Bonjour from a steamy Brussels —
We have a lot to get through today, but it’s the last newsletter for awhile (more below) so please bear with me!
The heat has calmed down, but more is on the way over the weekend.
I am one of the few here who doesn’t mind the hot weather. But, it is extremely concerning that when I was in Paris last Wednesday, the 104° F temperature was 32° above average.
That same day it was 111° in Baghdad, 93°in Louisiana, 98° in Bangkok, and 105° in New Delhi. So, it’s not that parts of Europe are so much hotter than anywhere else this week, but that it’s abnormal and, in some cases, more dangerous. Climate change is causing higher temperatures worldwide and Europe is the fastest warming continent. The infrastructure is not set up to handle these temperatures.
Cue, the air conditioning debate. (About 20 percent of homes in Europe have AC, compared to 78 percent in North America and 25 percent in the Middle East.)
Lindsey Tramuta has more specifics on architecture in Paris and what could be done. I was struck by this quote from an urban planner: “The city has got to modernize, and that will require letting go of some of its precious attachment to its glorious past.”
I grew up without air conditioning, and there were always a few days a year where it would become unbearably hot, and we would all sleep in the living room in front of fans and with the windows open. The upstairs bedrooms were a heat trap. But we could also escape during the day to the mall, the movie theater, a friend’s house who had AC.
In France and Belgium, there is no escape. Only 4% of homes in Brussels have air conditioning. Our is not one of them. My daughter’s bedroom on the top floor of our four-floor apartment was 90° for four days straight, even in the middle of the night when it had cooled down outside. No amount of opening the windows in the cooler hours, trying to trap cool air in, utilizing fans, or any other trick helped. We all slept in the living room. Her daycare doesn’t have AC either (many schools in Europe do not), and after a day of daycare she came home to play in the portable pool in the shade. I thought it was pretty cool with a breeze and the cold water—-cooler than playing inside the stifling apartment at least—but an hour later, back inside, she spiked a fever of 103° and became listless. We wrapped her in cold towels and force-fed her electrolytes and thought about going to the hospital for few hours until she finally cooled down.
In Paris, a friend and I visited a museum and restauarants to get away from the heat in her apartment, but there was no way to avoid it. We walked, half in a daze, through a mildly cool museum. We sat directly underneath a fan over lunch and drank liters of water, but left sweaty leg marks on the chairs.
France has reported more than 1,000 deaths. The UK broke June heat records three days in a row. Germany had its highest ever temperature. Belgium had its hottest day since it started keeping records. Public transit has been disrupted in major cities. Everyone should be worried. I happened to be reading The Road, by Cormac McCarthey, during all of this, and it made everything feel dystopian.
It also made me think about promoting travel to Europe during the summer if this is going to become the norm. I LOVE the Mediterranean. My favorite summer activity anywhere in the world is swimming in its turquoise waters. And I especially love Italy in the summer. Italian summer is the best summer. I’ve said it a thousand times. And yet, Italian, and much of European, summer is also dangerous. If residents can’t cope, should tourists really be visiting? Should people be working in restaurants (at pizza ovens!) to serve crowds in 100° heat? A lot to think about.
Related reading:
Has air conditioning become an essential solution for coping with heatwaves? Le Monde
On the French relationship with air (I feel a lot of this could also be said about Italy)
7 American assumptions about air conditioning I unlearned after moving to Paris
Where I’ve Been
We spent Saturday in Blankenberge and Knokke-Heist on Belgian’s North Sea coast, trying to flee the heat. The beaches are nice and the water was refreshing. The towns are great for kids but are also kind of weird. Like a trashy American boardwalk meets designer shopping? I don’t know. Just odd vibes. Very good mussels, though.
Despite being sweaty I had a lovely 22 hours in Paris visiting a friend. The Eurostar from Brussels is so easy. And I had the best pain aux raisin of my life on the way out at Boulangerie Raphaelle. A couple more highlights here to save for your next visit, which should praobably be in the fall. ⤵️
This week, paid subscribers got a rundown of my favorite spots in Gdańsk (a nice and not too hot summer destination!), including a museum that brought me to tears, jelly doughnuts, and a vetted amber shop.
And, a guide to a few favorite things after eight days in Mallorca, which I will definitely be returning to at some point. Again, early fall is probably best. It wasn’t too hot in early June, but four days later and it would have been. I’m told October is a great time.
(On Travel Better With Kids, I wrote a more family-specific Mallorca guide, as well as a love letter to Helsinki.)
