For decades, the idea of walking the winding, thyme-scented paths of the sun-scorched Mediterranean islands has captivated Britons and those from Europe’s freezing north.
But experts say large areas of Southern Europe have become closed to walking during the hottest months of summer due to rising temperatures caused by global warming.
The dangers of extreme temperatures have been vividly illustrated this month by the deaths of scores of hikers, many in Greece.
Age appeared to be a significant factor; most were in their sixties and seventies.
Many adventure travel companies do not offer walking holidays in Spain, Portugal and Greece in July and August due to the danger posed by high temperatures, especially for the elderly.
Travel companies are having to adapt to rapidly changing climate conditions, offering more travel options in spring and autumn and turning to cooler northern destinations such as Scotland and Scandinavia.
“We’ve made some important changes to our hiking offerings in Southern Europe. We stopped offering walks in Portugal, Spain and Greece in July and August.
“This has been happening for the last few years and is linked to rising temperatures. Heat is a danger,” said Hazel McGuire, Intrepid Travel’s European managing director.
“Scientific studies consistently show that adults over the age of 65, people with heart, lung and other chronic conditions, and very young children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of heat,” the British medical journal The Lancet said in a recent report.
Michael Mosley
The most notable case was that of 67-year-old British doctor and health journalist Michael Mosley, known to millions of television viewers through his documentaries.
He died after going for a walk alone on Symbeki Island in the Aegean, where temperatures reached 38°C (100F).
On Friday, a 70-year-old British man was found dead in the Spanish Pyrenees, four days after going hiking.
A 74-year-old Dutch hiker was found dead on the island of Samos, and earlier this week a 67-year-old German hiker died while hiking near the Tripiti Pass on Crete’s rugged southern coast. He contacted his wife and told her that he was lost and had run out of water.
A 55-year-old American tourist died on the small island of Mathraki, near Corfu, while a 59-year-old retired police officer, Albert Calibet, went missing while hiking on the Aegean island of Amorgos and has not yet been found.
Mr Calibet set off on a well-marked path from the north of the island to a small port called Katapola. He knew the island well and was an experienced hiker, which made his disappearance something of a mystery.
“He may have chosen a more challenging path and perhaps overestimated his abilities. “The heat is very intense,” said Calliope Despotidi, deputy mayor of Amorgos.
Greek police spokesperson Constantina Dimoglidou said that marchers having problems is not a new thing, it happens every year. “But this year, it appears more people have become disoriented during the heatwave.”
Athens tops 43C
Greece recorded its earliest heatwave on record last week, with temperatures rising to 43C (109F) in Athens, forcing the Acropolis and some schools to close. It is on track to be the hottest June ever recorded in Greece.
Experts warn that hiking during the hottest months in places like Greece is no longer recommended.
Intrepid Travel, which offers tours to destinations around the world from Europe to Africa to the Himalayas, recorded 121 more climate-related events affecting its customers last year compared to 2022, including extreme heat, floods and wildfires.
“Climate change is having a meaningful impact on routes. We are seeing a trend towards Scandinavia and cooler climates further north in Europe,” Ms McGuire said.
Shoulder season
Intrepid saw a 61 percent increase in “peak season” bookings (the period between peak and off-peak) in Western Europe last year, and a 29 percent increase in Southern Europe.
The company has added more holiday packages to destinations such as Italy, Spain, France and Portugal to ensure customers can take advantage of the cooler weather during this time.
“Customers want to travel more in the spring and fall, and part of that has to do with temperature,” Ms. McGuire said.
Sweltering heat is increasingly becoming a problem in Europe as temperatures on the continent are rising at nearly twice the global average rate, according to the World Meteorological Organization and the EU’s climate agency Copernicus.
Heat-related deaths in Europe have increased by a third in the last 20 years.
Greece has set up a heat-related health warning system called Heat Alert. Scientists who launched it last year said that “the Eastern Mediterranean is facing increasingly intense and prolonged heat waves.” Future climate projections suggest that such extremes will become the norm for countries in the Eastern Mediterranean throughout the 21st century.
Elderly people are more sensitive
Christos Giannaros, one of the scientists leading the project, said that older people store more heat in their bodies than younger people, and as a result are more prone to heat stroke and exhaustion.
Ginny Lunn, owner of walking travel company WalkingWomen, said travel habits in Europe have changed significantly.
“Our peak time is now April, before it gets too hot in places like Greece and southern Spain, and then the end of September, October and November. We’re now going into southern Spain in December – you still get wonderful blue skies.
“In the summer we go north to Norway and Scotland, which have become very, very popular. These are now our biggest places for summer walks. The heat is coming earlier. “You need to rethink how you plan your holiday.”
Many of WalkingWomen’s clients are over 50, and they need to be especially careful about the dangers posed by the heat.
“We advise our clients to carry two liters of water, wear a hat, and choose shady water routes if possible. We use highly experienced local guides so they can adapt to changing weather conditions,” Ms Lunn said.
school holidays
Empty nesters and retirees are avoiding July and August, opting instead to go on vacation in the spring or fall, while families with school-age children are sticking to school holidays.
The advice for them is to change the destination – to avoid the hottest regions of Southern Europe during the high summer months and prefer cooler places. Last year, research by InsureandGo, a travel insurance company, found that 71% of Brits believe Mediterranean holiday destinations such as Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey will be too hot to visit in the next five years.
“We always try to encourage our clients to go out of season, but the climate makes it even more important. Why go to Lisbon in August when you’re going to suffer in the heat?” says Justin Wateridge, managing director of Steppes Travel, which runs luxury holidays around the world, from spotting snow leopards in India to tracking wolves in the Apennines of Italy.
‘It’s about being smart’
“If a customer calls and says he wants to climb Mount Toubkal [the highest peak in Morocco] “We recommend going at another time in July when the weather is less hot. Suppliers on the ground definitely offer more availability in the middle seasons like spring and fall. It’s about being knowledgeable about destinations.”
A report published by the EU last year on the impact of climate change on tourism concluded: “Coastal regions in northern Europe are expected to see a significant increase in demand in the summer and early autumn, while southern coastal regions are predicted to lose much of their summer tourist flow.”
“Tourism demand is expected to increase in the spring and fall mid-seasons.”
Avoiding the increasingly unbearable heat of southern Europe in summer is not just a matter of safety. “Walking in 40C is not much fun,” Ms McGuire said. “We should think about people’s enjoyment.”