Trip Advice: Spain to Slovenia Roadtrip 2026
Hello!
I am looking for some locality and target advice on my upcoming roadtrip this summer. I have converted my youngest brother into a full on wildlife addict like myself and we will be taking a road trip between the two of us from June 21 to July 15 in Europe. Our main focus is salamanders which is why the itinerary is the way it is. We are going for almost all of Europe’s salamander species. However, he has become interested in mammals via my stories and we did a three day trip this last Jan for Eurasian Otter and salamander in Portugal together. This summer we are starting out trip in Barcelona and ending in the vicinity of Ljubljana, Slovenia where we will target the Olm.
I am reaching out to get any advice on mammal watching locations for our trip. I am most interested in bats, rodents and other small mammals but since I haven’t explored much in Europe there countless mammalian lifers for me. My biggest non-bat targets are Pyrenean Desman, European Badger, Northern Chamois, Iberian Lynx, Western Polecat, Pine Marten, Eurasian Beaver, Common Hedgehog, Northern White-breasted Hedgehog, and Stone Marten. The current skeleton itinerary is below but minor changes can be made, and anything within a 1-2 hour drive are fair game, but anything suggestions are welcomed. We also have the ability to add an additional 4 days along the route to places we may want more time at.
06/21-06/24: Barcelona area
06/25: Drive to Montpellier
06/26: Montpellier to Aix-en-Provence
06/27: Drive from Aix-en-Provence to Tende
06/28: Tende to Parco Naturale Alpi Marittime to High Alps.
06/29: Drive to Genoa
06/30-07/02: Genoa
07/03-07/05: Corsica
07/06: La Spezia
07/07-07/09: Trento, Italy
07/10: Trento to Ljubljana
07/11-07/15: Ljubljana area
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Flemming Versloot
Hi Zac,
Though I cannot help you with any of your specific targets, my girlfriends family lives in Marseille so I know the area around there pretty well.
In parc Borely in Marseille there is Coypus (or nutria) in abundance and they are easy to photograph. You can also find European swamp turtles in this parc (as well as a few invasive species). In the Calanques, near Marseille you can find wild boar with ease and there are also several packs of wolves, from which scat can be found on the hiking trails.
In the Southern Alpes I often visit a place called Le Super Sauze in summer. In the mountains above Super Sauze you can find Ibex, (though I have only seen them once, but that was the time that I was looking for them),Stoats (seen multiple times), pine martens (found tracks) and chamois, roe deer, wild boar etc. There used to be a lot of Alpine marmots but they have almost completely disappeared in a couple of years.