If you’re thinking of doing a long distance walk somewhere in Europe, then the Best of the Tour du Mont Blanc holiday would be an excellent choice. I joined this holiday in June. It was my first time in the Alps and I think that the first impression is always the most important - I was stunned by scenery what I saw.

When I think back about the trip, there were some things what stood out for me. First thing was the amazing nature. The Tour du Mont Blanc is one of the world's classic hiking routes, a path that goes through ice-capped mountains in France, Italy and Switzerland. We didn’t do any glacier walking or via ferrata and definitely no rock climbing, but there was a 'wow' factor all the time. I loved the trek, it was breathtaking and I was blown away with the picturesque valleys connected by ridged ascents and steep descents.

I felt like spring was in the air. It had stopped snowing only two weeks before and the meadows shimmered with golden, purple, pink, red and blue flowers. In the summer the weather becomes more stable so we were lucky and got pretty much guaranteed sunshine all week. Don’t forget the waterproofs though – this is the Alps after all and we did get the odd thunder storm in the mountains. Some morning were amazing watching an electric storm striking the mountains around us. That’s something I definitely like about the Alps weather. It can be so changeable and it is definitely not boring.

On our slightly damper day we did an ascent to the beautiful Lac Blanc which is what you can see above the Chamonix valley. Have you heard about the ladders there? They were installed to make the route easier across rocky ground. So we climbed the ladders in the rain and wind surrounded by snow. Challenging - yes, but it was proper adventure holiday. It’s a great tour for variety, one minute we were climbing ladders, the next crossing mountain rivers, then walking in the snow all the time listening to the distant clang of cowbells.

I fell in love with French food during the trip. It was so delicious! If you plan to lose some weight on this holiday, then think again. Every place where we stayed the food what they gave us was just amazing and portions - huge.

Another thing I realised while trekking on this holiday, was if you are regular hillwalker then you shouldn’t experience any problems when you’re on the slightly higher altitude trails around the entire massif of Mount Blanc. To be honest, I was a little bit scared at the beginning if I would be OK, but the beautiful views that surrounded us made us forget and just enjoy the walking. Some days were long but the valleys were so beautiful the time flew. We did the trip step by step. Especially we didn’t have to carry our baggage because it was transferred from one place to another.

I fell in love with the Alps – I’ll definitely go back soon!

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