Rather than break the news to my husband that we won’t be going to the Mediterranean in the summer months any more, I just started booking other destinations and hoped he wouldn’t notice. Last year, we went to Vancouver in Canada.
“Canada,” said my husband, his face falling. “Why are we going to Canada?” “Because it’s fun and interesting,” I said. “There are whales and bears and sea otters.” He was disappointed. His idea of a holiday is sunbathing under a European sky until he is radioactive, then walking across the sand and into the turquoise Mediterranean, the water hissing as it meets his boiling skin.
But we’ve got these children you see. And the sunbathing and the hissing sea is not their idea of a holiday. Anything much over 26C and they wilt and complain and refuse to budge from an air-conditioned room.
In 2022 we had a particularly bad holiday in a Greek resort. It hit 35°C most days. The sea was the temperature of a bath and the beaches were an unpleasant mass of burning flesh. We were plagued by wasps during the day and eaten alive by mosquitoes at night.
My children, quite sensibly, retreated inside when it was hot, which was most of the day. Like most children, they have no adult delusions about how they “ought” to be outside “making the most of it”. They were sweaty and uncomfortable and could barely see for squinting against the raging white heat. They ended up having hours of screentime and, sorry, but we can do that in England without paying.
For me, that was the last straw. We had gone to the Med year after year with kids and it was so often the same story: just too damned hot. On my own, I could have slept all day or read books, but trying to entertain children inside made me feel stressed and claustrophobic.
So in 2023 we went to Vancouver Island. We took wildlife trips and cycled about in national parks and it never got above 25C. We were able to move around with a clear head and actually do and see stuff. Even my husband grudgingly said that it was a brilliant holiday and that I was a genius.
I am not the first, or only, pale Englishwoman to notice that it is not just uncomfortably but dangerously hot in the Mediterranean in 2024. Figures from the European Travel Commission found that the number of European tourists travelling to the Med is down 10 per cent from 2022 – 2023. In 2024, ETC figures show a particular rebound in travel to more unconventional destinations such as Serbia (up by 46 per cent) and Bulgaria (up by 39 per cent). The Czech Republic and Denmark also experienced an uptick in interest.
This year, European heat is in the news as never before: Sicily is experiencing an apocalyptic drought, with tourists turned away from some B&Bs that have no water. And then there was the recent tragic death of Michael Mosley, who died from heat exhaustion in 40°C heat on a holiday on the Greek Island of Symi.
The expansion in summer travel away from the Med is a trend that Ann Scott, of the travel communications agency ASA, has noticed. “In recent years business to the Italian Dolomites has boomed and is now greater than the ski season,” she says. “This is for many reasons including hotels extending their seasons, a trend towards wanting to be active, fresh air, nature and growth in biking, hiking and other sports for which one needs cooler weather. Airlines play a key role and if there is airlift, business increases.”
She points out that Sky Alps, an Italian airline, now flies from Gatwick to Bolzano, which is a 30 minute drive to the Dolomites. Last season, the airline only flew a winter schedule and now it’s all year round.
There is more going on here than just extreme temperatures. The internet and social media has shown the world that there are holiday destinations beyond the Greek Islands and the South of France – such as Albania, Croatia, Ireland and Scandinavia. Some of these destinations could perhaps do with some of the tourist money which is concentrated so hard in a few key areas.
And some cities, such as Malaga in Spain, would be glad to offload some of their visitors. They actively dissuade tourists and “digital nomads” from arriving, finding them a total nuisance. Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Mallorca have their own grassroots anti-tourism campaigns and there is a famous bit of graffiti in Barcelona that says “Tourist [sic] go home we spit in your beer.”
But for now, the Mediterranean remains an overwhelmingly popular summer destination.
I wonder if years of advertising has indelibly ingrained in our minds that The Thing To Do in the summer is find a hot beach in Europe and plonk ourselves down on it. We are so conditioned to do this that even if we end up not having a very good time, we believe that it must be something wrong with us, rather than the holiday.
Kelly Luchford, from Luchford PR, has also noticed that early adopter-types are seeking out something different. “I have absolutely seen wealthy and cultured friends seek out unusual places to go for the summer, not just the same old places. The [Norwegian] Fjords come up a lot in conversations and teenage children often want to go to places they’ve seen on Race Across The World.”
I do really love the Mediterranean – the colours, the food, the sea: it’s all amazing. When I’m no longer tied to the school holidays, it will be my first choice for a lazy escape. Until then I am trying to think slightly differently about the summer break, viewing it as an opportunity for adventure, rather than the standard fly-and-flop we’ve been conditioned to think of as “holiday”.
So this year we are going to Bavaria, in southern Germany. People look at me like I’m insane when I say that, but I’ve got high hopes for it. Maybe see you there next year?