I’m going to be travelling on my bike mostly this May/June time. Trying to do as many counties as I can without forsaking actually enjoying my time in them. It got me thinking about all the places where three counties meet, and with free movement between most it seems funny for anything to be marked in all but anywhere notable.

Edit. I found a map of them all https://i.imgur.com/ycOzEo3.png

33 comments

  1. I don’t know of almost any tri-point border in Europe. Now the only one that comes to my mind now is that of Spain-France-Andorra. But I don’t know what makes such kind of border “remarkable”.

    I find something else regarding borders more interesting, such as a Spanish town (Llívia) completely surrounded by French territory.

  3. You have the northernmost tri-point, between Norway, Finland and Sweden. The point itself is in a lake, and you can walk out to it as they built a monument in the lake.

    There is also another interesting tri-point. Between Norway, Finland and Russia. When visiting from Norway, at least they used to escort you with the border guards. Dont know if you are actually allowed to go there anymore. This is because it’s the end of the Schengen area and it’s illegal to cross into Russia without passing the actual border access point. Also, the border is guarded, and you can’t take pictures of the Russians.

  4. I don’t think it counts as a tri-point border but Basel in Switzerland has suburbs in Germany and France. It’s also lovely and has good museums.

  5. The tripoint itself isn’t particularly celebrated, but you can very easily be in 3 countries (Luxembourg, Germany, France) in a couple of minutes from Schengen, and there’s a really nice bike path on the German side along the Moselle.

  6. Slovakia, Austria and Hungary is pretty cool. Bratislava’s city limits border both Austria and Hungary.

  8. poland/germany/czechia is on a river. theres some benches and you can see 4 flags there (countries flags + the eu flag in the middle)

  10. Fun fact about the Netherlands-Belgium-Germany tri-point border: it’s simultaneously the highest point of the continental Netherlands, at 322 meters.
    Thus proving again what a very flat and low-lying country we are.

  11. Czechia/Austria/Germany is probably in the nicest area here, but you would need at least 500 meters uphill from a closest village. For bike, it’s nice to go to Czechia/Austria/Slovakia though the lowland forest. Other two tripoints are not that special, practically in a random point in the countryside but there are some monuments.

  12. CZ/AT/DE is at a hilltop in a range of small mountains, seems pretty beautiful. Similarly AT/IT/SI is the peak of a small mountain in a low Alpine range, also beautiful. AT/CH/IT is on the side of a taller mountain but seemingly still accessible by easy hiking and VERY scenic and beautiful. If I had time for three tripoints that are reasonably close together (as much as is possible between entire countries) I’d probably do these. Edit: Southern AT/CH/LI point is a super beautiful, relatively hikeable (if you’re in shape) medium mountain peak as well.

    I wouldn’t advise FR/CH/IT, it’s the peak of an actual difficult mountain, similarly both points for FR/ES/AD may be very mountainous but it’s difficult to even find precise information on them at a glance. A lot of other tripoints are either in the middle of river junctions so you can’t actually reach them all the way, or they’re just boring spots in a field or forest. Alright if you like stone columns and info boards but otherwise meh. Of those maybe consider DE/FR/CH because you get to see the city of Basel and the Rhine river in the process.

  13. [There is a german wikipedia article with pictures of many of them](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreil%C3%A4nderecke_Europas)

    I think Schengen would be a very interesting one as the schengen agreement is named after it. You could do a small tour starting at Vaalserberg, following the german border, then going south at lake constance and go down the swiss border, then maybe venice and finish in Triest or Ofen. You would have 8-10 tripoints with just 1500km trip and a lot of nice cities along the way

  14. The tri-point border of Portugal/France/Andorra is a weirdly 2-dimensional line of mostly barren land, some 600km across.

    It has nice beaches, though, I hear.

  15. There is actually a quadri-point! It’s just between two countries though, but it is just one singular point where 4 borders meet between Germany and Austria, the latter has an exclave, Jungholz, which is connected to Austria only by one single point, the quadripoint at the Sorgschrofen summit. I don’t know if it’s remarkable, but I find it interesting at least…

    Probably not very bike-friendly though!

  16. Schengen between Luxembourg, France, Germany, where the Schengen Agreement was signed aboard a ship in Moselle river. Beginning of free borders inside EU.

  17. TIL – there’s a river between Romania, Moldova and Ukraine named Prut. That means fart in Danish. And it has a mouth into the Danube.

  18. Not a tripoint as there are only 2 countries involved but check out Baarle Hertog and Baarle Nassau. Can’t even tell if it’s Belgium or Netherlands. Pretty interesting situation.

  19. My vote is on Vaalseberg between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

    For centuries men have killed and died in those surrounding fields and now their children play together there.

  20. The tri-point between Germany, Russia and Austro-Hungary is still marked with some kind of cairn if you fancy taking a selfie with a sepia filter and a bowler hat on.

  21. Take the Eberadweg coming from Dresden to the east, turn into Upper Lusatia and enjoy the triangle Germany Poland Czech Republic in Zittau.(With you Lusatian Neisse) Then Zittau Mountains and Roman Switzerland. And the Czech beer is MEGA.
    [https://www.elberadweg.de/](https://www.elberadweg.de/)
    [Zittauer Gebirge](https://www.google.com/search?q=zittauer+gebirge&rlz=1C1CHBF_deDE924DE924&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHm5Oer_D1AhWxoFwKHW72AsIQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1309&bih=606&dpr=2.2/)
    [Bömische Schweiz](https://www.google.com/search?q=b%C3%B6hmische+Schweiz&rlz=1C1CHBF_deDE924DE924&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7wurvr_D1AhWI16QKHT5MCagQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1309&bih=606&dpr=2.2)

  22. Spectacular scenery? Take the Elbe cycle path east from Dresden, turn into Upper Lusatia and enjoy the triangle of Germany, Poland and Czech Republic in Zittau. And the Czech beer is MEGA.
    [https://www.elberadweg.de/](https://www.elberadweg.de/)
    [Zittauer Gebirge](https://www.google.com/search?q=zittauer+gebirge&rlz=1C1CHBF_deDE924DE924&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHm5Oer_D1AhWxoFwKHW72AsIQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1309&bih=606&dpr=2.2/)
    [Bömische Schweiz](https://www.google.com/search?q=b%C3%B6hmische+Schweiz&rlz=1C1CHBF_deDE924DE924&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7wurvr_D1AhWI16QKHT5MCagQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1309&bih=606&dpr=2.2)

  23. How do the Channel Islands feature on this map? I don’t understand what the third country would be after the UK and France.

  24. It depends… In Italy there are 3 and they are always on the Alps:

    Italy – Austria – Slovenia

    Italy – Austria – Switzerland

    Italy – France – Switzerland

    Of these three maybe the most accessible is the first one.

  27. Have a look on the youtube channels for Tom Scott and Tim the Time Traveller, they both have some videos on interesting borders

  29. I saw that you wrote counties, and so I thought that you actually meant counties.

    Then it became clear that you meant countries.

    Then I saw that you said counties AGAIN, so I thought, well, maybe they mean counties.

    Then I looked at the map.

    What an amazing journey I’ve taken with you.

  32. I mean. Gotta go with my own nation’s. The tri point between The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. It looks pretty cool

  33. Pretty much Lake Constance as a whole, as Germany and Austria consider the lake being a condominium, while Switzerland disagrees.

    So you can take a swan boat, pedal it to Switzerland and trigger an international border conflict.

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