For many years, a summer season journey to Europe has been thought-about a should for vacationers within the know. And a summer season go to to Paris? Une très bonne idée.
But Jason Stevens’ August journey to Paris was something however “bon.”
“It was crowded, it was hot, in the middle of the day you were looking for shade, I was constantly looking to buy water,” he says. “The major attractions were oversold. I couldn’t get Eiffel Tower tickets — they were booked out for two weeks.”
Even the tickets he did handle to purchase — for the Louvre — turned out to be fakes offered from a rip-off web site.
It could be sufficient to destroy anybody’s trip. But Stevens wasn’t there to chill out. As CEO of the luxurious journey firm Wayfairer, he was in Paris to see what peak season has grow to be. What he discovered confirmed what his purchasers have been telling him: Summer in Europe is not the dream — it’s the ordeal.
Now, the well-heeled vacationers who as soon as flocked to the continent in July and August are pushing their journeys again. “They don’t want sweltering temperatures, or crowds, or lots of Americans outside of America,” says Stevens, whose purchasers — about two-thirds of them American — are more and more selecting fall over summer season for his or her huge European getaways.
And after his nightmare August in Paris, Stevens thinks they’re proper.
He’s not alone. Across the trade, journey insiders say autumn is turning into a brand new excessive season for Europe — a shift pushed by rising temperatures, overtourism, and a post-pandemic urge for food for quieter, extra significant journey.
“It was an emerging trend in 2024; now it’s become strong,” he says. “Last-minute bookings are bigger than this year, too. We’re now constant year-round.”
For years, the journey trade has dreamed of increasing the height summer season, and for years, vacationers not tied to highschool holidays have quietly ventured to the still-swimmable Mediterranean Sea in September and October.
The local weather disaster is an rising situation as properly. The undeniable fact that Europe is the fastest-warming continent on the planet, with 2025 seeing the worst 12 months on document for wildfires, and a number of summer season heatwaves, has made the shoulder season extra engaging.
Talk of fall being Europe’s “secret season” has solely elevated its recognition. “It’s no longer shoulder season — it’s a season,” says Stevens, who claims that there’s “absolutely not a chance in hell” that he’d willingly return to Paris in August.
Where Stevens’ luxurious vacationers go, the remainder of us observe. “Fall travel from the US to Europe is up 25% year-on-year,” says Tim Hentschel, CEO of reserving web site HotelPlanner. “Shoulder season is becoming peak season, and prices are reflective,” he says, starkly.
A basic want to flee the summer season crowds and warmth has been compounded this 12 months by a powerful greenback, which means Americans are keener to cross the Atlantic. “It’s been a huge driver,” says Hentschel, who likens it to the heady days round 15 years in the past, when Europeans flocked to the US to make the most of the weak greenback.
Many journey firms have famous the inflow. The Leading Hotels of the World group has notched up a 20% year-on-year enhance in income this fall. “Over the past year, travelers have increasingly embraced shoulder-season travel,” says president and CEO Shannon Knapp.
It’s not simply Americans. Advantage Travel Partnership, a UK-based community of journey brokers, has witnessed a staggering enhance in gross sales of UK purchasers touring to the continent, with September-October gross sales up 28%. Commercial director John Sullivan says it’s indicative of a “shift in holiday habits.”
The Virtuoso Luxe Report: UK and Ireland — a research of tourism trade patterns — notes that almost three quarters of journey advisers affiliated with the Virtuoso international lodge community say that purchasers are choosing “shoulder season or off-peak travel.” Flight consolidator Skyscanner’s not too long ago revealed Travel Trends report for 2026 notes that almost a 3rd of vacationers “plan to visit popular places only in shoulder seasons.”
Certainly, these within the trade who risked summer season in Europe this 12 months are likely to sound like survivors when speaking about their journeys. “I went to Florence during the summer and ran for the train out of town after half a day — the heat and crowds were just too much and even the gelato didn’t offer relief,” says Melanie Fish, spokesperson for journey big Expedia. The agency’s information reveals that bookings within the Tuscan metropolis have been up 110% this fall. Its neighbor, Siena, has additionally seen a 60% spike — which might clarify the sold-out inns and remaining rooms costing $700 that CNN tracked on the primary weekend of October.
Undeterred by her summer season journey to Florence, Fish returned within the fall. “What a difference — the streets were quiet at night, I could take in the Arno glowing at sunset, and I wasn’t afraid of getting hacked in the head with a selfie stick on the Ponte Vecchio,” she says. “Now I recommend to anyone who will listen they spend time in Florence but in the off-season only.”
