Don’t Fancy a Sweltering Summer Holiday? Take a “Coolcation” in 2026.

As a nation, we shiver our way through the winter months, complaining about the behaviour of dollops of mercury in our thermometers while simultaneously taking pride in our resistance to turning up the thermostat. As soon as the temperature rises, the grumblings take on a different flavour – it’s altogether too hot, too sticky. It’s part of our national character, and yet this meteorological quirk surprises me every single year.  

The Italian Dolomites — far more my cup of tea

What’s more, there’s another particularly British kind of fatigue that creeps in around late June. The group chats fill up with Amalfi itineraries. Someone mentions heading to some sun-baked Greek island or other with alarming sincerity, and before you know it you’re pricing up £14 Aperol Spritzes in 34-degree heat.

However, there’s a shift happening. It’s subtle, for sure, but noticeably real. The smartest travellers aren’t chasing the sun anymore, but rather choosing to step away from it and avoiding the hordes of lobster-pink tourists in the process. Now, anyone who knows me recognises that I’ve long been a champion of the colder northern reaches of Europe – I am that eccentric character who prefers (as the great Jonathan Meades once put it) the Flemish to the Florentine, the Stockholm archipelago to Santorini, the tundra to Torremolinos. 

The heady realm of travel PR has already come up with a name for a summer escape to cooler climes, because that’s what they do best. The “coolcation” might be a butchery of the English language, but the notion behind it is one I fully support: spending one’s precious time off not on a crowded beach that hangs heavy with the scent of slathered suncream, but rather in regions that prioritise space, quietude and pine-scented air. 

Dare I say it? This summer, it might just be less about where it’s hot, and more about where it’s not.

The Chills

Lapland in summertime — like nowhere else on Earth

There’s something slightly surreal about swapping July heatwaves for ice fields, but that’s really part of the appeal. I’d argue that a beach holiday in July is a something of a waste – it’s the time of year when you don’t really need any more sunshine, and such escapades are best saved for the misery of mid-February, when vitamin D levels are perilously low and you’re crying out time spent outside in far fewer layers. 

For those seeking relaxation of a wholly different calibre, the high Arctic awaits. With voyages through the pristine polar wilderness of Spitsbergen, getaways feel less like holidays and more like a recalibration and intrepid discover. Glaciers groan in the distance, walruses idle on fractured sheets of ice, and if you’re very lucky you might catch sight of a polar bear moving with quiet authority across the landscape. It’s about spectacle, for sure, but it’s also much-needed perspective.

A cruise in Alaska offers a softer entry into the same world. You drift between fjords and old gold rush towns, in places like Juneau and Skagway that feel suspended in time. In this wilderness, the scale of everything can’t help but humble you. The air is sharper, conversations quieter, and the usual urgency of travel disappears.

If heading over the Atlantic feels a bit much, there’s always Lapland in summer – one of my absolute favourite places to be, and which never fails to feel like a secret most people haven’t quite caught onto. From a beautiful Lappish chalet, endless daylight stretches the day into something dreamlike and almost psychedelic in its unfamiliarity, and the absence of crowds makes even the simplest rituals – morning coffee by a lake, admiring wild flowers on vast tundra meadows, taking a slow walk through pine forests – feel indulgent in a way no beach club ever quite manages.

The Hills

Who could resist the charms of the Austrian Alps in summer at Moar Gut?

Who would dream of going to a ski resort in the heights of summer? Well, I would, have done, and would highly recommend it. In fact, many of the most beautiful ski resorts are actively reconfiguring their summer options as a way of future-proofing against the encroaching threat of climate change, and the resulting offerings have been genuinely impressive. After all, why wouldn’t they be? Mountains in summer have a different kind of energy – one focused not on adrenaline but on exhalation, relaxation, and a chance to truly revel in some of nature’s most spectacular vistas.

In the Austrian Alps, places like Moar Gut lean into that particular rhythm. Here, visitors uncover days built around hiking trails, long lunches, and outdoor pursuits like cycling and climbing. 

Neighbouring Switzerland succeeds in doing what it always does perfectly: delivering precision, calm, and just enough indulgence to make you feel slightly improved as a person. At Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, wellness amidst the mountain landscape isn’t an afterthought, it’s the entire point. You arrive tired and in need of a retreat from British humidity, and you leave you refreshed, aligned and wondering why on Earth you’d never done this in previous years.

Italy’s Dolomites offer something altogether more cinematic. Madonna di Campiglio features no shortage of stunning properties inviting you to partake in that particular Italian ability to feel both stylish and entirely unbothered. Days are spent moving through hours spent hiking, foraging with local experts, occasionally pretending you’re the kind of person who’s cut out for bouldering, before inevitably dissolving into some of the country’s finest cool-climate wines, long dinners, and the kind of golden-hour light you won’t find anywhere else on the planet.

The view from Grand Resort Bad Ragaz’s penthouse

Also in the Dolomites and encircled by the dramatic peaks of the Sella, Sassolungo, Catinaccio and Marmolada ranges, Val di Fassa offers a compelling backdrop for a summer reset in the Dolomites. Days drift easily between rustic alpine huts and high-altitude refuges, with plenty to occupy families, alongside quieter interludes of yoga and open-air meditation. Or, if you prefer to slow things down entirely, step into the forest for a session of woodland immersion — a gentle, grounding way to clear the head and recalibrate.

The Thrills

Not every summer escape needs to be slow and languorous, and you don’t need to travel particularly far to find an opportunity to reset the senses. In County Kerry and in particular with the help of Killarney Royal Townhouse, the landscape does most of the work for you; it’s wild, green and quietly dramatic in that very Irish way that somehow always seems surprising when you find yourself on the far side of the Celtic Sea. Killarney is the sort of place where you can spend the morning hiking through forest trails, the afternoon wild swimming in cold water, and the evening somewhere low-lit with a glass of something black and velvety hitting all the right spots.

I’m quite open about the fact I have no interest in winter sports, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make the most of some of the undeniable hubs of those who get their kicks on the powder.

Mama Thresl in the Sunshine

Val d’Isère has succeeded in flipping its winter persona on its head for the summer months; the snow gives way to bike trails, alpine lakes and that rare luxury in peak summer: temperatures that don’t punish you for existing and don’t leave you sweating after anything resembling the slightest exertion. There’s movement here – real movement, and ideal for those who shudder at the idea of killing endless hours beside a pool or lying on a beach – but it comes without the chaos that usually comes as de rigueur in this particular resort.

And then, slightly off to one side, there’s a different kind of energy entirely. In Leogang, Austria, the frankly brilliant Mama Thresl manages to walk that fine line between alpine retreat and low-key party. Days are spent in the mountains, and visitors can dive headfirst into nights that stretch a little longer than planned, soundtracked by DJs and live acts that know how to keep the party going until dawn. 

The Coolcation Concept Is Here To Stay

If you’re anything like me, this is all probably starting to sound like a very good idea indeed. Maybe it's the climate, maybe it’s crowd fatigue or maybe it’s just a growing reluctance to spend precious time somewhere that feels like everyone else’s idea of a good time. Either way, a real shift is happening in travel trends and preferences, and there are countless wonderful locations and properties poised and ready to embrace those seeking a cool-climate getaway. 

Summer, it turns out, doesn’t need to be endured. It can be softened, and once you’ve experienced clean air, cooler nights and space to think when you need it most, it’s surprisingly hard to go back.