Planning a European holiday in 2023? Why you should factor soaring temperatures into your travel planning

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Planning a European holiday in 2023? Why you should factor soaring temperatures into your travel planning

By Michael Gebicki
July 19, 2022: Parisians and tourists cool off from the heat by going in the Trocadero Garden Fountain.

July 19, 2022: Parisians and tourists cool off from the heat by going in the Trocadero Garden Fountain.Credit: Getty Images

One of my English cousins just sent me a photo of a park near his London home. It shows a vast expanse of lawn with a stately home in the distance. The lawn is usually billiard-table green, but in the image it's tobacco brown. It looks crunchy, like an Australian park at the end of a hot, hard summer.

It's been a season like no other across Europe. Parts of Italy are in drought. There are water restrictions across France which has recorded its driest July ever. Train services in the UK have been interrupted by rails buckling in the heat. Wildfires have blazed their way across southern Europe and for the first time on record, temperatures in the UK have exceeded 40 degrees. In Paris images show tourists cooling off in the Trocadero fountains in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Europe is not well equipped for heat waves. City sightseeing becomes exhausting once the temperature rises above 30 degrees. Even if it exists, European-standard air-conditioning guarantees restless nights in hotels that trap heat by day and radiate it by night. Is this a one-off, or the shape of things to come? Climate change is not likely to go into reverse in the near future, and the worldwide trend is toward hotter, drier summers. My money is on more of the same.

What to do about it? If you travel at the peak of Europe's summer, consider a shift of focus to northern Europe, or adjust your timing. April to May and late September and October might become the sweet spots for travel in southern Europe. Live a Mediterranean lifestyle and confine your outdoor activity to the early morning and late afternoon, with a long lunch and snooze in the middle.

It's human activity that's causing the problem, and air travel is part of it. Travelling less often and staying longer is part of the solution. You can stay for up to three months in Europe's Schengen Area. I say max it out.

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