The UK is on track to experience its hottest summer in recorded history. This has led to some airlines marketing summer getaways to Eastern European nations as “coolcations”, and hoping tourists will want to travel, in order to avoid hot conditions. Data from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) however, suggests that warmer destinations remain popular.
What is a ‘coolcation’?
The term ‘coolcation’ was first used in 2023, to describe the growing trend of European tourists choosing to travel to colder destinations, in order to avoid increasingly warm summers.
Airlines have increasingly marketed colocations to British tourists over the last two years, with the UK experiencing its hottest ever summer last year. Data from the met office suggests that this summer is likely to once again break the record.
The most common coolcation destinations for British tourists have traditionally included Eastern European nations, as well as longer haul trips to Canada.
Last summer, Switzerland was the most flown to country by British travellers, out of those which had a lower annual average temperature than the UK.
The New Holiday Coldspots
The Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air operates out of several British airports, and has noticed a rise in demand for coolcations.
It has identified the Estonian capital Talinn, along with the Lithuania cities of Vilnius and Kaunas, as well as the Polish destinations of Gdansk and Poznan, as increasingly popular summer destinations.
Wizz Air’s managing director Yvonne Moynihan believes this is part of a growing trend.
“As the UK experiences hotter and drier summers, we’re seeing some travellers rethink what they want from a summer holiday.” Moynihan said. “Brits are also looking for destinations where they can comfortably explore cities, spend time outdoors, and immerse themselves in local culture without feeling the heat.”
None of the destinations identified by Wizz Air have experienced average daytime temperatures of higher than 25°C so far this summer.
What Does the Data Say?
The UK CAA has so far only released data on the country’s most popular flight routes for the first six months of this year.
Data from June however suggests that the trend towards coolcations hs not been overwhelming.
There is a small negative correlation between a country’s average temperature, according to the Trading Economics global database, and how the number of passengers flying to that country has changed between June 2025 and June 2026.
This means that colder countries were slightly more likely to have seen an increase in travellers arriving from the UK over the last year, but not by a statistically significant margin.
The top ten fastest growing destination countries did include the Eastern European nations of: Albania, Slovenia, and Montenegro. These were however joined by: Kenya, Guyana, and Iraq, all of which have average annual temperatures of over 20°C, compared to the UK’s 9.88°C.
The fastest shrinking destinations between June 2025 and June 2026 included the warm weather hot spots of Saudia Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Cape Verde.
This suggests that fewer British people feel the need to travel abroad in order to experience warm and dry summer weather.
Poland and Estonia experienced rises of 8.8% and 5.1% rises in the number of British fliers they received, while 9.5% fewer British tourists flew to Lithuania in June 2026, than they did in June 2025.
Have you been on a coolcation this summer? Will they become more popular if the UK becomes hotter? Let us know what you think in the comments.
