How to beat the heatwave: Head north for Europe's cooler temperatures

While much of southern Europe broils in record-breaking high temperatures, it's a different picture in the north of the continent. 

Although temperatures can regularly hit +30°C across parts of Lapland in Norway, Sweden and Finland - bringing reindeer down to the beaches to mingle with sunbathers at the edge of Arctic rivers - it's usually a lot more temperate even throughout the summer months. 

"The summer season in the Arctic is generally cooler than other destinations further south in Europe. The weather and temperatures in Tromsø varies, and this summer has been no exception," explains Rebecca Skoog from Visit Tromsø. 

"This summer we have generally had a lot of sun, nice weather and higher temperatures up to around 27 degrees Celsius. So far this week we have had sun, rain and cloudy days," she tells Euronews.

The weather has indeed been variable in Tromsø, high up in the Norwegian Arctic, with temperatures this week ranging between +12°C and +19°C. 

Although summer begins in May, there are snow days even in June as the landscape gets greener and the days grow longer until there is no sunset, only the endless white nights of Arctic summer. 

There's a week of rain in the forecast for Akureyri, Iceland's second city, with temperatures struggling to get into double digits.

"Of course it does get much hotter, I think we had about 26 degrees in late June but you can never depend on the weather," says Ragnar Ragnarson at Visit Akureyri. 

On the north coast of Iceland, Akureyri lies at one end of a fjord which eventually opens out into the bone-chilling waters of the north Atlantic Ocean, and Greenland beyond. 

"It's about 11 degrees Celsius right now, very still and no wind. Beautiful weather really," Ragnarson told Euronews. 

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