Now the city is also attracting tourists from other parts of Europe who are seeking sandy beaches without sweltering temperatures. Madrid and Paris, for example, eclipsed 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the most recent heat wave, and parts of France and Spain are currently fighting huge wildfires. The Hague usually has summer highs in the 60s or 70s, though the temperature has crept into the 90s some days this summer.
“We don’t go south now because it’s too hot,” said Mathias Streit, 31, who had traveled north from Bern, Switzerland, and was recently taking a guided tour through The Hague with his mother. The mere idea of being on a 100-degree beach in Spain or Italy was “terrible,” he added.
By contrast, the cooler Hague, he said, was “perfect.”
He’s not alone. About 16 percent of people in a recent survey by the European Travel Commission, which promotes tourism on the continent, said they were seeking destinations with milder weather. Those can include beaches on Europe’s northern coastline, like in The Hague, and in Scandinavia.