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It was the summer of 2023, and Katie Piercefield-Holmes from Suffolk travelled to the Greek island of Rhodes with her husband and two children for a 10-day holiday.

They'd booked a room with air conditioning at a resort, intending to spend the time relaxing in the swimming pool and sightseeing – but this wasn't possible because of the searing heat. "Even after breakfast, a five-minute walk would be unbearable," she recalls.

Then came the wildfires, which swept across the island. "With the heat from the wildfires, it felt over 40C," she adds.

In all, some 19,000 people were evacuated from their homes or holiday accommodation in Rhodes that July. Pictures of tourists fleeing the island were splashed across newspaper front pages and one newlywed couple from Glasgow described it as like "being thrown into a disaster film". Katie's family was advised to evacuate their villa, but chose to stay, believing it would be safer.

The experience has, she says, changed the way she and her family have holidayed for good.

The summer heatwave of 2023 gripped much of Europe, particularly countries around the Mediterranean including Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Cyprus. Temperatures reached 40-45C by day in some regions.

In all, there were more than 47,000 heat-related deaths throughout Europe in 2023, according to the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) – most were in southern areas.

The previous year had also seen multiple heatwaves across Europe, including the first recording of 40C in the UK. More than 68,000 people died on the continent, according to ISGlobal.

While the 2024 season in Europe wasn't as extreme, scientists are clear that human-induced climate change is leading to more frequent and intense heatwaves around the world.

But along with this change in summer weather comes other changes too. In all, 81% of Europeans say they have tweaked their holiday plans because of factors related to climate change, according to a report published in April by the European Travel Commission (ETC).

Almost a third are choosing destinations where the weather is milder.

Ms Piercefield-Holmes is among them. She has returned to Greece with her family since 2023, but only during the cooler months of October and May - during the summer, the family still travel but take a different approach. "We go [somewhere] where it isn't as hot and can plan different activities like hiking and sightseeing," she explains.

The family are not alone. Simon Calder, a journalist and broadcaster on BBC's The Travel Show, says that a number of travel agents have observed some families choosing to take their main holiday over Easter, rather than during the summer.

So could this all become a growing trend? Indeed, a recent survey of 2,000 British adults conducted by the travel insurance company Insureandgo found that three in four think some European........

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