Best European Cities to Visit to Beat the Heat.
If you can’t bear excessive heat and you want to visit Europe during the summer then head north.
Southern European cities have temperatures that often exceed 40 degrees in the summer months. They become choked with traffic and all its fumes, they are packed with tourists, queuing to see the sights, and in order to avoid this unbearable annual occurrence, most of the natives leave on mass, they hit the hills or the seaside and commute to work.
In order to experience the real Rome, Venice, Florence, Madrid, Athens, and other beautiful southern European cities, you should use your spring and autumn holidays.
Here are some fantastic cities that will keep you cool in summer:
Edinburgh
Edinburgh, the beautiful historic capital of Scotland! An Edinburgh summer can be lovely and warm, and is very rarely hot. There’s plenty to do in the city, and if you are feeling the heat, you can always have a dip in the sea at Portobello beach.
If it rains, there are countless wonderful museums and art galleries, including the national gallery of Scotland with its very rich collection of old masters.
The busiest time to visit is August when they stage the world famous Edinburgh festival, but there is always room for everyone!
Edinburgh is well situated for day trips out into the beautiful Scottish countryside, and while you are there visit Arthur’s seat and have at least one day in the beautiful botanical gardens.
Stockholm
Stockholm is another city that I would highly recommend. Summer in Stockholm can be gloriously sunny without the sweltering heat of other European cities in the summer.
Stockholm is a city built on the water, which always has a lovely cooling breeze from the Baltic Sea. The Stockholm archipelago is wonderful for keeping cool sailing, picnics, and just relaxing.
In the city you can just stroll around the beautiful old town, the ‘Gamla Stan’. There are plenty of great museums; one of my favorites is the restored warship, The Vasa, which is a wonderfully preserved and much grander version of the Mary Rose, and is well worth a visit.
Paris
Paris can be hot but not necessarily. It never gets as hot as Athens, Rome, or Madrid for example, and there are plenty of cooling things to do if there happens to be a heat wave on while you are there; a boat trip along the Seine, a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower, or a stroll through the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. But whatever you do don’t miss the Louvre, because it’s much more than just the Mona Lisa and inside is the perfect temperature!
Brussels, Gent, and Bruges
Belgium is jokingly described by people who have never been there as, ‘boring little Belgium.’ But in fact it is a country packed with interest and beauty. Brussels has a great deal to offer in terms of both its architecture and its cuisine. Not to mention the delicious beer! Every 2 years in August they stage the Tapis De Fleurs, a wonderful flower festival, which is well worth seeing.
Gent and Bruges are fabulous, beautifully preserved medieval cities with a wealth of buildings and romantic ally ways that give you a real sense of the past. They have the same quality of delicious food and drink as Brussels.
You can visit all three cities from whichever one you stay in and they are definitely all worth a visit.
London
Of course London should be very high on your list. I was born and live in London and it never ceases to delight, excite, and educate me. Every now and then I venture to the city centre and ‘play the tourist’ because I always come home the richer.
There are so many places to visit in London that I can’t pick out just a few here.
But one of the things I adore about this great city is that it never gets very hot. Although heat waves can occur, they usually only last a few days, in fact I would advise you to bring waterproofs because it does often rain in August. That’s when it looks its best though, as Groucho Marx said, ‘I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.’
If you can only visit one city – then choose London!
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