Greece and Turkey wildfires: Is it safe to travel to popular holiday hotspots?
Temperatures reached 42.4C in central Greece at the weekend, with emergency services battling fires in the Peloponnese area of Athens and on the popular tourist islands of Kytheria and Crete.
Turkey has also recorded its highest temperatures as fires continue to rage in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa. Thousands of residents have been evacuated.
The highway linking Bursa to the capital, Ankara, is also closed as surrounding forests burn.
The Independent's travel correspondent Simon Calder explains the latest advice if you are due to travel this summer.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Southern Europe bakes and burns, turning holiday hotspots into infernos
Somehow, the heat hits harder when you're on holiday. Tourists who hoped to idle on Croatian beaches this week will have instead singed their feet on scorching sand. Families on a break in Madrid will have choked on smoke from a deadly wildfire that ripped through a suburb of the Spanish capital. Visitors to Mount Vesuvius in Italy will have been turned away from the trails as firefighters battled blazes on the volcano's slopes. And then there are campers in south-west France, where 40% of selected weather stations recorded heat above 40C on Monday, who may have wished they had stayed home. Fierce heat is scorching southern Europe for the second time this summer, breaking temperature records and fuelling wildfires that have forced thousands of people across several countries to flee their homes. The heatwave, which has been made longer and stronger by the blanket of fossil fuel pollution that smothers the Earth, has struck during the holiday season when tourist-dependent economies in the Mediterranean and the Balkans are most exposed to variations in weather. For locals and visitors alike, the formerly Instagram-friendly views now seem apocalyptic. Firefighters are tackling fierce blazes in countries from Portugal to Turkey, and the infernos are known to have killed people in France, Spain, Albania, Montenegro and Greece. Across the continent, black smoke is darkening blood-red skies. 'We are being cooked alive,' said Alexandre Favaios, the mayor of Vila Real, in northern Portugal. 'This cannot continue.' Wildfires in Europe burned more than 400,000 hectares in the first seven months of 2025, according to data published by EU fire scientists on Tuesday. Although it is not the worst the continent has seen for this time of year, the burned area is 87% greater than the average over the last two decades. In the coming week, the scientists warned, 'extreme to very extreme conditions' for fire weather will persist. They project 'particularly severe' risks in much of southern Europe, as well as high anomalies in parts of the Nordics. 'We are at extreme risk of forest fires,' the Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez warned on Tuesday. 'Please be very cautious.' Feeling the heat I have felt the fear that wildfires can instil in an absent-minded tourist. At a Portuguese friend's wedding in 2022, by a lake in the rural centre of the country, a nearby forest fire forced us to head indoors early so helicopters could fill buckets with fresh water to battle the blaze. The next day, as we lounged in the outdoor pool of a holiday home, white soot rained down on us like snow. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion The hot ashes had been lifted up by plumes of smoke that grew redder and redder as the fire came closer. After some fretting among the group, one friend with a newborn baby decided it was time to leave, so we fled to the coast. We drove past locals, mostly retired, who stood outside their homes and watched in horror as flames drew near. Wildfires kill hundreds of people around the world each year – a death toll far lower than that from floods, which kill thousands, and from heatwaves, which kill hundreds of thousands. But factor in the smoke and the human cost rises rapidly. The latest research estimates that the air pollution spewed by wildfires kills a staggering 1.5 million people globally each year. There are economic costs, too. As southern Europe bakes and burns each summer, tourists who cannot travel out of season are starting to abandon traditional holiday destinations in favour of 'coolcations' farther north that beat the heat. Even that strategy will have led to some disappointment this summer. At the start of the month, a heatwave hit cool Nordic countries and sent temperatures north of the Arctic Circle to a staggering 32-33C. 'Truly unprecedented' was how one meteorologist described the heatwave. The upshot is that flight shame might not be what keeps people from holidaying far from home as the planet heats up. Instead, it could be the rising cost of travel as Europe's once-stable climate violently breaks down. This is an edited version of the This is Europe newsletter. If you want to read the complete version every Wednesday, please sign up here.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Southern Europe bakes and burns, turning holiday hotspots into infernos
Somehow, the heat hits harder when you're on holiday. Tourists who hoped to idle on Croatian beaches this week will have instead singed their feet on scorching sand. Families on a break in Madrid will have choked on smoke from a deadly wildfire that ripped through a suburb of the Spanish capital. Visitors to Mount Vesuvius in Italy will have been turned away from the trails as firefighters battled blazes on the volcano's slopes. And then there are campers in south-west France, where 40% of selected weather stations recorded heat above 40C on Monday, who may have wished they had stayed home. Fierce heat is scorching southern Europe for the second time this summer, breaking temperature records and fuelling wildfires that have forced thousands of people across several countries to flee their homes. The heatwave, which has been made longer and stronger by the blanket of fossil fuel pollution that smothers the Earth, has struck during the holiday season when tourist-dependent economies in the Mediterranean and the Balkans are most exposed to variations in weather. For locals and visitors alike, the formerly Instagram-friendly views now seem apocalyptic. Firefighters are tackling fierce blazes in countries from Portugal to Turkey, and the infernos are known to have killed people in France, Spain, Albania, Montenegro and Greece. Across the continent, black smoke is darkening blood-red skies. 