Activities

The Top Health Benefits of Cross-Country Skiing: Why It's the Ultimate Winter Workout

Cross-country skiing is often overlooked in favour of other winter sports, but it stands out as one of the most effective full-body workouts. From building endurance to i ...

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Unleashing Adventure: Planning the Ultimate Activity Holiday for Teenagers

Are you looking to plan the ultimate activity holiday for your teenage adventurers? Look no further! Embarking on a well planned trip with teenagers is an exciting advent ...

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How to Make Sure a Climbing Harness Is a Proper Fit

With so many different makes and models available, finding a climbing harness that fits just right can be challenging. How do you choose the best climbing harness for you ...

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Discovering New Territories - Climbing off the Beaten Track

The Tete des Lacs Froids..... where is that? Hidden away in the Ubaye in the Southern French Alps, this unknown summit is a beautiful walk, scramble and climb in wild, un ...

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Missed a ski season? Why 2022 is your chance for something new

If you missed 2020 as well as 2021 on the slopes, a skiing trip in 2022 could leave you feeling like a beginner. Maybe that’s an opportunity to rethink what you do i ...

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The Basic Mistakes Made By Most Ski Beginners

If you are new to skiing, then every aspect of your on-snow experience can present a challenge.   Skiing can often prove to be a difficult sport. Performed in a ...

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Mountaineering Training - Everything You Need to Know When Training for a Climb

When it comes to mountaineering, preparation is everything. Much more demanding than hiking, ascending a mountain requires a higher level of fitness as well as experience ...

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What is Canyoning?

For people looking for something different to do on their next summer holiday, canyoning can be lots of fun. When the weather is hot, there’s nothing more exhilarating ...

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What Are Via Ferrata?

What are Via Ferrata? Via ferrata holidays combine rock scrambling with dramatic rock faces, cliffs and gorges – promising incredible views and a fun physical challeng ...

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These are the Best Places to Go Mountain Biking in the Alps

The cycling season in the Alps runs from May to November, with some of the higher altitude areas closing in September. While the winter months are too cold to make riding ...

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What is a Norwegian Hytte?

The Norwegian Hytte The hytte is to the Norwegians what the Dacha is to the Russians - a small house out in the countryside - and the role of this typical littl ...

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What is Snowshoeing?

This great winter exercise makes the perfect alternative to skiing or snowboarding. It’s a fantastic way to stay active, is much faster to learn, and is also more affor ...

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How Cerys Matthews inspired our Wild Food Foraging Walking Holiday in the Alps

When musician and BBC Broadcaster, Cerys Matthews arrived for her Gourmet Alpine Walking holiday with rock climbing, I presented her with our argousier juice we ...

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The Beginner's Survival Guide to Ski Lessons

New to skiing? If you’re thinking of taking the plunge and going on your first ski trip, you’ll probably want to sign up for a few lessons to get the basics firm ...

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Best winter activities for a snow holiday with a difference

Breathe in the fresh, clean mountain air, admire the pristine winter wilderness, listen to the soft thud as snow falls from thickly laden branches breaking the calm... &n ...

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Alternate Christmas and New Year Holiday ideas

Images of trees laden with snow, pretty houses covered in a glistening white blanket sparkling with Christmas lights, rosy cheeked carol singers walking down icy streets ...

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Creating a Plastic Free Activity Holiday – the Challenge

The Plastic Problem Like most people our conscience has been pricked by the devastating reports of the effect of plastic pollution on the world. As a responsible tour ope ...

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7 of the Best Hikes in Europe

We are very pleased to be able to publish this article by Cal Bailey, with his unique perspective on European walking! We are especially proud that he has chosen to featu ...

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The pros and cons of wearing a helmet for ski touring and backcountry skiing

We’re just about to set off on a beautiful sunny day to go ski touring. I eye up my fellow ski tourers and realise that I am the only one wearing a helmet. In fact ...

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Is Ski Touring in the Alps for Me?

Ski touring in the Alps is an aspiration for anyone who loves mountains and skiing and there are more and more people of all ages, but particularly in the over 40 and 50 ...

