'Coolcations' Are Creating New Summer Hotspots

Forget frying on a Mediterranean beach. This summer, tourists are increasingly avoiding some of the normal and hotter summer vacation destinations and instead chasing cooler and quieter trips in the mountains and forests of northern Europe, reports CNBC. "Coolcations" are turning countries like Iceland, Slovenia, and Scotland into regular summer hotspots. "The summer of 2025 is a turning point for European tourism, underscoring that no destination is truly immune to climate volatility," said Jenny Southan, CEO of Globetrender. Record-breaking heat has swept across Spain, Portugal, and Greece, triggering wildfires and beach closures at more traditional tourist destinations. But even Scandinavia, long considered a safe haven from sweltering summers, is sweating through heatwaves of its own.

That's accelerating a move toward spring and autumn travel, higher-altitude escapes, and northern adventures stretching from the Baltics to the Scottish Highlands. "Travelers are avoiding the most intense heat periods, favoring cooler coastal or alpine locations." However, CNN doesn't think there's anywhere left to coolcation anymore thanks to the effects of global warming. It points out that scientists say climate change has doubled the odds of such heat waves in the far north in just a few years, making the Arctic one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth. So, there may just be no such thing as beating the heat anymore. "Last summer was the warmest in two millennia," said Mika Rantanen of the Finnish Meteorological Institute. "And this year, we have experienced the longest heatwave ever recorded."