With beach holidays passé and ever more opportunities to do more in the mountains, it can be a good idea to put yourself in the hands of an expert holiday company that’s organising trips to the mountains year round and know what’s good, what’s not and what’s new.
Zenith Holidays offers multi-activity holidays across Europe – a playground of opportunities, so you can head to the mountains and enjoy rafting, climbing, mountain biking and cycling to name but a few.
Zenith staff have checked out all their destination options firsthand, and among their favourites is Bovec in Slovenia, where the Soča river is perfect for rafting, hydrospeeding, canyoning and kayaking.
The turquoise waters leave you in no doubt as to why this is called the Emerald valley, and you can try out the new zip wires over the river. Other opportunities in the area include horse riding, paragliding and even skydiving, and Zenith has a pre-designed “activity package” week available for you or is happy to tailor a package that includes whatever you’d like, and excludes whatever you don’t like the sound of!
Austria in summer is another recommended choice from Zenith, in particular the Oetzal valley in Tirol or Zell am See in Salzburgerland.
Area 47 at the foot of the Oetzal valley is an amazing action sports and leisure complex that offers a multitude of high-adrenalin activities from the Flying Fox and a very high altitude ropes course suspended below an alpine bridge to the Mega Swing and “Blobbing” or the Human Cannon ball. They’re all as alarming as they sound and not for the faint-hearted – but heaven on earth for those who like their anxiety levels set high!
Zell am See is more of a traditional mountain resort, easy to reach from Salzburg and in a stunning location. There’s plenty to do here including mountain biking, horse riding, climbing and hiking, and you can swim in the lake or a swimming pool, while white-water sports nearby include kayaking, rafting and canyoning.
Other popular destinations include Serre Chevalier in the southern French Alps (which includes the option to travel there by train and take a short break), where again white-water sports are a highlight, or Reykjavik in Iceland where everything from horse riding to diving, whale watching to 4×4 adventures, and national park tours to volcano hikes are on offer.
In fact, Zenith offers summer activity holidays in more than a dozen European countries with Croatia, Finland, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the Czech Republic and even our own Channel Islands on the list besides the countries already mentioned.
Zenith also organises holidays to Alpe d’Huez with its famous hill climb in the Tour de France which anyone can try and to the Italian Dolomites for summer mountain activities – see our separate features on these two areas in this magazine then visit Zenith’s website to look at packages they offer.
Zenith Holidays: zenithholidays.co.uk; 0203 137 7678