Scorching temperatures in Europe not deterring Irish tourists from travelling
Temperatures have surged past 44°C in parts of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France. Portugal and Spain recorded their hottest June ever.
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Scientists said the extreme temperatures in the region were related to a "heat dome" over continental Europe.
A heat dome is an area of high-pressure air in the atmosphere which gets stuck in place over a region because atmospheric dynamics around it block it from moving. A heat dome results in clear, sunny days, and still conditions with little cooling wind.
Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating up at twice the global average according to meteorologists.
Current seasonal forecasts for July, August and September indicate Europe is highly likely to experience a warmer than average summer, Dr Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, told Reuters news agency.
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Mary Denton, chief executive of Sunway Travel, one of the country's largest travel agents, explained that they 'haven't received any queries from customers asking to re-arrange their holiday dates or cancel due to the temperatures at their destination.'
Ms Denton added: 'We have a lot of people due to travel this weekend (and) most of our customers will be going to Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Morocco.
'People are paying attention to what's going around the world but it hasn't put a stop to holidays and it isn't dampening enthusiasm for summer holidays.
'Holiday resorts and hotels are well prepared and once customers are sensible and follow local advice they will enjoy their time away.'
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The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has calculated that Irish people took more than 12 million overnight trips abroad in 2023 - many of them over the summer months.
Thomas Britton who owns Marble City Travel in Kilkenny revealed that people are 'just powering ahead with their planned holidays. They want heat on their bones. Bookings are solid.'
Mr Britton warned that there are 'cost implications' in postponing or cancelling holidays due to hot temperatures.
'Travel insurance companies will not cover postponing holidays due to the heat dome across Europe.'
His remarks were reiterated by travel expert Eoghan Corry, who outlined that holidaymakers 'can't cancel trips' due to the hot temperatures.
'Insurance will just not cover cancellations due to such temperatures. Unless they can show that the heat will seriously impact their heat with medical letters then insurance companies might consider cancellations or postponements'.
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One night, a pod of dolphins splashed around in a feeding frenzy off the port side. We watched, slightly wistfully, as the snow-capped mountains of Andalusia's Sierra Nevada, which we can see from our house, faded from view. Silver Ray had already docked in Cartagena when we woke the next day, an elegant city with elaborate Gaudí-esque art nouveau buildings between the neoclassical mansions. This was one of the last cities to fall in the Spanish Civil War and a honeycomb of bomb shelters lies under the old city. One is a museum, with vivid displays of life underground, often for days at a time, as the battle raged overhead. But my real goal here was to see the Roman Theatre Museum. It's astonishing to think that a theatre, built in the 1st century BC and seating 6,000, lay here buried under centuries of development, undiscovered until 1988 when the first stones and artefacts were discovered during the restoration of Santa Maria la Vieja Church. Layer after layer was excavated, the archaeologists slowly digging back through time. The complex you see today was designed by the superstar Spanish architect Rafael Moneo and it's really clever. You enter at street level and wander through underground exhibits — statues, pottery, ampoules — and then up a series of escalators, emerging into the sunlight for the full reveal of the magnificent theatre. What's more, I learnt what a vomitorium is: the doorway at the top level through which hoi polloi in the cheap seats would spill. As the cruise progressed, we ate our way round the ship. The Marquee, a pretty space on deck with sunlight filtering through slatted shades, did the best healthy breakfasts — green juice, greek yoghurt with nuts and honey, spinach and mushroom quesadillas. There were elaborate tapas in Silver Note, a sultry supper club with a fantastic jazz duo and a spectacular, 11-course tasting menu at Chef's Kitchen, in the cookery school, SALT Lab, which becomes a restaurant at night (from £90pp). But we kept returning to the SALT Kitchen, especially once I'd discovered the Moroccan platter and shlata chizo, a spectacular Moroccan carrot, cumin and chickpea salad. • 11 of the best western Mediterranean cruises Despite the fact that the world was in financial and political turmoil as we sailed, everybody on board seemed to knock along happily — the multigenerational groups, the retired couples, the Gen X and millennials — although we did, amusingly, conform neatly to our national stereotypes. The Italian family groups, loud and chaotic. David and I, with our nightly gin and tonic habit. The Americans, who would head for dinner at 6.30 on the dot, even when the ship was bathed in the golden glow of magic hour and Mariia was playing sax in the Dusk Bar. As for my Spanish immersion — I'm well aware that a cruise will only ever scratch the surface of a place. But I'd tried new dishes and visited new places. Would we go to Cadiz and Cartagena from our house in Andalusia and would I have discovered the Moroccan salad and visited the exquisite Mallorcan vineyard? Probably not. Now to sort that Spanish conversation class. This article contains affiliate links that can earn us revenue Sue Bryant was a guest of Silversea, which has 11 nights' all-inclusive from £5,050pp, sailing from Lisbon to Barcelona, departing on April 5, 2026 ( Fly to Lisbon