Travel Tip of the Day 💸
Finally, being a better traveler doesn’t only mean being a good global citizen. Sometimes it simply means being savvy and better at the logistics. Like not falling for dynamic currency conversion.
PSA: don't fall for dynamic currency
Have you received a message like the below while booking from Ryanair or another travel service? It says: “are you sure you wish to opt out of dynamic currency and have no guaranteed exchange rate?”
I rarely post these more practical travel tips, but realized this is one a lot of people don’t know. Should I share more short tips like this in the future, or are you all experts?
SUMMER BREAK ☀️🛝⛱️
Whether I end up covering more travel tips or not, it will have to wait.
My daughter’s daycare is closed all of July. We don’t have family or other childcare options nearby. My husband works full-time. My job is more flexible right now, which means I’m on full-time mom duty with the exception of a (hopefully) two-hour daily nap.
I love writing this newsletter and am grateful to those of you who pay for it, but it is time consuming and not lucrative. Which means during those naptimes and when Nathan is not in meetings, I need to focus on the work that does pay the bills.
We’ll be in the U.S. for a month later this summer, enlisting the grandparents and spending time with people we don’t see very often. So, I’m pausing paid subscriptions through September. I hope you’ll stick around, because for the return we already have two fanstastic Be a Better Traveler guides from guest writers for Turkey and South Korea in the works.
ALSO, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. And Substack is irritating me. The performative notes, the AI slop, the ‘hot takes’ that start to sound the same. I subscribe to dozens of newsletters that I love reading via email, but when I open the app I’m annoyed and/or bored, but for some reason keep scrolling.
So, for the next two months, I’m going to be on Substack and Instagram less. I’m going to write through ideas in one of my many, many untouched notebooks and hopefully come back with an even better newsletter for the fall.
(Travel Better With Kids subscribers will get a few more scheduled posts before that newsletter goes on break next week.)
And now, finally, let’s get to it!!
Travel News to Know
Tourism
Japan is tripling its tourist tax from ¥1,000 (about $6) to ¥3,000 ($18.50) on July 1. The fee is added to the cost of airfare, reports CNN. Barcelona, Spain is also considering tripling a tourist tax, from €11 to €30, for cruise ship passengers who spend less than 12 hours in the city.
Tourism revenue in Cyprus dropped 35 percent compared to 2025 due to the U.S.-Iran war. It’s ticking back up.
New internal guidance at the U.S. Interior Department bans park staff from notifying the public about national park deaths. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports: “On Friday, a 17-year-old girl drowned in Sequoia National Park after slipping into a river. On Saturday, a 23-year-old man died after falling over a waterfall in Yosemite. The same weekend, a body was found in the desert at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, while a motorcycle accident killed one person in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.” Employees are no longer allowed to confirm deaths or provide details about injuries. Previously, the agency would release as much information as possible. The idea was public disclosure helped visitors understand risks and stay safe. (Parks are generally safe. “An average of about 350 people die in national parks each year, or about 7 per week, according to Park Service data. That represents a small fraction of the more than 300 million people who visit each year.”)
Last time, we talked about the EU’s controversial migration law. It’s causing drama. Earlier this month at the European Council gathering, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni clashed with Spain’s Pedro Sánchez over his legalization of around 500,000 migrants. A letter from 19 countries supporting the deportation hubs and asking the EU for funds caught France off guard, according to POLITICO, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to say they go against European principles. “I’ve never seen a return center in a third country that actually works,” he said.
Tangentially related: EU countries raked in €157.1 million last year in application fees for visitor visas that were ultimately rejected.
Mawlynnong, India, famous in part for being Asia’s “cleanest village,” is closing to day trippers on Sundays to reclaim “real village life.”
Air travel
Good news for air passengers in Europe! The European Union is overhauling passenger rights rules for the first time in 20 years. Airlines and booking platforms will have to display fares including a piece of hand baggage before you start booking. That means, no thinking a fare looks super cheap only to have an expensive cabin bag double the price once you start clicking through the booking process. Many low-cost airlines only show the cost for a flight with a personal item. Now, they’ll have to show the cost including a carry-on bag. This means clearer pricing, but not cheaper flights overall.
The agreement also maintains compensation for long delays, and forces airlines to inform passengers electronically within 96 hours after arrival when a delay may give grounds for compensation.
Another big change: no cancellations for no-show flights on one leg. If you miss the first leg of your flight, the airline can’t automatically cancel your return trip.
ETA: The agreement isn’t fully adopted yet and likely won’t go into effect until sometime in 2027.
TSA is testing new e-gates at Charlotte Douglas International Airport using facial matching technology. Instead of having a TSA agent check your ID, you scan it at the checkpoint gate yourself.