Hentschel believes that a part of the shift is right down to altering journey demographics. “It’s baby boomers getting older,” he says. “Who would ever in their right mind travel over summer with the huge spike you get in prices? Whenever school’s out, travel prices go up 100 or 200%. When my kids get older, I’m looking forward to taking advantage of the shoulder season.”
It appears to be like like these shifting demographics is perhaps subtly altering the summer season crowds, too, as high-spenders shift their journeys to later within the 12 months. “I have the feeling that so-called ‘upscale’ tourism was a bit lower than the previous year,” Florence tour information Lucia Lazic says of summer season 2025.
“I heard a five-star hotel in the historical center had half the guest numbers of previous years. And we’ve had availability when it comes to guides. Last year there were many times when we had so many requests that we didn’t have enough guides. This summer there were always two or three available.”
Lazic mentioned {that a} information in Venice had advised her on the finish of June that they have been much less busy than in 2024. Her information is anecdotal, in fact, nevertheless it follows the image being painted by the brokers.
Rome additionally noticed a sluggish summer season, in keeping with Andrea Girolami, founder and president of AG Hotels, which has six inns within the capital. May and June “used to be our peak months,” he says, however this 12 months their occupancy declined through the summer season.
In distinction, he says, “this fall completely turned the usual trend on its head. October is definitely not the ‘shoulder season’ anymore. I can honestly say I’ve never seen an autumn like this one.” September and October have outperformed May and June when it comes to occupancy and income for his inns.
In Croatia it’s the identical image. Data compiled by the nationwide vacationer board reveals that customer numbers in July and August this 12 months have been at a “historic low,” in keeping with a spokesperson. 2025 has been “a breaking point in generating record tourism growth primarily in the off season,” they inform CNN.
Europe’s ever-increasing heatwaves are more and more claiming lives, too. In 2024, British celeb physician Michael Mosley died on the Greek island of Symi after getting misplaced on a stroll in searing warmth. In August, Roman tour information Giovanna Maria Giammarino collapsed and died whereas giving a tour of the Colosseum in blistering warmth. Her dying prompted the Associazione Guide Turistiche Abilitate, a nationwide union of tour guides, to request that opening hours at predominant websites be prolonged to allow excursions within the cooler hours of summer season. The World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations had beforehand issued a warning in June to European tour guides, urging them to guard their very own well being by monitoring climate reviews and altering their plans if vital.
But whereas fall in Europe nearly actually means avoiding scorching temperatures and even wildfires, if everybody has the identical concept, it doesn’t essentially imply fewer crowds.
“October was an unexpectedly busy month — even busier than September,” says Antonis Pothitos, a guide on the Greek islands of Mykonos and Delos.
“Normally we expect some traffic until the first week of October and then a slow fading until early November, but it has been nonstop.” His schedule was full with two excursions a day till the tip of the month, when he completed his season and transferred to the mainland. It was, he says, the busiest October he has ever recognized.
In Rome, October has all the time been a high-ish season, however this 12 months it feels increased, says information Agnes Crawford. “Romans have spoken of the ‘Ottobrate Romane’ for centuries — it has always been a super time to visit,” she says. But she feels it’s busier this 12 months. “It’s never been a particularly quiet time, but certainly ever more people are visiting the city year-round, spilling over now into formerly quiet November.”
Meanwhile, the must-see sights are experiencing increased customer numbers, too. Florence’s Uffizi Galleries noticed its busiest September ever, with numbers up greater than 26% on pre-pandemic figures, from practically 400,000 to only below 500,000. (In distinction, nonetheless, October numbers have been down year-on-year.)
And in Athens, the crowds have been nonetheless piling onto the Acropolis, with lengthy traces forming to climb the hill after which enter the sacred areas on prime when CNN visited in October.
“It changed after Covid,” says Athens tour information Kelly Bourni, who provides that each fall and spring have grow to be excessive season in Athens. Her idea is that the shock of lockdown has prompted folks to be extra footloose now they’re relishing their freedom. “Now people say, ‘Let’s go to Greece (in fall): the weather is fantastic, the food is fantastic, we can swim and go to the islands.”
The Greek Ministry of Culture didn’t reply to a request for customer numbers to the Acropolis, however in keeping with the Greek National Tourist Board within the UK, the season is pushing even later: November 2024 noticed the very best ever variety of UK guests to Greece — 98,361, nearly double the 52,000 of 2023. Overall customer numbers are trending upward too: from 5.1 million in September 2023 to only below 5.5 million in 2024, from 3.1 million in October 2023 to three.4 million in October 2024, and from simply over 1,000,000 in November 2023 to almost 1.3 million in November 2024.
