12/18/2023 0 Comments Spain click map picturesShe added that, looking ahead to travel next year, she’s focusing on months like May and October. She also recommends traveling with a spray bottle with a fan attached, a portable device that she described as “a saving grace, especially if you’ve got kids.” Having an umbrella to use as a sunshade can also help. Vargas has been helping her clients shift their afternoon tours to the cooler evening hours, but because this travel season is so busy, last-minute spots can be hard to find. Those who are committed to traveling can take a number of practical steps to manage the heat. “People assume that these policies do everything, and they don’t,” Mr. He advised travelers to do their research and speak to a broker before they buy insurance, so they understand what’s covered and what isn’t. He added that this kind of insurance is typically about 40 percent more expensive than normal coverage, and it generally refunds a maximum of 75 percent of the total trip cost. The only policy that would apply in such a scenario is “cancel for any reason” insurance, Mr. “But because of the cancellation policies, they just realized, ‘OK, we’re committed.’”Įven travel insurance is unlikely to cover travelers who cancel a trip because of a heat wave, said Dan Drennen, director of sales and marketing at Travel Insurance Center. “They were concerned about their kids being outside,” Ms. Clients of Jude Vargas, a travel adviser and founder of Pyxis Guides, were worried about the heat on an upcoming family trip to Portugal, but they ended up sticking with it. Azaria is planning for an elongated summer travel season: “We’re already seeing that summer really extends through the end of September, even until mid-October,” she said.Īny travelers who might consider bailing on a trip because of extreme heat may discover that their cancellation policies leave little opportunity for a refund. We’re basically condensing two years of travel into this summer.” Azaria said that, so far, she hasn’t had any complete cancellations: “There’s been so much pent-up demand. “So places like Copenhagen and Amsterdam have come up, places that maybe our clients wouldn’t have originally chosen to go to.”īut Ms. “The goal is to move a client from any heat-trapped city to a waterfront vicinity,” Ms. Other clients scrapped their plans for Tuscany and rebooked for Sicily, where at least they would have a Mediterranean breeze. “I can’t remember the last time we had people calling and saying, ‘Maybe we’re going to skip Rome and opt for a more beach-accessible city.’ Or maybe they shortened their itinerary in the city and opted to go into the country a little sooner than they had planned.”ĭolev Azaria, the founder of Azaria Travel, helped one family make the last-minute choice to spend the first five days of their vacation in Amsterdam instead of Rome, just to avoid the heat. “Greece is experiencing what the rest of Europe has - a record number of tourists.” “The taverns are full at night and the cabbies are busy, which is always a great barometer,” said Mr. But life in Athens, he said, went on pretty much as usual. Vlitas added that he could smell the smoke from his hotel and sometimes had to close his door to prevent fine ash from blowing into his room. “If you were in the center of town, you could look out and see the Acropolis, and in the distance you could see the red haze,” said Peter Vlitas, an executive vice president at Internova Travel Group, who was in Athens during the wildfires, which firefighters have since brought under control. And wildfires blazed in tourist regions of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, including just outside of Athens. More than two dozen weather stations in France recorded their highest-ever temperatures. Trains were delayed or canceled across Britain because of overheated tracks. It was the middle of July, peak summer travel season, and the news from Europe wasn’t looking good: A heat-induced “ surface defect” briefly closed the runway at London’s Luton Airport.
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