Running advice for women travelling to Europe

Last week, a colleague of mine who is a runner and a woman asked for my advice on where to run while she was travelling in Europe. Here's my answer to her:

Woman Stuff: Disclaimer first: I am not a woman. And the woman I usually run with has a fairly massive scary-looking dude running beside her much of the time, so that could change things. :) But she does run in European (and Asian) cities by herself a lot, and she has reviewed this answer.

We haven’t run in every city in Europe, but as far as we have seen there are no issues with wearing whatever you like in those cities. I have seen female runners in everything from the athletic version of the burqa to the briefest of running shorts and a running bra. Nobody has stared, stopped them, or even whistled in my hearing. Wear what you want.

I would also add that DURING DAYLIGHT almost every place where women can run, women do run. Lots of women, in every park, by every river/canal, and in every neighbourhood. That said, I suppose there might be some areas where it is less welcoming, but we’ve never run through one, and that includes some areas where there are drug dealers, and various ethnic and religious groups that might be seen to be hostile to partially-dressed women athletes.

We are not night runners. Too busy drinking wine! So it is possible that running at night or dusk is safe…but I don’t know and wouldn’t recommend it, especially in some of the larger parks, waterside runs and less busy streets. As a man, I would not run in many of those places at night!

Streets or Parks?

I find running on city streets (in Europe or elsewhere) not great. I hate stopping at red lights, traffic and bikes and pedestrians are not expecting or accommodating of runners, and it is just less fun. On most of my city runs I have to do at least a bit of street running to get to my preferred park or water route, but it is usually my least favourite part, and we even pick hotels based on their proximity to a good place to run.

(That said, we once had an apartment in Montmartre: cool part of town, but not really close to good running routes. So we ran from our flat down to the Seine – although that seems like a long way if you are walking it, it is actually only 3.0 km. At our normal pace, even with stop lights and traffic it was only 20 minutes. So it can work.)

Parks tend to work fairly well, and in the section below I talk about them on a city-by-city basis. There are some caveats, of course. Some parks close in bad weather like snow, and also close before dark. Even half an hour before sunset the Luxembourg Gardens are shut, so get your running in before then!

But my favourite runs in almost every city are water based. It might be along a river, a canal, a lake, water reservoir or even the ocean. But the runs often are smooth, flat, little or no traffic, and tend to be more picturesque. Critically, if I want to go long (more than 90 minutes) they are the best solution: most parks are too small for serious distance. Details on the best ones below.

One other thing I will note is that European cemeteries don’t work. In Toronto I love running through Mount Pleasant: nice wide roads and they encourage runners. At least in my experience, Euro cemeteries have paths that are too narrow and with uneven surfaces. Pere Lachaise in Paris is a great walk…but a lousy run.

City by City List:

Paris: Many running choices, depending on where you are staying:

1.     The Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes. These are two massive parks at the extreme (respectively) west and east edges of Paris. Many people run in them, and they are large and have good trails. When we stay near them we run there…but we don’t love them. Nothing wrong with either, and the running is fine, it is just that other runs are (in our view) better. One quick comment: The Boulogne park is notorious for its many prostitutes, even in daylight. Regardless of what one thinks about the trade, the prostitutes themselves just smile and wave at joggers and it doesn’t feel even slightly unsafe. Night would be different, but I wouldn’t run in any large park at night anyway.

2.     Luxembourg Gardens. Very central, tons of joggers, and the views and sights and sculptures are to die for. The only problem is that it is fairly small, so each lap is only 12-14 minutes. Doing an hour means 4-5 laps, which starts getting tedious. Also closes well before nightfall and during snowfalls. See image below for a summer shot (not my picture.)

3.     The Tuileries. Even more central, filled with famous sights…but even smaller than the Luxembourg. Eleven minute laps means lots of repeats. Barbara likes it more than I do.

4.     The Seine (downstream) Assuming you start around St. Germain, you run on the old roadway beside the river. Paris converted those roads to pedestrian only walkways, and they are now what is probably the best city running path in the world. We run down to the Eiffel Tower, up the stairs to the Palais de Chaillot, then back along the Rive Droite to Ile St Loius, then back beside Notre Dame and home. About 80-90 minutes. The image at top of this article is this run.

5.     The Seine (upriver, and the Marne) Or you can run the other way up the river on the Rive Gauche side. You need to switch banks at the pedestrian bridge near the Biblioteque Nationale, but then you have a straight shot out past the city itself and into the suburbs. I think it’s about 20k return, depending on where you start from.

One big point about running in Paris. You almost always have to do at least 5 minutes of street running to get to your optimal route. Paris sidewalks are very narrow, have many pedestrians who are not expecting runners, and are liberally garnished with doggy droppings. It is a lovely city in many ways, but you really don’t want to step in that, slip in that, or fall in that. Keep your eyes on the sidewalks in between admiring the architecture.

London: Such a big city.

1.     The Thames isn’t great for long runs in the central area. Too chopped up. But if you are staying in the west (past Putney) there is a lovely trail along the river. 20K if you run past Kew Gardens before turning.

