Besides all that I list below, consider an overseas vacation during any impending doomsday. Consider Australia. Being there with just a suitcase will probably be a better option that anywhere in Europe – unless you have the funds to buy land and install a bunker within a few hours’ drive of where you live.
Otherwise, head for the hills!
Seriously, the UK and Europe are very crowded places, and can be quite expensive. Finding a remote 20 acre block and building a shelter or bunker is much harder than in the Americas, Australasia or Africa. Ultimately the only places that are relatively safe and free of people will be the hills. Your budget will determine whether that means buying land, using a lockup, caching or having supplies in your car boot. But the place to go will be the hills.
The good news is that getting to the hills should be easy if you plan in advance. Roads are everywhere, and for most of Europe at each junction you will have many route choices. If you avoid motorways, grid locks are unlikely to be a problem, and any hindrances should be easy to circumvent.
England and Wales
There are many nice places to have a holiday in England. Lots of castles, camping grounds… The following suggestions might not seem so special, but they are. If the SHTF, they will have the least people, and your best chances of surviving, with or without your own property.
Escaping London
The hardest part will be getting beyond the Ring Road – good luck, or two-wheeled transport, might be needed if you live in the centre of London. Of the many different directions you could head, my suggestion is Central Wales.
The best route will be via the Chiltern Hills and Cotswolds. These are relatively higher above sea level, and less populated. If you can afford it, these two areas would be OK to build a top-notch safe spot. Even so, Wales is better. To get there you’ll probably need supplies, especially if you forget to keep you fuel tank full. Worthy of consideration is using a self-storage facility. A good example is Fort Lock Self Storage in Banbury. They are budget-minded and have drive-up storage with 24/7 access.
Because you can, work out a dozen different routes to Central Wales, avoiding major cities. And for each route, note any caravan parks. These could prove to be a handy resource if you cannot complete the journey to your safe spot.
Quantock Hills, Somerset
Bare in some places, beautiful rolling pastures in others, the Quantock Hills are not well known. This is a big plus. Although quite near the coast, this part of the Bristol Channel should be safe from any tsunami. Rural properties are reasonably priced. From the top of the hills there are also excellent views, as far as Exmoor, Glastonbury and Wales – good for seeing what is going on with a telescope.
The Quantock Orchard Caravan Park has static caravans for around £25,000. Of just hire one for around £50 per night, sleeps 4. They are open all year round, and seem to also have backpacker facilities.
All around the base of the hills you will find mansions, leased out for weddings and so on. Any of these could make for a good emergency refuge if a solid structure is needed. One, Crowcombe Court, is up for sale and not taking bookings. Nice if you have a spare £2 million. Otherwise within walking distance of the mansion is the Carew Arms pub, stay there if you are expecting a SHTF scenario soon for £50 per night and drink some real ales – perhaps the person with the mansion keys will be there too?
Similarly, Dunster Castle is down by the coast, about eight miles from the Quantock Hills. It is a full-on castle with turrets and dungeons, and is in good shape. Below it is the Dunster Castle Hotel. Above it is Gallox Hill (height 174 metres).
Central Wales / Powys
Powys is easily the least populated county in England and Wales. It is also high up, reasonably accessible, relatively cheap and the land is suitable for self-sufficiency. My personal preference is the rural areas west of Welshpool. It is only one hour from Birmingham, so that is perfect if you live there. As an alternative, consider around Rhayader.
I will keep on reiterating that the best option is to own your own land. Apart from all the usual SHTF scenarios, if law and order is maintained, you will have a place that is safe and yours. If you don’t own where you are staying, you can be asked to leave. If you are able to own rural land in Central Wales, your choices might still be limited, so don’t be too fussy.
For everyone else, your choices are squatting (not so bad if few people have survived), seeking charity (please Sir, can I stay in your barn), or renting.
And caravan parks, which I keep returning to. They have facilities, they are relatively cheap, and they tend to be rural or semi-rural. Some have on-site caravans and cabins that you can buy!
For example, Riverbend Caravan Park near Welshpool has a 2-bedroom Atlas Dakota Super, 32 feet long, for just under £10,000, amongst their six for sale. If you can get a bank loan, and re-sell it after the SHTF doesn’t happen, your outlay will be modest.
Naughty Tip: Just one mile from Welshpool is Powis Castle. It is a substantial and solid building. While in the long-term you are bound to be usurped (unless you are already part of an armed group), during any SHTF event it could provide the type of shelter you need to survive. Even if hundreds of people think the same way, there will be enough room.
Nottingham / Birmingham
My recommendation is to head to Central Wales. If you prefer, the Lake District is also quite good, but getting there will be more difficult.
Manchester / Liverpool / Sheffield / Leeds
It comes down to traffic. In a SHTF scenario major roads of this belt of cities could become clogged in every direction, with people trying to get out but not having any concrete plans. In general, head north to the Lake District or south to Central Wales depending on traffic.