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A Night in a Mountain Shelter - Your Questions Answered!

First, let’s be totally honest: the “Night in a Mountain Shelter” activity started out last year as a plan B. As everywhere else in Europe, the early winter had bee ...

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Preparing for a Snowshoeing Adventure: 5 Fitness Tips for the Over 50s

“Will I be fit enough to enjoy snowshoeing in the Alps?” This is the most common question people ask us when enquiring about our snowshoeing holidays. The winter temp ...

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Top 3 Family Activities to do in October Half Term in the Alps

October half term is fast approaching and it is one of those funny holiday periods when the classic family winter or summer holiday doesn't really fit! It's not really wa ...

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Why the Alps is Perfect for E-biking

E-biking has taken the alpine world by storm with bike shops prioritising their e-bike displays over all other bike types and hurriedly buying in e-bike stock to keep up ...

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Top 3 Winter Activities for Families in the Alps

High up in the Alps, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, where the sun beams down onto the crisp white snow and the views stretch over the beautiful valleys ...

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Best Family Walks with a View in the Southern French Alps

The higher you go, the better the view - right? It is true that the hours of sweat put in to get to the top of any mountain in the Alps will undoubtedly pay off with a ma ...

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Best Romantic Winter Activities to do in the Alps

The Alps in winter with snow-laden trees, frozen waterfalls, alpine meadows blanketed in white and pretty chocolate box villages nestled in the valleys meandering through ...

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Three of the Best Activities to do in the Alps in Autumn

In the Southern French Alps, Autumn is a time of cool, crisp mornings often disguised with a wispy mist that is gradually burnt off by the warm, autumnal sun to reveal de ...

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The Top Three Adrenalin Activities for Teenagers

It’s well known that the teenage years can be challenging for all involved! The family holiday can be the perfect opportunity to cultivate the parent teen relationship ...

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The Best Alpine Activities for Quality Adventures with your Kids!

A child’s imagination is sacred. They can turn a toilet roll tube into anything from a telescope to spy on their siblings to an obstacle course for the fairies at the b ...

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Cross Country Skiing Revealed!

Cross country skiing is a confusing term as it is actually used by different people for a range of different sports. Nordic Skiing is also often interchangeable with cros ...

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Top tips to get best value for money on your winter family holiday in the French Alps

Unless you take your kids out of school holidays you are going to pay over the odds... TRUE or FALSE? Luckily for this year it is FALSE!!! If you’ve done your research ...

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What to Wear for Snowshoeing in the Alps

Just because there is snow doesn’t necessarily mean it will be freezing cold. It can even be quite warm if you are snowshoeing in the springtime on a sunny day. Howeve ...

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Why ski touring is becoming the new winter sport of choice!

Skiing off piste in the Alpine wilderness is a dream that is coming true for more and more people. Skiers are quitting the groomed pistes in droves to ski tour in the mou ...

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What is the best age for a child to start skiing?

When can children start skiing - what is the perfect age to debut on the snowy pistes?“I need a wee, my hands are cold, my feet are cold, I want my dummy, where’s mu ...

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Cycling around the Serre Poncon Lake

The Serre Poncon lake is one of the largest man-made lakes in Westerne Europe. It is 20km long and 3 km wide and is situated on the edge of the Ecrins National park - a s ...

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Our Favourite Winter Activity Holidays You Should Try This Year

You don't need to ski to enjoy the Alps in winter! A winter activity holiday in the Alps is a perfect holiday to try out new adventures and activities in the snow. If you ...

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How to Behave in a Mountain Refuge

In the Alps there is a large network of high mountain refuges providing shelter to walkers and mountaineers on their journeys into the mountains away from civilisation. S ...

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Making memories with your mates – 5 top activities to do together.

Laughing with our mates and sharing fun experiences together is a tonic for life. We store the experiences in our memory bank and little triggers will pull them out every ...

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The Virtues of Fingerless Biking Gloves

Why you should bring fingerless biking gloves on all activity holidays, even if you aren’t biking!!! Fingerless biking gloves have a leather palm for gripping on to the ...

