Strictly speaking the mountains of the Eifel range - which are divided between the Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia - are little more than big hills. On the whole, they aren't desperately exciting, which probably accounts for the lack of mass tourism. However, in the part of the Eifel which lies in the Rhineland-Palatinate you'll find a gentle landscape of wooded hills and bare heathland, dotted with volcanic lakes and intersected by quiet, unspoiled valleys. The area is used to visitors, but most of them are Germans who spend their summer vacations abroad and come here for a second break in late spring or early autumn. This means that it's a good place to escape the crowds, particularly if you're otherwise concentrating on a nearby tourist area, such as the Rhine or Mosel. The only part of the region which has completely succumbed to tourism is the Ahr valley in the northeast where truly spectacular scenery brings hundreds of thousands of visitors during a season that lasts from May until late October. Otherwise much of the Eifel has a slightly sleepy air, its life revolving round the seasonal influxes of visitors and people coming to the various spa towns or Luftkurorte .