Lake District
For the most part, if you find a spot in England that is remote and quiet, it won’t be a very good survival spot. Cold, wind-swept moors are good for walks and heather, but not for self-sufficiency. Also, flat un-forested areas are not very suitable for hiding!
Within the Lake District is Grizedale Forest, and there are also pockets of wooded areas around Lake Windermere as well as Keswick. If you have New Age leanings, checkout the Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick – to me it feels like a good spot to watch the end of the world from.
Grizedale Camping (grizedale-camping.co.uk) has budget camping at £6 per person, plus wooden huts that sleep four for £25/night. This place is ideal for those who want to go somewhere safe in anticipation of something. And it is open all-year-round.
If buying a static caravan appeals, when I looked Wild Rose and Skiddaw View both had some for under £20,000.
Worth consideration are the bushcraft courses run by Woodsmoke, who are based near Hawkshead. Instead of dismissing your chances of surviving a doomsday, take a course and get a feel for it. For the rest of your life you can take your normal holidays, but this year, try a survivalist course. I dare you.
Scotland
The best general safe spot area is easy – Perthshire. The population is relatively low, the land is fertile, and the hills are accessible. Narrowing it down further, I’d be looking at the area surrounding Blairgowrie, and perhaps Dunkeld. In between, at the tiny town of Caputh, is an independent backpacker’s hostel, a bargain at £18 per night. Otherwise the district has caravan parks, hotels and even mansions available to rent on a weekly basis. As far as I can tell, buying a worthwhile survival spot in this region would not be possible for most people.
As with London, the biggest challenge for most Scots is escaping the Glasgow/Edinburgh population corridor. Edinburgh locals should avoid the Forth of Firth bridge and head north via Stirling.
Alternatively, and especially if escaping north looks like too much of a challenge, consider the south-west of Galloway Forest Park, around Loch Ken, Castle Douglas and Haugh of Orr. It doesn’t have much in height, but is safe from tsunamis. And I’d expect the area will remain quiet when the SHTF. There are several independent backpacker hostels, and excellent camping at Marthrown of Mabie or the Galloway Activity Centre.
Lastly, if you are like me and fancy your chances storming a castle while the rest of the world are panicking, between Crieff and Gleneagles there are some excellent castles. (Conspiracy theorists might note that the Bilderberg Group met at Gleneagles in 1986).
Continental Europe
To put it bluntly, the north is too cold, and the south is too prone to earthquakes. So really you should be heading for the middle. A major potential problem is crossing borders. In a catastrophe, borders could be closed, so it is imperative that you work out in advance (that means now), roads you can take that are less likely to be blocked.
Aside from borders, Europe is massively complicated to summarise. At this stage I am not able to provide recommendations for every large city. Hopefully this will not be a problem, because you can use my criteria to work out your best safe spot:
- Low population
- Won’t come to mind when people panic and flee populated areas
- Not near a major thoroughfare / road
- Elevated if near the coast
- Away from fault lines, nuclear reactors and volcanoes
- Fertile land
- New Age locals
Best direction is towards the Alsace region of France that borders Germany. Wherever you are in Europe, in general heading for that region will give you the best compromise between earthquakes and cold. Alsace itself is not great, it is highly populated, is along a border, is along a river. And it is in the middle of the densest region of nuclear reactors in Europe.
To avoid nukes, aim for Switzerland, Dijon, or the border between Germany and the Czech Republic. As I have mentioned in other chapters, a lack of nukes typically means a lack of population, so that is win-win. All around Dijon looks good, and between Dresden and Prague looks excellent as well.
Switzerland
Switzerland is difficult to get to. Unless you live really close, it’s a non-starter. But if you can get there, or live there, the whole country is a bunker. While many are decrepit or repurposed, during the Cold War the Swiss government made sure that there was a bunker space for every man, woman and child. So if you are Swiss, stay put. The south and east of the country are free from nuclear power plants.
Eastern Europe
For those in Western Europe, one of the features of Eastern Europe is that it is a relatively cheap place to visit. Poland, and the Baltic countries to its north, are far less likely to have a major earthquake than the Mediterranean countries. They also have no nuclear power plants at present, and they are safe from tsunamis. Unless you lived in Germany, Russia or Belarus I wouldn’t be constructing a Baltic bunker or safe spot there.
Polish Ski Holiday
There are some ski resorts in the Krkonoše mountains, such as Karpacz and Szklarska Poręba where you might consider seeing out a SHTF scenario while enjoying yourself. They are better located and cheaper than those to the east. Even better is Kaszuby near Gdansk, get rooms in this scenic location from just $30 per night.
Castles
Some Eastern European castles have hotel type accommodation within their solid walls.
In Latvia there is Jaunpils Castle, Birini Castle and Jaunmoku Pils. They are not terribly expensive, for example Jaunmoku starts at $80.
There are quite a few in Poland…