Brought to you by TUI Holidays. 

Well, it's official. We're cold and we miss summer.

That's not to say we don't love Christmas. Obvs we do - we're not the Grinch. But that doesn't mean we can't start booking our holidays for next summer. It may be winter but we have already begun a bit of sneaky 2019 summer planning (it's never too early!). Though, as much as we love our beach hols, we're craving something a bit different this time. We want to go somewhere we've never been and try new foods that we've never tasted. So, we've decided to switch it up this year and we're mountain-bound. Bear with us here, we're not going full hermit or anything. There is actually a whole world up in the Alps that we've never explored. And when we say world, we mean festivals, stunning lakes, and delicious food. There's tons of activities up in the mountains of Europe and we are all about those festivals. There is everything from the more normal music festivals to completely outlandish events that you would never come across elsewhere. The Sound of the Dolomites is a music festival where the musicians play in the open air among the mountains. We challenge you to find a concert with a more beautiful setting than this festival. If you're looking for the more weird and wonderful mountain events, why not take a trip to the Austrian Alps during September for the Almabtrieb? Local farmers lead their cows back down to their stables from the high Alps where they have been all summer. The cows are decorated with flower headdresses and there are celebrations in the town as they pass through. If food is more your thing, there's a Swiss Food Festival in Zermatt, August, where you can have breakfast in the Matterhorn-Express gondola. Divine. Or celebrate Bardolino's famous Chiaretto DoC rosé wine in June when the Bardolino's lakeside turns pink with celebrations. There will be fireworks, dragon boats, and wine tastings (need we go on?). For the truly whacky events, the Brienz Lumberjack Festival attracts lumberjacks from all over the world to compete in various wood-cutting events. Possibly the most stereotypical mountainous Swiss thing we've ever heard of and we love it. Or go see the hilarious Gara della Cuccagna competition in Bardolino, Italy, where people have to try and balance on a 12-metre-long slippery tree trunk to reach the flag at the end of it. If we say that we just want to see them fail and fall into the lake that the tree is suspended over, does that make us bad people? Those are only some of the things that happen every year up in those higher altitudes. We're so swapping the sea for crystal lakes and we cannot WAIT to get exploring these festivals. Sorry, beach, try not to miss us too much. Brought to you by TUI holidays.  To find out more about the TUI Lakes and Mountain range, visit their website, call them directly on 1850 45 35 45, or pop into your local TUI store or agent.