Flight capability to Greece for this 12 months’s winter season, which runs from November to March, has elevated nearly 12% year on year, in keeping with information from the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation.
There’s a draw back for these touring seeking a discount shoulder-season break. Demand is rising, however infrastructure isn’t, which means inns are fuller and costs are increased. HotelPlanner’s information reveals that common nightly charges in Europe have risen by a whopping 25% year-on-year this fall, to $250.
“The rate really starts to spike when you get to 90% occupancy,” says Hentschel — which explains the $300 rooms in three-star inns being provided in an almost sold-out Prague earlier in October when CNN tracked last-minute availability.
Hotels have raised their “shoulder-season” costs “to the price level of summer,” says Jozef Verbruggen, proprietor of Netherlands-based Untamed Travelling. He says that’s not simply occurring in well-liked cities, however in sometimes summer season locations, like Scandinavia. “Many European destination have moved from a two-month peak season in the summer, including peak-pricing that lasts from May until September or even October,” he warns.
Andrea Girolami gained’t share particulars of the autumn value rises in his six Rome inns, however he calls his This autumn forecasts for this 12 months “encouraging” and says that because of the busier fall interval, it appears to be like like they’re on observe to “compensate the decreased performance recorded during the summer.”
“November isn’t quiet anymore, either,” he says. “What use to be the start of the low season has become one of our most solid months. The city is full right through autumn.”
But whereas the last-minute vacationers is perhaps struggling, those that booked forward of time have possible saved themselves a wad of money.
Traditionally, costs in Europe drop as quickly as August turns into September and the college holidays end. Expedia’s Fish says that those that booked upfront nonetheless benefitted from that value drop — some inns listed on Expedia lowered their costs by as much as 50% for late September stays booked upfront, in comparison with their costs in July and August. And Hentschel says that HotelPlanner’s information reveals that airfares from the US to Spain have nearly halved since their summer season peak. Booking upfront can nonetheless reap rewards, even on this new excessive season.
The journey trade has lengthy dreamed of stretching out the height season — not simply to earn extra, however to make peak-season crowding much less of a problem, create extra stability for tourism jobs, and clean out lodge occupancy and charges. Take Greece, for instance, which has historically seen customer numbers fall off a cliff as soon as the calendar flips into September. Now, says Bourni, “from March it’s high season.” For the previous three years she’s been main excursions on 31 December. “I’m going to do it again this year,” she says. “Then they go home on January 1, and on January 2 I have other visitors.” She emphasizes that she loves the longer season, including that there’s no anti-tourism feeling in Athens as there may be, say, in Barcelona or Venice. “Here in Greece we don’t have the problems that Spain has. Don’t confuse us with Barcelona — we want tourists,” she says.
So what’s subsequent? There’s an identical transfer to late spring and early summer season journeys, in keeping with journey firms, although it’s not — but — so pronounced. May to June gross sales are already up by 11% 12 months on 12 months for the Advantage Travel Partnership businesses.
The season for energetic holidays is shifting barely later, too. September was all the time the busiest month in Europe for Explore Worldwide, which presents journey group journeys around the globe, however October is “hot on its heels” this 12 months, says program supervisor for Europe, Tom Wilkinson, with bookings up by 40% going proper by way of to December. The firm has needed to lay on additional capability.
Meanwhile, within the peak summer season months, anticipate to see vacationers start to modify the scorching Mediterranean for cooler, much less historically sought-after climes. The Leading Hotels of the World has seen a rising demand for what it calls “coolcations,” and Virtuoso’s UK and Ireland report says that 73% of journey advisors say that purchasers are preferring “destinations with moderate weather.”
Hentschel is one in all these vacationers, having swapped his standard summer season Spain trip for Jackson Hole this 12 months. “The heat made the mountains more enjoyable,” he says. Instead, they saved Mallorca for late October, through the youngsters’ faculty vacation.
While numbers are on the rise, there are nonetheless methods to sightsee in peace. Perhaps clearly, each Bourni and Crawford level out that skilled guides can time visits to keep away from the crowds, giving their visitors a extra peaceable expertise. Bourni leads her visitors up the slopes of the Acropolis when the plenty are at lunch or between cruise ship changeovers; Crawford says that “crowds tend to be concentrated in a handful of places.”
“I honestly think there’s no bad time of year to visit, just bad ways of doing it,” she says. If the numbers proceed to develop, we are able to solely hope she’s proper.