The 11 Coolest Escapes in the World

As summers grow longer and fiercer, the most inspired travellers are no longer chasing the sun - they are quietly running from it. Welcome to the coldcation, where the destination is the cool itself: crisp mountain air, wild coastlines and cities best explored in a good coat.

From the volcanic islands of the North Atlantic to the high Andes, there are places that stay gloriously cool when everywhere else swelters - glacier-carved coastlines, high-alpine valleys, windswept national parks and mountain citadels wrapped in cloud. Some stay temperate through the fiercest northern summer; others sit deep in their own winter while the rest of us bake. These are destinations to be walked, hiked, swum and lingered in, where the pleasures are slow: woodsmoke and hot springs, empty trails and long, low light. Here are the coolest corners of the map, and why each one belongs on your escape list.

Reykjavík

Best for Geothermal Cool and Otherworldly Landscapes

Iceland

The world's northernmost capital is a pocket-sized city of corrugated-iron houses painted in sweet-shop colours, where the harbour air stays sharp even at the height of summer. Reykjavík rewards slow wandering between design boutiques, third-wave coffee houses and geothermal pools that steam gently against the cold. Beyond the city, lava fields, waterfalls and black-sand coasts begin almost immediately, and in the darker months the sky can erupt into ribbons of green. It feels elemental and quietly cosmopolitan all at once - cold air, warm water and a landscape that looks freshly made.

The Faroe Islands

Best for Windswept Drama and Total Escape

North Atlantic, Denmark

Suspended between Iceland and Norway, the Faroes are eighteen storm-lashed islands where waterfalls blow upward in the wind and the temperature seldom troubles a light jacket, even in July. Grass-roofed villages cling to the edges of fjords, sheep outnumber people many times over, and the light can shift from silver to gold in the space of an afternoon. Days are spent hiking to vertiginous sea cliffs, boating out to bird colonies and driving sub-sea tunnels between islands that feel like the edge of the map. There is a serious food scene taking root in the capital, Tórshavn, but the real draw is the raw, cinematic emptiness. Few places on earth feel this remote and this alive.

Edinburgh

Best for Cobblestones, Castles and Cosy Grandeur

Scotland

Scotland's capital is made for cool-weather wandering, its medieval Old Town spilling down from a clifftop castle into a maze of closes, whisky bars and candlelit dining rooms. Climb Arthur's Seat for windblown views across the rooftops, then thaw out with a dram and a plate of something hearty as the fog rolls in off the Firth of Forth. The elegant Georgian New Town offers galleries, boutiques and grand squares, while the wild Highlands sit just a short drive north. Atmospheric year-round, it comes into its own under moody grey skies. Bring a good coat and the appetite of an explorer.

Lake Bled

Best for Fairytale Alpine Calm

Slovenia

Lake Bled looks conjured from a storybook: a mirror-still glacial lake with a church-topped island at its centre and a medieval castle perched on the cliffs above. Traditional wooden pletna boats ferry visitors out to the island, while a gentle path circles the shoreline beneath the snow-capped Julian Alps. Ring the island church's wishing bell, warm up with a slice of Bled's famous cream cake and hike the nearby Vintgar Gorge along its timber walkways. Slovenia's mountains keep the air crisp and the pace unhurried, even in summer. Serene, romantic and refreshingly uncrowded.

The Dolomites

Best for Pale Peaks and Alpine Glamour

Italy

Rising like a coral reef turned to stone, the Dolomites are the most theatrical range in the Alps - jagged limestone spires that blush pink and gold at sunset in a phenomenon locals call the enrosadira. This is South Tyrol, where Italian style meets Austrian order: think chic mountain towns like Cortina d'Ampezzo, hearty rifugio lunches and some of Europe's most exhilarating hiking and skiing. Wander flower-strewn meadows in summer or glide through fresh powder in winter, then retreat to a spa and a glass of local Lagrein. The air is thin, clean and cool, the scenery almost implausibly grand. Few landscapes reward simply looking up quite so richly.

