Autumn breaks: take leave for leaves

Forests bleed into Lake Bled
Nothing is more beautiful on a sunny day than seeing the colours of a flaming autumn forest reflected in a lake. Head to Lake Bled in Slovenia for just such a site, surrounded as it is by the wooded slopes at the foothills of the Julian Alps.

The options are legion – hike the Triglav National Park to see it up close and personal, take a horse-drawn carriage ride around the lake for romance or, for total immersion, hire a row boat and surround yourself in a vivid mélange of green and orange.

Stay on the lake at the recently renovated Grand Hotel Toplice – which has its own boats – from €153 per night, per double, B&B. sava-hotels-resorts.com

Hunt for foliage in the Loire 
The forests of the Loire Valley can be a tad oppressive in summer, they're so densely, relentlessly green. But in autumn it's as if they are doing their best to make up for the fading sun, putting on a show of bright yellows and burnt oranges and looking for all the word like an impressionist's palette. Even the vineyards turn golden.

Check out the fiery expanses of the Forest of Chambord, 5,440 hectares of parkland surrounded by a 32km wall designed to keep game in and peasants out. Hire a bike and cycle part of the Loire a Velo, an 800km path along the bank of the Loire, or just visit forest fringed chateaux such as Villandry and Chenonceau, near Tours.

Stay in a hunting lodge of your own at the Domaine des Hauts de Loire, a member of the Relais & Chateaux group, between Blois and Tours. Doubles from €190 a night. domainehautsloire.com

See the "queen of forests" in England 
Just as French royals had their Loire valley, the English had their Forest of Dean, a hunting preserve of kings for hundreds of years. Known as the "queen of forests", in 1939 it became the country's first designated national forest park and covers an area of 328sq km in the western part of Gloucestershire.

With 20 million trees it is at its best in autumn when its oak, larch and beech residents turn russet and gold. The Roman Road between Wenchford picnic site and the road to the Dean Heritage Centre is known as the Golden Mile because of its spectacular autumn colours.

If your visit coincides with the autumn equinox, when the tides are at their highest, you should see the natural phenomenon of the Severn Bore at its most impressive too, a wall of water up to 3.5m high travelling up the river Severn with the incoming tide, at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour.

Stay at Barnsley House in the Cotswalds, a manor house on grounds designed by former owner, garden designer Rosemary Verey, so you can be sure they'll look good in autumn too. Rooms from £200 a night. barnsleyhouse.com

Be a student leaf-peeper in Heidelberg 
If it's a city break you're looking for, with the added attraction of autumn leaves, Germany's Heidelberg makes a lovely option. Even if it's one of those years when the leaves simply seem to turn straight to brown, without any dazzling in-between stage, it's still a lovely city to visit, surrounded by forests.

For the best views take the scenic path that starts at the Rathaus and brings you to Heidelberg Schloss, 100m above the old town. The castle, now largely in ruins, still offers spectacular vistas from its Great Terrace and gardens, down over the city and the Neckar river on which it is built. With its russet roofs and russet leaves, it’s as satisfyingly autumnal a cityscape as you’ll find.

Stay in the thick of it at the Heidelberg Suites, next to the Old Bridge, with views of the castle from every room, for €355 for a two-night stay in a double, including breakfast and a one night dinner cruise on the hotel's yacht. heidelbergsuites.com Alpine autumn in Switzerland All aboard the Glacier Express, the little train that can get you up the Alps from Zermatt to St Moritz. Before the snows come and blanket everything in white, there's a brief but glorious period in which the scene is bathed in autumn gold. It's perhaps unexpected in a landscape filled with conifers, but not all conifers are evergreen pines and the (deciduous coniferous) larches are the ones putting on the show.

Between September 26th and October 20th the stately Grand Hotel Kronenhof offers special leaf-peeping breaks in the forests that surround it, with guided hikes and unlimited use of all open mountain railways in the Engadin/St Moritz region, with doubles from CHF 420 (€348) for two nights ' half -board. kronenhof.com

Trek through trees in Austria 
The Austrian Alps are synonymous with snow but for a brief period in autumn it's the place to go for foliage.

Head for the Hohe Tauern Nationalpark, the largest of Austria’s national parks, based around the mighty mountain range that includes the Grossglockner, Austria’s highest. The woodlands at the foot of the glittering glacial summits take on a golden hue that make them idyllic for hiking.

Tag along on one of the photo safaris guided by national park rangers or be a bit more intrepid and go it alone: this autumn the park authorities are offering a "Golden Autumn on the Alpe Adria Trail" package, a self-guided trek with luggage transport and half-board accommodation, for €250, available from September 15th to October 15th. nationalpark-hohetauern.at

See Ruska in Finland 
Finland's tourist authority is positioning the country as a prime destination for serious leaf-peeping, and the further north you go the more vibrant the colour. A big part of its appeal is that it has the vivid reds so common in New England but so rare in European forests. And just as there is a range of words for snow in these parts, there's a special word for autumn leaf colour too, "ruska".

The country is covered in forest, with a variety of broadleaf trees and conifers as well as berries and moss. Providing hues of green, auburn, blue, red and yellow, it’s as if entire swathes are dressed in the finest tweed. That’s the plus side, the downside is that, while the show is spectacular, it only has a short run.

The season lasts only two weeks here, with the second half of September typically its peak. Make like a Finn and head for Lapland, home to the biggest wilderness areas of the country, for hiking and mountain biking routes and temperatures typically around 10 degrees.

Go native in a wilderness cabin available from around €200 per weekend, €500 per week. lomarengas.fi

Take a maple walk in Wicklow 
It's the maples that give New England its signature blaze of reds and, while you'll find the odd one here in Ireland – typically Japanese acers in suburban front gardens – the best place to find them in a concentrated dose is Mount Usher Gardens in Ashford, Co Wicklow.

Best known for its early summer display of rhododendrons and azaleas, it bursts with colour in autumn too thanks to its Maple Walk, where Japanese Maples and Golden Larches flame away alongside colourful berries and cheery toadstools – the fairy-tale red kind with white spots.

Stay over at the Powerscourt Hotel in Enniskerry, a 20-minute drive away, whose own stock of fiery beeches is more than enough to keep the autumnal mood going. Doubles from€ 290 a night. powerscourthotel.com