Good base cities for hiking?
 

Hello! I am looking to plan a girls' trip with friends centered around easy/moderate day hikes. Looking for suggestions for towns where we could stay 3-4 days, explore the town, and do a few hikes in the 3-7 mile range. We are all women in our 40's, in decent shape but not looking for overnight backpacking or really difficult hiking. Thinking maybe Switzerland and/or Croatia, possibly Madeira, Portugal. We will probably do 2 or 3 different cities. This trip would probably be in June 2024.

Azores is very much the best for hiking.

Madeira has good hiking but perhaps too small to give you multiple sites.

Switzerland meaning the Alps and a very fertile island in the middle of the Atlantic are two very different places. What do you want more than hiking? Are price an issue? And what type of hiking do you like? Do you want go high, typically above the forest line and also see glaciers? Or are coastal hikes or forest hikes also acceptable?

In June (at least early June) I would suggest places like the lakes in northern Italy (Garda, Maggiore, Como), perhaps Slovenia (Bled) and perhaps also the eastern Pyrenees. The rest of Southern France also have a lot of good sites for hiking.