As our hot and stuffy plane approaches Bodrum, the seaside resort city on Turkey’s southwest coast, I close my eyes and imagine a cool dip in the crystal turquoise waters of the Aegean. It was late July, and I was going home for vacation, despite warnings of record heat. Southern Turkey is always hot in the summer, but the thought of sea breezes and swimming made it seem like a desirable destination — especially after spending the last month in a heat wave in Geneva where the air-conditioning is prohibited.
But when the plane door opened at Milas Bodrum Airport and I was hit with an instant scorch of 113-degree Fahrenheit air, I knew this summer was going to be different. My 1-year-old immediately started crying and the other passengers gasped as they rushed to the bus that would take us to the terminal.
We’re not the only ones feeling the heat.
“I can’t say we really took a vacation. We just melted, it was brutal,” said Cem Tosunoglu, a 28-year-old computer engineer from Istanbul. A week earlier, he cut short a luxury sailboat cruise around the secluded bays of Bodrum because of extreme heat and an unexpected invasion of ferocious biting horseflies, which thrive in the warm environment.
“With no escape, we were attacked and had no choice but to return to the AC in our villas,” he said. “Even the sea water is too warm.”
It’s the summer of Europe’s tourism boom, with travelers flocking to the continent in droves after three years of pandemic restrictions, despite high fares and limited accommodation. But the extreme and prolonged heat – which reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit in southern Europe in July – along with wildfires that caused the evacuation of areas in Greece, Italy and Spain, ruined vacations.
In recent years, Europe has been experiencing persistent heat waves with a record hitting 119.8 degrees in Sicily on August 11, 2021, according to the World Meteorological Organization, which said the record could be broken this summer as the heat is expected to intensify.
Siestas and portable fans
In mid-July, tourists lined up at the Acropolis in Athens collapsed due to the heat, forcing the city’s top attraction to close in the afternoons until the cooler evening hours. Visitors to the Colosseum in Rome passed out while waiting in line. On the Italian island of Sardinia, a man had to be airlifted to a beach after losing consciousness, according to local newspaper La Nuova Sardegna.
“I tell my clients to adjust their itineraries and take advantage of the siesta after lunch and then push their tours later in the day when it’s cooler,” says Sarah Johnson, owner. Paper Ink and Passport Travel, a luxury travel company based in Pennsylvania. “There’s a reason they’ve been doing it in Spain and Italy for generations. Walking in the midday heat and waiting in line can make some people sick.”
One of his clients, Scott Maxwell, a 52-year-old account manager for a health insurer Kaiser Permanente traveled to Italy from Los Angeles in the heat of July and spent most of his vacation in the villa he and his family rented about 30 minutes outside Rome. The group, which included her in-laws — both in their 70s — had booked several walking tours in Rome and a trip to Florence, but decided to cancel them due to the scorching heat, which was more than 100 degrees throughout their trip.
“I didn’t even get to Rome because there was absolutely no breeze. It’s brutal,” Mr. Maxwell said. His wife, Hillary, braved the heat and went into the city with her father for a tour of the catacombs. “It’s really enjoyable, but mostly because it’s underground,” he said.
The air-conditioning in the villa was patchy and didn’t work in all the rooms, but the family set up a living area in one of the cooler bedrooms and spent most of the afternoon indoors. . In the cooler evening hours, they venture into the nearby medieval town of Sacrofono for dinner, but even then, they carry portable, battery-powered fans. “There were so many nice restaurants, but it was still hot, and we sat there with our fans blowing on us, trying to get the sweat off our necks,” Mr. Maxwell recalled.
Ron Ross, 50, who works in technology sales, also visited Italy from Boston in July, traveling with his three teenage children. He collaborated with Joshua Smith, the founder of Global Citizen Travels, who booked private tours and transfers that allowed his family to avoid some of the worst heat.
“The main thing is that we don’t have to wait in line,” Mr. Ross said. “It made the whole experience more enjoyable because we would go to the Colosseum or the Vatican and we would see an endless line of people waiting under the heat, but then we would meet our private man who took us to a separate entrance.”
Most of the tours the Rosses went on were booked in the morning, allowing them some downtime in their air-conditioned hotel room during the hottest part of the day. After sunset they went out to eat.
“The only place we really struggled with the heat was in the city of Matera,” he said, referring to the rocky city, known as the “city of caves” in southern Italy. “It’s basically a hilltop with no grass and it’s really hot walking up there in the sun, it’s like we’re baking on stone like pizza,” he said.
Straight to the beach
When Tania Goodman, a 36-year-old accountant from London, saw news reports about ambulances evacuating tourists from the Acropolis in Athens, she logged on to Booking.com to cancel his hotel in the city center. But when she found out she had to pay a 50 percent fine, she and her boyfriend decided to stick with the booking, but skipped all the sights and went straight to the beach instead.
“We were there at the worst peak of the heat in late July, and I knew it was going to be bad, but it was just disgusting heat, like it really hurt to go out,” he said.
The couple woke up early to go for a morning walk, but when they got back to their hotel for breakfast, it was too hot to sit on the terrace. “Basically, we stayed in our room for most of the day until about 6 in the evening when we went to the beach,” he said. “Even when it was boiling, it was like very hot-drinking-alcohol hot. Thank god there is water, the best part is swimming, the water is beautiful,” she added.
At the villa in Italy, Mr. Maxwell in the pool, where he spent up to eight hours each day for three days, using an umbrella for shade. He also makes the most of the air conditioning in his rental car and drives his family to nearby lakes and towns where they stop for an Aperol spritz.
“We did a lot of touring, but I wouldn’t call it adventuring,” he said.
The Maxwells later traveled to the Amalfi coast, where the heat subsided and they hoped to sail the nearby bays. But when they arrived, their boat tour was canceled due to strong winds that made the water too rough to sail.
Reflecting on his journey, Mr Maxwell said he still enjoys spending time with his family and not working. Asked if he will return to Europe, he said, “Not in July. Maybe in the shoulder season.”
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