2.     Hyde Park is perfect. It’s about 7 km in circumference if you include Kensington Gardens. Great run!

3.     There is also a path along the Regents Canal. It is nice and gives a really different view of London. But even in daylight parts of it feel a bit sketchy – I am not sure it would be a good idea for a lone woman.

Dublin: We tried running in the park closest to city centre, called St. Stephen's Green. It is nice enough, but too small to do any distance. Running by the river Liffey is basically impossible. But if you're staying south of the river it's about a five minute trot to the Grand Canal. We ran west, and were able to do 12-14 km easy round trip. Really nice run: we did it three times!

Berlin: Where we stayed wasn’t great for running so we didn’t. But there seem to be some paths beside the Spree River, and the big city park (Tiergarten) has lots of trails.

Hamburg: You can’t really run along the Elbe River: too much port activity. But there is a lake called the Aussenalster that has a great trail, and is close to downtown area. Two loops would be about 10 km.

Dusseldorf: Delightful surprise. Great trails along the Rhine River, two minutes of street running to get there. We went downstream and could have done tens of kilometers.

Frankfurt: Delightful surprise again. Great trails along the river, this time the Main. We went upstream for 10 km, round trip 20 km.

Vienna: The actual Danube is a bit far from city centre, but the Danube Canal is close, and gives a good distance. We ran northish to the Danube proper confluence, which was about 12 km round trip.

Ljubljana: Although the river (Ljubljanica) doesn’t have a good running path beside it, there is a very large and mountainous park five minutes from downtown. Tivoli park has amazing running trails, both winter and summer. 10-20 km as you wish.

Prague: We visited but did not run. There seems to be a trail along the Vltava River , close to Old Town. There don’t seem to be any parks close to the center that are large enough.

Amsterdam: Despite my comments about running near water, the famous canals are not great: too many stops necessary. We ran in the Vondelpark, which is super pretty. It only took us about ten minutes of street running to get there.

Brussels: Wonderful town, terrible running, at least in the Central part. No watercourse based runs, so we head up to the Parc Royale. It is very pretty, but quite small. I think each circuit is just over one km, so you need to do ten laps, which starts getting kind of monotonous.

Marseille: No parks. But run south from the Old Port and although there is some street running, there are also some nice stretches beside the Mediterranean and along the beach (Plage de Prado.) About 11 km return. See image above for one of the prettiest parts!

Lyon: There are two rivers in Lyon. The Saone isn’t that runnable, but there is a fantastic path on the east side of the Rhone. About 11 km from Place Bellecour return if you head north and turn at the Peripherique underpass.

Nantes: Oddly, you can’t run beside the Loire, but there is a smaller river running north called the Erdre. The path is clear and very pretty, and about 12-13 km if you start from downtown and turn back at the A11 highway underpass.

Toulouse: We ran downstream along the Garonne. We had to switch sides of the river a few times, but from downtown did about 10 km, turning around the A621 underpass.

Metz: One of my favourite towns in the north of France, from city centre we ran southwest along the Canale du Moselle. Flat, fast and gorgeous.

Milano: There’s no river, but from the city centre we ran around the Parc Sempione, which was maybe five minutes away? It’s a fair size, so four laps were well over 10 km.

Bologna: No river, but only five minutes south of the city center there are actual mountains! We ran up Via dell'Osservanza to Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo di Gaibola church, which was almost exactly 5 km from the Basilica. Very hilly, but one of the world’s best city runs ever.

Madrid: No river, but a nice city park in El Retiro is close to the center. Four laps was 10 km. Not boring at all.

Barcelona: We stayed centrally, at Passeig de Gràcia. I don’t normally like street running, but about 20 minutes uphill (north) took us to the trails that went up Tibidabo, the mountain that overlooks Barcelona. It was so fun we did it again the next day.

Stockholm: See image above. I have done this run over 30 times. East along Strandvagen to Djurgårdsbrunnsviken and then along the canal on the north side. Over the bridge and return on the other side. If you feel up to it you can run (from the north side) to the Pet Cemetery Kaknäs Djurkyrkogård. Beautiful trail run through the woods. 15 km round trip.

Copenhagen: Most of Copenhagen runs around the Sø: a chain of five little lakes (actually reservoirs) north of the central city. We normally hit the eastern end and run down towards the old fortress (Kastellet) and run around the battlements/bastions. About 14 km round trip from the Central Train Station.

Oslo: From city center we run south and east along the harbour. There is a clear trail, past the new Opera House and to kind of a desolate port area. But nice run, about 12 km round trip.

Zurich: We deliberately stay outside of the main city in a town called Küsnacht. There is a mountain behind it, and trail/ravine system that we always run. Up to 20 km round trip, depending on how far you go. The picture above is where we turn around on the run...this was in early spring.

Here is the question my friend asked:

“Hey Duncan, any guidance on running while in Europe? I know I won't be able to do my usual mileage, but I would like to do a bit of running, if only as a way to see the sights. Hitting Amsterdam, Paris, London, Prague, Berlin. Are parks better than streets? Okay for a woman to wear shorts or capri length tights? Any tips/tricks would be welcome. Thanks!”