Europe too hot in July for young children?

[Gameofmoans81]

I’ve been looking at holidays in Corsica, Portugal, Spain etc for July but my friend has really put me off as she thinks it will be too hot. She went to Sardinia last year in July and said they couldn’t leave the house, burnt their feet walking to the pool, burnt faces while in the pool and the littlest got heat exhaustion sat in the shade! She’s said she’ll never go later than May now.
I love a warm sea and sunny beach but now I’m worried it will be too much for our 4 year old. What were people’s experiences last year? Were they similar?
I know forecasts say this year will be even hotter.
We’re going to Slovenia in April so don’t really want to replicate the lakes/Northern Europe holiday again in the summer - I really want some beach time! Where is lovely but maybe not so hot?
thanks!

Surely it depends on you and your family as other posters have said.

We love summer and the sun. We always go in august to Europe, usually Italy or Spain.

Yes it's hot but we always have an umbrella at the beach , pool for shade. Lots of factor 50 and the kids stay cool in the shade, water.

We have had holidays in May and I gave doubt it too cold and doesn't work for us

I spend the summers in Europe and last year was the warmest I can ever remember , uncomfortably warm but then again there were heatwaves are over England so not surprising.

We're long term residents ( decade plus plus plus ) within an about hour or so drive of the French Med coast.

Last year was obviously very very much a case of some records broken, etc but we have had a handful of similar over the years (>> 37 celsius wasn't exactly unprecedented where we are) and OTOH we've had some wet, cool Mays', June, July's etc in some intervening summers as well, even recently, so I'm not putting money on last years events meaning summer 2023 will inevitably follow 2022 in being horrifically hot.

It really depends what your child likes to do.
When mine were that age, they liked the beach and swimming pools, but they also liked fairground rides, miniature railways, aquariums, museums where you could press buttons, model villages etc. If we'd gone on a hot beach holiday they'd have been bored of the sea after day 2, and then wanted to do other stuff, but it would have been too hot to enjoy it. So we went on Uk holidays that had a range of indoor and outdoor things to do. We had the odd rainy day so we'd go somewhere indoor. But we had plenty of warm beach days and outdoor things too.

We didn't do a hot abroad holiday till they were about 7/8, when they were better able to cope with heat.

Now they're teens we do hot holidays, but I always make sure we stay somewhere with aircon.

They acclimatise. As the spring and summer come, it gets gradually warmer and they adjust to it. Brits can often leave the UK when it's 17 degrees and raining, and land in Spain where it's 35 degrees.
Comparing tourists with residents isn't logical.

Depends on what you like to do.

We went last year to Rhodes, 35 degrees on average and we found it difficult to adjust, even with long siesta breaks. It was difficult to do anything unless we went out at 8am and came back at lunchtime.

If you are someone who likes to stay at the pool and your child happy with a kids club for company, then just take precautions and it will be fine.

We found the Atlantic coast side of Spain nicer in the past, more fresh breeze than the Med.

Hmm.

We went every year to southern Spain with ours from when they were babies. We went to the beach to swim in the morning - we came home at lunch at would have a nice quiet time in the pm. Then about 9pm go out to Alicante - walk about, have dinner, get an icecream and walk by the boats. Get back late after midnight.

Kids were always fine. They loved the late evenings and seeing everyone out and about at night.

We go to Portugal every summer and DD has been going since she was 5 months old. It can be hot, last year was especially hot across all of Europe, it’s just a case of managing it well and choosing the right holiday. We have a house so more space than a hotel room, and I would always recommend self catering and somewhere with outside space with kids that age. We tend to get up and go to the pool in the morning, or go to the beach. Back for 11ish, play in the shade for a bit, lunch, bit more playing in the shade or maybe a trip out somewhere in the car. In Portugal 12 till 5 tends to be the hottest part of the day. Last summer DD still napped in her pushchair if we took her for a walk about 5 (she was 3 then) and we’d go have a drink in a local bar, while she was asleep and then head back and either get ready to go out for dinner about half 6/7ish or have a BBQ. Sometimes have some pool time about 6 if we weren’t going out. Lots of sun cream, lots of drinks and lots of chill out time.

I know exactly what you mean OP and I don’t think you’re being silly for considering this. Mine are older but not good in the heat (eldest especially) so in the Med in summer we end up sitting in the a/c room for several hours after lunch which seems a bit of a waste - they won’t nap so staying up later isn’t really an option.

Having said that - we were in Greece in July last year and although it was 32-35, it was 40 in the UK and worse in France! Also at least the Greek islands always have a cooling breeze. I’m not sure anywhere is immune from heatwaves tbh, at least not anywhere that has reliable beach weather.

We are considering mountains partly for this reason but you’re already doing that in April…