Want to follow the hottest new trend? Book yourself a coolcation

The Herald Scotland

6 hours ago

Of course, unlike my Swiss-raised husband, I grew up in Scotland. I know the shadow side of these rare sunny days. No, you will not get a lovely suntan, but turn the same livid pink as a 1980s prawn penny sweet after an hour in the sun. Yes, it's all fun and games while you're enjoying your third spritzer in your new summer dress patterned with some sort of citrus fruit. But after a day and a half, we all know it is the social if not legal contract of all Scots to retreat home, complain about how hot it is, how Scotland has no air conditioning and blame climate warming.
I am, true to my Scottish genes, a mess in the heat. During a trip to Florence last year in August, I reacted so strongly to the sun that my face blew up like I'd done five rounds with Ken Buchanan, despite my broad "I'm a perimenopausal Scottish woman" straw hat and slathering on enough sunscreen to resemble a mime artist.
Read more by Kerry Hudson
And it seems I'm not alone in finding cooler climes, where your holiday photos won't make you look like a sweaty slab of cheese left on a windowsill, alluring. In fact, many travellers in Europe are eschewing crowded beach resorts for a "coolcation" to more clement Northern countries.
While the coolcation became particularly popular last year it shows no signs of slowing down with Scandinavian Airlines data showing Stavanger, Norway, has seen a 38% increase in arrivals from Spain, Italy, and France in 2025.
We also chose to visit Norway after seeing it billed as the "ultimate coolcation destination". I had never been to Norway before for the simple reason I always imagined it to be perilously expensive. But with the Norwegian krone at a historic low against the pound now is actually the most affordable time in a long time to go. With some budgeting, I don't think it cost us any more than visiting, say, Paris, Rome or Barcelona.
This, I convinced my husband, was our best chance to see spectacular landscapes and enjoy what the Norwegians term "friluftsliv" – literally "open-air life". Because anyone who's travelled with a four-year-old boy knows they have more energy than a Duracell Bunny after 15 Red Bulls and you want that wee boy outside, running, jumping and swimming his way to an early night so you can have a glass of wine and peace to read your book.
While it was very tempting to experience the midnight sun in the North we chose the ease of city-hopping along the West Coast starting in Bergen before travelling on to Stavanger and Oslo.
Bergen is a beautiful mountain town with picture-perfect white, wooden houses. We were lucky enough to be there for Norwegian Constitution Day when everyone dresses in "bunad", old folk costumes, and I do mean everyone – I saw a punk wearing one with no irony whatsoever. This is also the last day of the legendary partying month for Norwegian teens and let me tell you, the drunken scenes outside a 3pm McDonald's rivalled anything I've seen in a British seaside town at 2am.
However, Bergen is also home to one of the most beautiful mountaintop parks we've ever been to, with hidden wooden trolls for my little boy to hunt, a crystal clear lake to swim in and their own herd of adorable, friendly mountain goats.
In Oslo, which the Wall Street Journal called the "newest capital of Nordic cool" and one of the most walkable cities in the world, we visited the achingly hip Munch Museum, marvelled over the stark modernism of the harbour and visited the absolutely unmissable Deichmann Bjørvika, Oslo's Central Library, where our boy played happily (and quietly!) for two full hours. We also ate some excellent pizza at Chicago and Brew, and went for a family swim with views of the city from the 37th floor of the Radisson Blu Plaza.
But it was in Stavanger where we truly fell in love with Norway. Stavanger bills itself as "The edge of Norway". And during our few days there, we took a trip through the fjords, just one of over a thousand in Norway by the way, to see waterfalls, more mountain goats and Pulpit Rock, where Tom Cruise faces off with his nemesis Henry Cavill in Mission Impossible: Fallout.
A view of Oslo, the newest capital of Nordic cool (Image: PA)
But as an Aberdonian quine, it wasn't the majestic Norwegian fjords that held my attention, it was the city's legacy that I understood so well. It's former fishing port blessed with an oil boom in the 1970s and 80s that changed the small city in so many ways, and now with oil wealth on their side they are wondering what they will do next and how to invest in green renewable energy for future generations.
I loved visiting, confounding all my expectations, both the Norwegian Canning Museum and the Norwegian Petroleum Museum, both modern, interactive and suitable for every age. As I walked the famous Fargegaten street, a long row of wooden houses painted in a carnival of colours, I felt a strange kinship with this town, hard to explain, unless you have also come from a city where the fishing industry has been completely surpassed by the boom of oil.
For us, our Norway trip was a "coolcation" in every sense of the word and we have fully caught the addictive spirit of friluftsliv'. As the world heats up, I predict we, and many others, will keep seeking out coolcations.
Kerry Hudson is an award-winning, bestselling novelist and memoirist. You can find her on Instagram and on Threads @ThatKerryHudson