To be worried about wildfires across Southern Europe?!

[idontwanttomissyou]

I have the holiday of a lifetime coming up in just under five weeks. It’s four weeks across southern Europe including time in Northern Italy, Southern France and Greece.

Seeing the news lately has me really anxious! When is it going to be clear if I can even travel or not, and what happens if I can’t?!

Right?

How rude. The PP was trying to be helpful.

Five weeks is a long time away, we could have had 2 weeks of torrential rain across the med by then. I would be looking at any cancellation terms carefully though and if it’s a tour company speak to them

There’s enough variations of ‘I’m terrified of climate change’ threads already.

Five weeks away anything could have happened by then. Make plans to spend longer in one area, eg if you can’t go to Greece then stop in Italy.

I'd see if there is a Facebook group or expat (I know...) forum for any or all of the places you will be staying in. You could join up and ask questions of those on the ground so to speak. That would give you a picture of what is happening and you could make your mind up whether to go to that place or skip it and choose somewhere else in the same country maybe?

It's early days yet, so keep an eye on the weather forecasts for the areas.

Do better.

It's not the same as other years. It's worse. And it's going to get worse and worse unless we do something about it ( although that may be too late)

And those images of the horses running through French towns with black smoke behind them are heartbreaking. I wonder when people will start to give a shit. When it starts to affect them directly, I suppose.

She's right though

If you can’t travel then try and claim on travel insurance. Sadly I think this is going to be more and more of a problem. I’m about to go abroad for the first time in 7 years and to be honest it puts me off. Places like France, Spain, Greece, Portugal are all going to be higher risk plus obviously the concern about contributing to climate change. I suppose the only thing is the majority of France, Spain, etc aren’t on fire……they’re big countries. The fires are devastating and make headlines but most of the country is unaffected.

we currently have multiple wildfires in England, Scotland and wales, some of which have been burning for weeks. But most people are unaffected. So hopefully there won’t be fires where you are going.

Jeez you are snippy tonight!

Again, I do realise this and did say it’s not a perfect predictor but that and current conditions is the only thing the OP has to go on.

Because I didn’t ask to be lectured about climate change. I can’t do anything about it, go lecture the world leaders.

It’s pretty terrifying in the Pacific Northwest at the moment.

Well really, what else can we tell you? No one has a crystal ball and what's happening now has little bearing on what will be happening in 5 weeks. You'll just have to wait and see but, atm, you seem to be projecting someone else's problem onto yourself.

You can't control the weather or wildfires, but you can think practically, be prepared to be flexible if necessary and make contingency plans. Hopefully you won't need to use them, but it should give you more confidence. I'm going to Spain at the beginning of September and I just made some notes today in case of any issues.

I booked independently, so I checked my hotel bookings and noted what's non refundable and what isn't (bit of both). I already know my routes and modes of transport - train and bus. And have been keeping tabs on where the wildfires are, partly because of the holiday, partly because of friends in Spain.

Go on Google maps, go to the countries you're visiting and type 'wildfires info' and the big fires are indicated on the map. NB it's rare that airports are fully closed due to wildfires, but there can be delays/diversions etc at short notice so keep an eye on that. Having a Plan B - we can't get here, but we could get there - is never a bad thing.

It sounds like you already have bookings and an itinerary? Booked independently or as a package? As others have said, if you haven't already, get travel insurance now.