If you go ‘somewhere hot’ during the school hols…

[Analysisandparalysis]

…do you actually enjoy it?

I’ve spoken to various friends about this and observed comments on social media with so many people complaining about the ‘crazy heat’ when holidaying in places like Greece, southern Spain, Italy, Turkey etc.. Even my sibling messaged me this week from the Canaries saying it was over 40c by their apartment and that they were having to stay inside, the kids felt sick etc..

For the past few years I have actively avoided travelling abroad during the summer, with the exception of Brittany as the heat is just bonkers and I don’t enjoy that level of intensity, the kids moan and we all come exhausted from such poor sleep quality.

Why do people put themselves through it, if the heat is so awful?!

Husband and I were talking about this earlier today. You couldn’t pay us to holiday in Southern Europe in the summer months. Would feel like torture.

Perhaps people will start to go north for cooler holidays in summer? Currently staying in a Scandinavian country where a lot of children from different countries sound like they're enjoying wonderful active holidays.

I love the heat. Well, correction, I love the heat when I can be by a pool with a lovely big umbrella and lots of cool
drinks.
I do not like the heat when I’m corralling children, doing mountains of laundry, cleaning the house or cooking!!

Yep love it. In Greece right now & it’s actually similar to the uk for once!
We just chill by the pool & beach though, no expectation of sightseeing or culture really as that would just be hard going in the heat.
For context, I work in education and have two kids in school so I don’t really feel we have a great deal of choice as to when to go if we want a week of decent weather. We’ve had plenty of UK summer hols and the weather has been really variable and sometimes downright chilly. At least we know we’re guaranteed a week of sun in July/August. We make sure we keep the kids hydrated, factor 50 etc and nice long lunches in the shade, Never had any issues or found it too hot.
Once I’ve retired I’d probably prefer to go June or sept though.

This is exactly how I feel!

We were in southern Spain in July and it never went above 29 degrees. Kids loved it and slept brilliant because they were so knackered from the pool. No sightseeing or expectations just chilling out spending time together.

We did this year duie the clamp down on term time travel. We did enjoy it but it was too hot to do much sight seeing. The problem we've found is travelling to a nice beach resort in May school holidays was a bit too chilly in the evenings and not much daylight hours, same woth October half term.
Really wish some of the 6 week hols overlapped with June or September.

We tend to do short euro city breaks in May and September as the weather is perfect

Funnily enough this is what we’ve been discussing. I’ve been loosely researching Norway for a summer destination for a couple of years - so much coastline to explore, it looks idyllic. I don’t mind mixed weather though I suppose.

Depends what youre doing on holiday. If you want to explore and sightsee then not a chance! But if you're in the pool or the beach it's fine. Keep hydrated and come inside between 1&3. Play it like the locals!

I could just about cope with that, but would get bored after a few days of laying around.

The biggest issue is the nighttime heat for me, I just can’t sleep when it’s hot - if there was AC I could soldier through😅

Can't stand heat at home over about 25. On holiday 35+ is fine. Because I have aircon for sleeping, places to go and see I am interested in where I can be on and out of shade and a pool for cooling down every afternoon after being out sight seeing. It's a completely different experience.

Yeah I guess I like to do a bit of local exploring etc, would get a bit bored / antsy after a couple of days if the whole holiday was geared to being sedentary (due to heat) etc..

I remember summer holidays to Balearics and Morocco in my 20’s and feeling a bit stifled due to daytime heat. I suppose I am more of a day person and in hotter climes you need to be more of a night owl. I never enjoy having dinner at 9-10pm. Guess I’m a true north European!

Only with air con and a pool; if I want days out then it’d be silly to go to a hot country in the summer when I know me and the kids won’t manage it

Yes always enjoy it.

We love it! We have a lovely time on the beach and in the pool. We tend to do sight seeing in the evenings - towns, shops, churches. Museums, aquariums etc tend to be air conditioned as do buses to get around. We also love a good water park.

Exactly this. I'm a teacher so have to go in school holidays regardless. At the moment term times are so busy that all I want from a summer holiday is to relax - lots of swimming, reading etc. In a few years when it's probably back to just me and DH or with adult DCs we might look more at Northern Europe where it's sunny but a bit cooler so we can be more active and do some sightseeing. A couple of years ago we were in Turkey and it was high 30s/40 for some of the time but with a pool and air con at night it was still wonderful.

We always used to.

a villa with a pool, enough t-shirts for us to dip in and out as we wanted, and sun loungers under the shade. Absolutely gorgeous. Beach in the morning before it got too hot, and then afternoons by the pool before dinner in the evenings. It was magical.

I don't enjoy being hot. Home or abroad. Quite happy with my uk 20 degree holidays. I cant do much if it's over about 23!

I enjoy the heat, but we always stay somewhere with good AC and we organise our days to avoid being out at the hottest the etc. Both DH and I have lived in countries where it gets extremely hot in the summer, so we have strategies for dealing with it.

I think because the UK weather is unpredictable, we had weeks of gorgeous weather in June and July, first week of the summer holidays, like a switch, was about 18° and breezy/dull...not ideal if you had planned a beach holiday. (Obviously has warmed up now) Last year we went to Devon and I don't think it reached 20° all week! This year we're going to Spain.
But we've had some UK holidays that have been amazing, and some where we barely saw the sun.

Depends what kind of holiday you want. We went a bit earlier this summer, last week of June, because ds finished his GCSEs. It was still 30 degrees but it was a beach holiday for relaxing after the stress of exams.

This weekend we are off to Belgium, will be doing sight seeing, forecast there is about 25 which is perfect for us.

Isn’t about where you go not when you go though? We have school aged kids so need to go in August but we don’t go to southern Europe anymore. Last went in 2022 and it was horrendous then. We go further north now - much fresher!

I usually go on holidays with temperatures of 35 degrees plus
This year, I just cannot do it . Instead I am going to Iceland in early September when the temperature is about 18degrees

We don't, it's too hot. We've just come back from 2 weeks in Wales and the weather was just right, about 18 to 20 degrees most days. Snowdonia and Pembrokeshire were beautiful too, stunning scenery and idyllic beaches.

Sometimes people have no choice but to go away in August because of the school holidays. PIL lived in Spain for years so we used to drive there with the dog. We needed a little over 2 weeks because of the journey there and back. The house was in the hills so a bit cooler and we only went out in the early morning and evening. The rest of the time was in the cool playing games or a quick dip.

Now DC are adults we have holidays in the cold season!