For me, travelling has always been a story of two halves. Either I’m off in far-flung places taking on adventures for work, or I’m trying to relax on family holidays. It’s a lifestyle I’m hugely grateful to lead, but when I’m taking in the views at the top of a mountain or diving into crystal-clear water, I often find myself wishing I could share those moments with my family.
So this year, I decided to try something a little bit different. Taking advantage of one of the beautiful locations on offer with TUI Lakes & Mountains packages, my brother Callum and I decided to combine adventure with proper downtime and brought our partners along to share the ride.
Our destination was Lake Garda: sitting at the foot of the Italian Alps, it’s the perfect place for scenic adventures. Our base for the trip was Hotel Augusta in Malcesine, a laid-back little bed-and-breakfast surrounded by olive groves, just a short walk from the lakeside. The views were unparalleled: mountains behind us, stunning lake vistas just beyond our balcony.
Day one was set aside as our ‘adventure day,’ and so, after an early alarm, Callum and I headed out at sunrise for a ‘recce run’. This is one of my favourite things to do on the first day of any holiday: get out before the crowds gather and find out what’s in the vicinity, fit in a bit of exercise and shake off any rust from travelling. It also happens to be a great way to locate excellent coffee and pastries — something we knew our partners would appreciate when they woke up.
Swim, run, hike
We worked our way down to the banks of the lake. It was an early morning in May, so the water was very fresh, but Callum and I don’t mind a bit of cold exposure: we stripped off and jumped straight in. I find this an unbeatable way to start the day: it fires up your system, opens those dopamine pathways and, science aside, just feels great.
After one of the best swims I’ve had in years, we headed back for breakfast with the girls and started plotting the adventures ahead, which, as it turned out, were directly in our line of view. Above Malcesine is Monte Baldo, a dramatic mountain ridge that rises straight from the edge of the lake, piercing the sky at 2,218 metres (7,277ft). Here, accessible hiking routes and a cable car give two options to ascend to the summit. Naturally, Callum and I wanted a bit more of a challenge – so we turned our hike into a trail run.
Fuelled by breakfast, we laced up and headed for the mountains. A steep but accessible hike, as a run it also has serious bite, and within the first few hundred metres, we were exchanging looks as our legs and glutes started to blow up. But with every turn, we discovered a new bit of terrain: tiny mountain houses, cobbled streets, wooded trails, all leading upwards via mountainous switchbacks or long sweeping roads. Every now and again, we’d emerge from the trees to look out over a beautiful vista, the lake dropping further below as we climbed.
The best part of a climb is always the summit but today it was going to be even more special – because as we zigzagged our way up, our partners were preparing to board the cable car which ran almost directly from our hotel to the top of Monte Baldo. It meant Callum and I could smash out an incredible mountain trail run, quench our thirst for adventure and then meet our partners at the summit for a beautiful picnic overlooking the lake.
This, for me, really was the best of both worlds. It was amazing to sit at the top with my partner and see her take in the kind of views I’ve become used to. A shared experience is always better than a solitary one.
Flow state
Post-picnic, all four of us descended on the rotating cable car — an experience in itself, offering 360-degree vistas across the mountains and lake below. Back at the bottom, Callum and I had just one last part of our adventure left. We headed down to the lake, where we had reserved paddle boards, hopped on and made our way leisurely towards Castello Scaligero, Malcesine’s beautiful medieval castle. On the way back, lulled by the peaceful scenery, we lay back on our boards and took in the first glimmers of sunset over the mountains.
No trip to Italy is complete without eating your own body weight in pizza and pasta, so we met up with our partners and made our way through Malcesine’s cobbled streets to ‘replenish our glycogen stores’. The local cuisine blends Mediterranean and Alpine traditions, including freshwater fish, citrus fruits and, of course, carby Italian delicacies, including sumptuous bigoli con le sarde and tortellini di Valeggio.
If there’s one thing I took away from this trip, it’s that adventure and relaxation are not mutually exclusive, and that family time and physical excursions can co-exist. With the right destination, people and activities — and with TUI’s app helping us find nearby excursions once we arrived — we could run up a mountain in the morning, meet for lunch at the top, paddle past a medieval castle at sunset, and still end the day with incredible food and a view worth travelling for. Truly the best of both worlds.
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With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
