Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Aug 21 (IANS): Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has said he had the best summer break of his career as he went touring around various parts of the world in less than a month.

The Mercedes driver last raced at the Hungarian Grand Prix in July and has resumed duties for the Belgian Grand Prix here.

"I come back to racing at the Belgian GP this weekend feeling great after probably the best summer break of my Formula 1 career. I went to some great locations and spent time with some amazing people and had a blast, doing a lot of sport and keeping myself busy in beautiful surroundings," Hamilton wrote in a column for BBC on Thursday.

"I spent a few days at my house in Colorado, went to the Caribbean, where I feel very much at home and really enjoyed the Barbados carnival, and then spent a few days in New York before coming back to Europe for the second half of the season."

The reigning World Champion wrote that Barbados proved to be a fantastic destination.

"It was an amazing experience. I've been to the Notting Hill carnival and the one in Grenada, where my family originally come from, but Barbados was way better. Trinidad is supposed to have the best one of all the islands, so I'll have to try to get to that as well next year," he said.

The Briton said he tried to lose weight in the break as he felt he was a little bit heavier than he wanted to be by the end of the first half of the season.

"On my first morning in my house in Colorado I treated myself to some pancakes, but after that I was on a healthy diet trying to lose weight because I was a little bit heavier than I wanted to be by the end of the first half of the season," the two-time World Champion said.

"I was weighing myself every morning and spending the days doing gym workouts and running from the bottom of the hill to the top, in the same place I go skiing in the winter. That is a killer."