The Cerberus heatwave that threatens record high temperatures in Europe is forcing many holidaymakers to reconsider their travel plans on the continent.
With the sweltering weather predicted to continue throughout July and possibly beyond – especially in nations in Southern Europe including holiday hotspots Greece and Italy – some travellers are concerned they will not be able to comfortably handle the heat.
According to The Guardian, a 61-year-old Londoner on a cruise around the Mediterranean said she had “booked excursions, but by the looks of it, we will stay on the boat the whole time because it will be too hot to do anything really”.
“We usually do our holidays in England but we wanted something different this year,” she added.
“I don’t think I will do this again or maybe we’ll make such plans around Easter instead.”
Another Briton, 53-year-old Justine Rush, is in Corfu in Greece with her husband and “two post-exam teens”.
“It’s properly hot – too hot to go outside in the day, except when you’re in the sea. We’ve had to stay in our room most of the day,” she said.
“I don’t normally like to be on the beach all day, but we can’t do anything else. We’ve had to cancel plans to go on a day trip to a nearby town. Luckily we managed to not lose any money.”
Some like it hot
Others are more used to the soaring temperatures, like 25-year-old American Lauren Gonzalez, who, as the Associated Press reports, recently arrived in Rome with friends for a 16-day stay in Italy.
“We are all in our mid-20s … we live in Florida. We have all been to Disney World in the heat. We’re all good,” she said.
According to the Independent, authorities have issued red alerts for extreme heat in 16 cities across Italy.
Exacerbated by hordes of tourists flocking to Europe, the heat recently forced the closure of Greece’s biggest attraction – the Acropolis in Athens – during the hottest hours of last Friday and Saturday to protect visitors, the BBC reported.
On Twitter, an Australian-born Greek resident put the heat into context.
“Well it’s nearly ten pm and it’s ‘dropped’ to a mere 34 degrees here,” they wrote on the weekend.
“Athenians are sitting on the rooftops and in the parks hoping for a breath of air. There’s little energy for talking and none of the usual bustle of Friday night.”
Meanwhile, in the popular tourist destination of the Canary Islands, Spain, a massive forest fire forced the evacuation over the weekend of at least 4,000 people, so far destroying 4,500 hectares (11,000 acres) of land.
