Eight ranges, one continent
Mountain Europe
Europe's mountains are not one thing. The Alps are high and serviced; the Caucasus is higher and barely; the Tatras are compressed; the Picos end in the sea; the Accursed Mountains have a blood-feud memory and a trail through three countries. This is the case for treating them as different places rather than one activity.
8 places across 8 countries · not an itinerary
Chamonix
The Alps at their most vertical, and the birthplace of the sport.
Lauterbrunnen
Cliff-shelf villages reachable only by cable car, under the Eiger.
Ortisei & the Dolomites
The Dolomites: pale limestone towers over meadows, with wartime via ferrata still bolted in.
Zakopane & the Tatras
Poland's only alpine range, compressed into a few valleys and thoroughly loved.
Mestia, Svaneti
The Caucasus, higher than the Alps, with defensive towers in every village.
Picos de Europa (Cangas de Onís)
Limestone peaks twenty kilometres from the Atlantic, with cheese aged in the caves.
Žabljak
Durmitor's plateau and the second-deepest canyon in the world.
Theth
The Accursed Mountains, and a six-hour pass between two valleys that had no road.
Not an itinerary
A theme is a way of seeing, not a route: these places are not in travelling order and most people take three or four of them, not all. For an order that respects distance, put the ones you want into the Planner.
Countries it crosses
France, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Georgia, Spain, Montenegro, Albania