Mountain Beach Holidays
Can you have a beach holiday in the mountains? Of course you can. In fact, a mountain beach holiday may well be the best beach holiday you'll ever have.
Words and photography by Olly Beckett
With summer temperatures in the Mediterranean starting to consitently hit 45°C+, 'Coolcations' - a holiday/vacation to somewhere with good weather but less intense heat - are growing exponentially in popularity. Google Trends noted last year that searches for 'cooler holidays' increased 300% year-on-year. Thankfully for those who want to be by the water but not baking in extreme heat the mountains have cool lakes, and those lakes have some very lovely beaches.
Lake Annecy has for many years attracted beach lovers. The water in the lake reaches an average of 23°C in summer and so is perfect for a cooling dip. You only need take a look at the tourist office's beaches page to see how many perfect plages there are to be found around just this one lake alone. There are over 500,000 natural lakes larger than 1ha in Europe, there's somewhere for everyone no matter what type of beach you may like.
I recently returned from a hike to Loch A'an in the Cairngorms Mountains. Part of this hike included a night wild camping on the shores of the loch. Here I was delighted to find a flat, sandy beach surrounded by 1,000m+ mountains and gently lapped by the glassy loch water. OK, so the water itself was icy cold, but on that delightfully sunny evening there were only two other groups of campers nearby, and each of us had a beach to ourselves.
While there are plenty of opportunities for those who like a beach to be peaceful and far from every day life, many more seek out the accoutrements of a typical beach holiday. Resorts found in places such as Lake Lugano have been promoting themselves as alternatives to seaside locations for over a century. Around Lake Constance you'll find waterparks, sailing clubs, trendy bars and yes, more than a few places from which to buy ice cream.
During India's 2023 heatwaves travel to the country's cooler hill stations surged, including to places along Umiam Lake in the state of Meghalaya. With climate change set to get ever more extreme, coolcations to mountain lakes will be growing increasingly popular. Good news for lakeside resorts, less good news for those who have until now enjoyed the peaceful serenity of these bodies of water in the mountains.
