past without stopping.
Norway: The Waterfall Country
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The Nærøyfjord and Aurlandsfjord area packs more waterfalls per kilometre of road than anywhere in Europe. Steinsdalsfossen, near Bergen, is one of the few waterfalls in the world with a path behind it — a wooden walkway runs behind the curtain of water year-round. Vøringsfossen in Hardangervidda drops 163 metres into a canyon; the viewing platform at the top is free and takes ten minutes to reach from the road. During the snowmelt season of May and June, waterfalls appear on every cliff face in western Norway — some so temporary they exist for only a few weeks.
Switzerland: Glacier Power
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The Trümmelbach Falls inside the Lauterbrunnen Valley are the only glacial waterfall in Europe accessible by lift. Ten cascades run inside the mountain through tunnels and caverns carved by millions of years of meltwater — up to 20,000 litres per second during peak summer melt. The Staubbach Falls in Lauterbrunnen village, visible from the train, were the inspiration for Goethe’s poem ‘Song of the Spirits over the Waters’. The entire Lauterbrunnen valley has 72 waterfalls, making it the most concentrated waterfall landscape in the Alps.
Croatia: Plitvice Lakes
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Plitvice Lakes is less a single waterfall than a system of sixteen interconnected lakes linked by hundreds of cascades through limestone and chalk. The water colours shift from azure to green to grey depending on the angle of light and the season. Wooden boardwalks run at water level through the lower lakes, putting you close enough to the falls to hear the individual streams within the roar. It is Croatia’s most visited national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — go early in the morning or in the shoulder season to avoid peak crowds.
Scotland: Remote Cascades
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The Scottish Highlands hide waterfalls that require genuine effort to reach, which is precisely why they remain uncrowded. The Falls of Glomach in Kintail drop 113 metres in a narrow gorge and require a 10-kilometre round hike through open moorland. Steall Falls in Glen Nevis — a 120-metre bridal-veil cascade — is reached via a one-hour walk through a gorge from the car park at the end of the Glen Nevis road. Both are best visited after rainfall, when the volume of water matches the drama of the setting.
