The ever-hotter summer swelter has been driving travelers to rethink their summer holidays and seek destinations at higher latitudes and higher elevations.
Coolcation? The travel trend that has tourists shifting to cooler locations to avoid the heat
A couple years ago a new trend began to emerge in the travel industry, dubbed “coolcationing” by Condé Nast Traveller. The portmanteau of “cool” and “vacation” is where travelers avoid tourist hotspots, instead seeking out destinations off the beaten path and where the temperatures will hopefully be milder.
Demand for beachside destinations along the Mediterranean coast is still strong. But an increasing number of travelers are choosing alternative locations to spend their holiday.
Travelers ditching tourist hotspots for coolcations
European locations that are seeing a surge in tourist numbers include the Baltics, Scandinavia, Scotland, Slovenia, and Iceland. The trend is being driven by summers getting consistently hotter across the continent year after year as well as people getting fed up with overtourism.
Nearly three times as many respondents to the European Travel Commission’s 2025 survey on travel sentiment said that finding less crowed destinations was a priority than the year before. The ETC reported that a majority of Europeans, 55%, last year had planned to holiday in “less popular or off-the-beaten-track” destinations.
Additionally, more Europeans planned to travel during the off-peak season, with 22% telling the ETC last year they would go on holiday in September. They said that the benefits of delaying travel until early autumn were milder weather, less crowds, and better value for their money.
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