'We are being cooked alive,' said Alexandre Favaios, the mayor of Vila Real, in northern Portugal. 'This cannot continue.' Wildfires in Europe burned more than 400,000 hectares in the first seven months of 2025, according to data published by EU fire scientists on Tuesday. Although it is not the worst the continent has seen for this time of year, the burned area is 87% greater than the average over the last two decades. In the coming week, the scientists warned, 'extreme to very extreme conditions' for fire weather will persist. They project 'particularly severe' risks in much of southern Europe, as well as high anomalies in parts of the Nordics. 'We are at extreme risk of forest fires,' the Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez warned on Tuesday. 'Please be very cautious.' Feeling the heat I have felt the fear that wildfires can instil in an absent-minded tourist. At a Portuguese friend's wedding in 2022, by a lake in the rural centre of the country, a nearby forest fire forced us to head indoors early so helicopters could fill buckets with fresh water to battle the blaze. The next day, as we lounged in the outdoor pool of a holiday home, white soot rained down on us like snow. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion The hot ashes had been lifted up by plumes of smoke that grew redder and redder as the fire came closer. After some fretting among the group, one friend with a newborn baby decided it was time to leave, so we fled to the coast. We drove past locals, mostly retired, who stood outside their homes and watched in horror as flames drew near. Wildfires kill hundreds of people around the world each year – a death toll far lower than that from floods, which kill thousands, and from heatwaves, which kill hundreds of thousands. But factor in the smoke and the human cost rises rapidly. The latest research estimates that the air pollution spewed by wildfires kills a staggering 1.5 million people globally each year. There are economic costs, too. As southern Europe bakes and burns each summer, tourists who cannot travel out of season are starting to abandon traditional holiday destinations in favour of 'coolcations' farther north that beat the heat. Even that strategy will have led to some disappointment this summer. At the start of the month, a heatwave hit cool Nordic countries and sent temperatures north of the Arctic Circle to a staggering 32-33C. 'Truly unprecedented' was how one meteorologist described the heatwave. The upshot is that flight shame might not be what keeps people from holidaying far from home as the planet heats up. Instead, it could be the rising cost of travel as Europe's once-stable climate violently breaks down. This is an edited version of the This is Europe newsletter. If you want to read the complete version every Wednesday, please sign up here.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
I paid £4,000 for a holiday to Turkey - but was left disgusted by the 'bed' my child had to sleep on
A British mother has been left furious after shelling out thousands for a room at a luxury Turkish hotel that reportedly only provided a sofa-bed for her child to sleep on. Harley, who goes by @harleyjxo on TikTok, travelled with her partner and their two children to Antalya, Turkey, in July, where they'd booked a stay at Hotel Turan Prince. The all-inclusive resort, also known as Club Turan Prince World, boasts five-star accommodation, a family-friendly atmosphere, multiple restaurants and a wide range of activities and entertainment. In a clip on TikTok, the mother explains: 'Imagine paying £4000 for a holiday for a family of four, for them to expect an 11-year-old child to sleep on a CHAIR.' She demonstrated how the small, square-shaped brown chair transforms into a bed by pulling out a padded seat from its base and extending it to form a longer sofa. Urging holidaymakers to steer clear of the hotel, the content creator adds in a follow-up comment: 'Is that a joke? And to be told there's nothing that they can do about it!! a CHAIR!!! wtf!! 'There's so much wrong with this hotel and I've not even been here 24 hours yet! Mad DO NOT BOOK. Was another family in reception who's child was CRYING cos there poor back from sleeping last night.' The clip, which has since been viewed over 800K times, has prompted 400 viewers to share their opinion - though not everyone sided with the mother. The mother demonstrated how the small, square-shaped brown chair transforms into a bed by pulling out a padded seat from its base and extending it to form a longer sofa One person wrote, 'That's a perfect bed for a child,' while another quizzed, 'So why didn't you get a room with actual bed for your child.' A third said: 'Imagine spending 4 grand on a room and not checking the photos to see what the beds look like first.' A fourth added, 'Im sorry is this not a normal place for a kid to sleep in?' while a fifth commented, 'It's looking cheap but as a KID this would have been super exciting.' However, other viewers came to the mother's defense, as one wrote: 'This is what puts me off Turkey! Would love to go but the accommodation for families is shocking!!' Another wrote: 'Had this a few times recently and we're paying £7/8k for a week. It's disgusting tbh. Why can't they have a bed!' A third said: 'The reviews on trip advisor say it all…. Do NOT eat the food!!' to which the mother responded: 'The food is awful too!' The Daily Mail has reached out to Hotel Turan Prince for further comment. It comes after a family's dream holiday was ruined after they were left stranded due to a booking blunder. The clip, which has since been viewed over 800K times, has prompted 400 viewers to share their opinion - though not everyone sided with the mother Darren Tanser shared his nightmare experience on TikTok, @darrentanser, after he paid £6,000 for trip to Turkey. He raged: 'LoveHolidays are an absolute joke, I recommend none of you ever book with them at all. 'I spent 425 minutes throughout yesterday, which is seven hours, on the phone to LoveHolidays on and off, they never called me back once for any issue, I had to continuously call them.' The family had arrived at the hotel at 5am, only to be told their booking 'hadn't been secured'.