The Azores

Best for Volcanic Wellness and Mild Atlantic Days

Portugal

Marooned in the mid-Atlantic, the Azores enjoy the kind of mild, changeable weather that keeps the nine islands impossibly green and the crowds pleasingly thin. On São Miguel, steaming volcanic calderas hide thermal pools and slow-cooked stews buried in the earth, while crater lakes like Sete Cidades glow blue and green beneath drifting mist. Hike between hydrangea-lined trails, soak in iron-rich hot springs at Furnas and sip tea grown on Europe's only plantation. Whales and dolphins pass offshore, and the ocean keeps the temperature gentle year-round. Lush, elemental and blissfully temperate.

Banff

Best for Rocky Mountain Grandeur

Alberta, Canada

Few landscapes deliver drama as reliably as the Canadian Rockies, where glacier-fed lakes glow impossibly turquoise beneath snow-dusted peaks. The mountain town of Banff sits at the heart of it all, a short drive from the postcard shores of Lake Louise and Moraine Lake and the jaw-dropping Icefields Parkway beyond. Hike or paddle in the cool of summer, ski world-class powder in winter, and keep an eye out for elk and grizzlies along the way. Ride a gondola for a panorama of six ranges, then thaw out in a steaming hot spring as the light fades. Grand, crisp and endlessly cinematic.

Vancouver Island

Best for Storm-Watching and Wild Pacific Air

British Columbia, Canada

On the far western edge of Vancouver Island, Tofino is where the Pacific arrives with full force, hurling itself against ancient rainforest and long, empty surf beaches. In summer it draws surfers and hikers to Pacific Rim National Park; in winter it becomes a storm-watching mecca, drawing visitors to witness Pacific gales from the safety of a fireside window. Walk the old-growth trails of Clayoquot Sound, comb the shoreline between squalls and feast on just-caught seafood. The air is cool, salt-laced and wildly invigorating whatever the season. Nature at its most exhilarating, and gloriously far from the heat.

Maine

Best for Rugged Shores and New England Charm

USA

Maine's coast is all granite headlands, spruce forest and lobster shacks wreathed in cool Atlantic fog, a world away from the summer swelter further south. At its heart lies Acadia National Park, where you can watch the first sunrise in the United States from the summit of Cadillac Mountain before hiking its rocky trails and carriage roads. Potter through the harbour town of Bar Harbor, kayak among the islands and crack into a lobster roll with the sea breeze at your back. Autumn brings blazing foliage; even high summer stays fresh and breezy. Quietly grand, salt-scented and thoroughly restorative.

Alaska

Best for Last-Frontier Wilderness

USA

America's wildest state is built for the heat-averse, its summers cool and impossibly long, with the midnight sun keeping the sky bright well past bedtime. Glaciers calve into fjords, whales breach off the Inside Passage and grizzlies fish for salmon beneath the towering bulk of Denali. Cruise past tidewater glaciers in Kenai Fjords, ride the rails through the interior and hike tundra that stretches to the horizon. Come in the shoulder months and the Northern Lights take over the darkening sky. Vast, raw and humbling, it is the ultimate antidote to a crowded, sweltering summer.

Machu Picchu

Best for Best for High-Andean Air and Ancient Wonder

Peru

Time your visit to the Andes for the dry season - roughly May to September, deep in the southern winter - and you swap sticky lowland heat for crisp, clear days and cold, star-flung nights. The Inca citadel unfurls along a high ridge wrapped in cloud forest, its terraces and temples emerging from the morning mist as llamas graze between the stones. Ride the scenic railway up from the Sacred Valley, acclimatise among the markets and ruins of Cusco, then rise before dawn for the site at its most ethereal and least crowded. Hummingbirds, orchids and waterfalls fill the valleys below, while the thin mountain air keeps everything cool. Ancient, otherworldly and blissfully far from the swelter.