TOO HOT TO HANDLE

With unbearable heat and a climate crisis becoming the norm, could the yearly holiday for a journey to sunnier climes be a thing of the past? Anna Hart explores a few alternatives

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A strange facet of human nature is that when we are too hot, it’s difficult to imagine ever feeling too cold. And when we’re too cold, it’s hard to imagine ever being too hot. The British and Irish craving for a heat-drenched summer holiday is deep rooted, but northern European holidaymakers are recognising that heightened temperatures in our favourite destinations of Italy, Spain and France can ruin a holiday just as effectively as relentless rain on a Cornwall camping trip.

My friend Kate, a Scottish festival programmer, recently returned from Milan – a trip that was supposed to be a culture-jammed early summer break. “This was a wake-up call, because the heatwave made it impossible to have the holiday I’d planned,” she explains.

“We soon realised that visiting museums without air-conditioning is unbearably miserable in the afternoon heat. We rebooked all sorts of appointments, making the most of early morning and late evening, and we had to pay for taxis for short journeys we’d intended to walk, so paying for a central location was pointless.”