The fire risk posed by lithium batteries is now the number one safety risk to aircraft, according to the UK’s aviation regulator. The number of devices found in carry on bags has nearly doubled in a year. The government is warning people not to pack them.
Emirates is now offering conflict-coverage travel insurance. In addition to covering trip cancellation and lost baggage, Emirates’ new Comprehensive Travel Cover policy includes up to $25,000 in conflict-related medical coverage, hotel accommodations during disruptions, and a provision allowing travelers to extend their trip by up to 30 days at no extra cost if a conflict-related event derails their travel plans. And if the airline can’t get passengers to their destination on one of its own flights, Emirates says it will rebook them on another airline at no additional cost.
A study from Only In Your State named Hawaiian Airlines the most reliable airline in the U.S.
Train Travel
Japan is launching a new luxury class on its bullet train starting in October. “Supreme Class,” available on some routes from Tokyo to elsewhere in the country, offers private rooms. A new A new sleeper car service called “Luna Azul” will feature lie-flat seats along the Tohoku route, which carries people to prefectures like Aomori and Akita in northeast Japan. That one isn’t available until next year.
The Netherlands is offering unlimited nationwide rail travel during off-peak times, weekends and public holidays for €49 a month for up to two months. Typically, a month of travel is about €128. But you have to purchase a subscription by June 30. Go!
This is a BUS, but we don’t have a section for that. Poland’s iconic 666 route to Hel is back after a pause in 2023 over satanic associations. (Yes, you read that right.) The FlixBus route takes passengers from Kraków to Hel, a Baltic seaside town. The name has been changed to 669 to appease Christian groups.
Summer Reading
I am fully into the World Cup. I’m not normally a big sports person and I was/am so upset with how the U.S. government was treating visiting fans and players and referees and other officials, and FIFA is a horrendous organization, so I didn’t think I would get into it this year. But I’ve been sucked in, even if most of the games are on while I’m sleeping. The Athletic is keeping me informed, because I am a novice viewer. And I’m mostly here for the fan energy and American cultural discovery. Doug Mack / Snack Stack has a good roundup of a bunch of nice moments. (Did you see the note the Iran team left in LA? Or this reporting on the drama around Mexico’s jerseys?)
Europe has a WhatsApp problem: “Most Europeans text each other using an American-owned app that most Americans have never heard of. Yet the US government is trying to block the EU from regulating it.”
Tomatoes become latest symbol of America’s affordability squeeze
Leave it to Beaver — A must-read on Buc-ee’s, where I spent too much time while living in Louisiana
The Milkman (!!!!)
Recommended
Cook: I made ratatouille tonight. The perfect summer dish. I always use this Jacques Pépin version.
Drink: Kriek is a style of Belgian beer made by fermenting lambic with sour cherries. Refreshing and not too sweet, it’s become my summer drink. The neighborhood where we live, Schaerbeek, is famous for a variety of cherry that was used in the kriek on the left. I’m not sure if you can find this one outside of Belgium, but if you see it, it’s a special thing! (Will do a dining guide to my neighborhood in September.)
Watch: Very excited for this. Of course we will be discussing here on the return.
Pack: A hand fan didn’t completely cool me in Paris, but it did significantly help. I bought mine at a museum but there are lots of cute ones around. And these are the things I actually used and ,could have left at home, in Mallorca.
Read: My brother and I are reading through these short stories together. I don’t like them all, and some I feel like I should have already read, or I did in high school but have forgotten, but others have really made me think and it’s been fun to read and discuss. I mentioned “Flesh” last time. I heard it was a difficult read but I flew through it and enjoyed every minute. Then I read The Road, which is obviously very famous and gripping but also dark and maybe not the best read if you’re already depressed about the state of the world. What are your favorite beach reads??? I’m about to start the fourth of the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novels (I’ve put it off for years because I didn’t want them to end), then will be in search of something very fun.
Listen: “Stupid Song” has been on repeat for days. I’ve also been catching up on the Culture Study podcast and just started the audiobook of “Kin,” by Tayari Jones.
And now: commence summer break!
Of course, something crazy might happen in the travel world, or I might feel the urge to weigh in on some controversial topic. I reserve the right to pop back in your inbox once or twice. But, just in case I don’t, I hope you have a wonderful summer and safe travels!!
— Rebecca 💛
I agree with you - it is very worrying. I am going to have a complete rethink about the times of year I go travelling. There's no point in going anywhere if it's that hot, because you don't have the energy to do or see anything!
Here’s to being more offline & bored! ☀️Happy summer