John Ferral

Do the European employers still let most workers off for one big month of summer vacations. Is this a month to avoid travelling in Europe.

Joanna White

I have read and heard from lots of people that July and August are the months to avoid Europe, as many companies, tertiary institutions and schools have their summer break during those months. Apparently the queues during these months are very long. I would avoid the summer and go either in spring or autumn.
Kind regards.

Bo

YES! I really suggest that you don't go to Europe, especially Italy in August. Nothing is open. Go in late spring/early summer. It's still nice and you can do everything. The worst traffic jams/stau's/queues were at the southern Germany autobahn gateway into Austria. It turns into a parking lot in August.

Have fun!

Bo again

I didn't mean to imply in my first message that you shouldn't go to Europe. I simply meant to say that late July and August are the worst times to go in regards to crowds and traffic (this includes trains).

Sanne

Hi John.

Like the other answers you have got - I would strongly recommend that you avoid July and especially August. Everything in southern Europe will more or less be closed, not big cities like Paris etc, but it's too hot. As for the north of Europe the holiday is from mid July - mid August and crowded as well. I would go either May/June or in September.
Sanne

sabrina

I work in advertising and a lot of my international campaigns have to work around European countries in summer. Some info to about avoiding countries:
Spain: avoid late July through August and remember due to the heat everything closes earlier (c. 3pm). France: the whole of August. Italy: mid July through August. Germany: mid July to mid August (though commercial areas still stay open) General rule for holidaying in those countries: aim for anything up to mid-July: after that until Sept you'll either be swamped by the natives, stuck in a tourist resort or you'll find nothing open.

Joel

John, that's an interesting question. I worked in France for a little over 2 years for a very large French multi-national company. Virtually everyone in my company and, it surely seemed in all of France, took vacation in August. The exodus starts in the last week of July and tapers off in the first week of Sep.

My wife and I discovered that it was unwise to go to a big tourist destination in August with the exception of Paris. All the French in Paris leave, leaving the city to foreigners. All the attractions a foreigner would want to see remain open, but a large number of small shops, mainly those frequented by locals, are closed. It may well be that August is therefore a good time to visit other European cities.

On the other hand, the Riviera is IMPOSSIBLE in August. That's where most of the French have gone. As a thumb rule I'd say August is a bad time to go to destinations in the country and a good time to visit cities.