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The History of Wolves in the Alps

At the end of the 18th century, François de Beaufort estimated that there were between three and seven thousand wolves in France. They occupied territories stretching fr ...

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Tree Climbing in the Alps

Most of us have fond childhood memories of climbing trees; negotiating the knurly branches, sitting up high in the leafy canopy of a tree with our friends and jumping bac ...

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Undiscovered Alps Top Tips for Cross-Country Mountain biking

There has been a real boom in mountain biking in Europe over the past few years. There are more and more waymarked mountain bike trails, ski resorts are opening in the s ...

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Ski Mountaineering - Exploring the Caves of DĂ©voluy on Skis!

The Heroic Crossing!! When I moved to the Devoluy 3 years ago, I would never have imagined myself skiing into one of the caverns of Devoluy and then climbing through it w ...

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The Ultimate Cardio Challenge - A Cross Country Ski Marathon!

The 2013 Trans' Champsaurin 42km cross country ski race qualifies for my top ten most difficult physical challenges experienced so far in my 'nearly' 40 years!! I was ver ...

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The 100th Tour de France is coming to Gap!

The Tour de France will celebrate its centenary in style with a 2 day stop over in Gap, a beautiful town nestled in the mountains of the Southern French Alps. This 100th ...

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Via Ferratas for Children

Using via ferratas, adults and children with no mountain or climbing experience can access exposed rock faces and cliffs normally only accessible to experienced rock clim ...

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What makes a perfect family activity holiday?

“What makes a perfect family activity holiday?” The answer to this question is as long as piece of string! Especially when you’re looking for a holiday that will pl ...

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How to organise the perfect Stag and Hen Adventure Weekend.

So you’ve been honoured with the position of best man or head-bridesmaid, congratulations!!! However, after the initial elation has worn off, you realise that you are t ...

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My First Ice Climbing Adventure in the Alps

A few years ago, I needed to repaint the exterior of the bathroom window frame, so with my partner keeping her hands on the bottom of the ladder, I ascended and began rub ...

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A Perfect Winter Mountaineering Initiation in the Alps

When Kenny, a Scot with an impressive mountaineering background, called to ask what sort of thing would be possible to do in the Alps in winter on snowshoes, it was a tri ...

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How to build an igloo or snow shelter

Snow has been used by the Inuit for its insulating properties for centuries and they are the masters of igloo building - constructing all types of snow shelters from over ...

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Snowshoeing isn't boring!

Anyone under the illusion that snowshoeing is just a boring walk with tennis rackets strapped to their feet, slogging through monotonous snow fields, please read on... an ...

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Getting Close to Wolves

We are standing very still in the woods in a wild and remote part of the Southern French Alps listening. It is still, with not a breath of wind. Occasionally a lump of sn ...

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All About... Ski Touring

Having first been introduced to snow-capped mountains of the southern French Alps at around the age of 15, I quickly became addicted to sensation of throwing myself down ...

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Granny and Grandpa Go Ice Climbing

I used to worry about getting older and not being able to do all the things I love - mountaineering, running in the mountains, rock climbing.... . But 'getting older' is ...

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Fell (Trail) Running in the Alps - The Gapencimes Trail Race

A long time ago, before children and when I lived in the UK, I used to fell run. I even once did the Saunders Mountain Marathon and came an amazing last out of the 40% of ...

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A review of Orcieres by guest blogger, journalist Roger Moss

Orcières - A winter sports destination worth discovering (even if you don’t ski) In the Southern French Alps within the Ecrins National Park, and readily accessible fr ...

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Top 10 Summer Activities in the French Alps - Part 1

An opportunity for us to shamelessly plug some of the fantastic activities you can do on a summer holiday with Undiscovered Mountains, but also hopefully a chance for you ...

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How to Avoid the Worst Lift Queues on your Family Ski Holiday to the Alps

Skiing is one of the best holidays you can do with a family. Sharing the exhilarating feeling of skiing down a piste with your loved ones is a privileged pleasure. For no ...

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