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Most people I know in the South don't feel the need to travel to escape the heat. Many enjoy water based activities which is a form of escaping hot weather. And people may adjust activities a bit. For instance I bike in the mornings when it is hot, but in cooler weather I go in the afternoon.
All of that being said, I do know a few families that have mountain houses which they visit more in the summer when it gets really hot. Those folks mostly live in New Orleans and Florida. Here in Raleigh they may go to their mountain houses, but it isn't really to escape the heat, more just a normal vacation.
I'm about to leave for Maine, New Hampshire & Massachusetts this weekend. We've had pretty mild temps so far, but I go for the incredible seafood as much as the climate.
The flip question of course is "where do northerners go to escape the cold?" but I think I already know the answers to that one.
I generally go north to get some great use of my winter gear on high quality trails during the winter. Lake Superior Snowbelt is one of my preferred areas. It is a rather long drive from the Ohio Valley but well worth it.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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I go to the Jersey Shore. It's going to be in the 90s (and maybe even 100!) this week in the Triangle area of North Carolina. High 70s in Cape May, NJ.
Traditionally, for my old part of the South (Mississippi), at least, it's been the beach - Florida's Gulf Coast, to be specific. You can wear next-to-nothing, and there's a breeze. And you can bet that accommodations have great AC - and good pools. It DOES provide a break, in that at the beach, one can actually move-about in the outdoors, without being miserably hot. Otherwise, one tries to hide inside, May through September.
Problem is, whether you're flying or driving, getting there exposes you to heightened risk of overheating.
It's way EASIER, to just stick close to the house and the gym and the office, where there's AC.
With my heat-sensitive husband, I learned that it was best for us to take the kids on short vacations in better weather, during Thanksgiving or Winter Holidays breaks, when we could dress respectably, and everybody was in a good mood. Why waste the time and money trying to see art museums, and shopping the best stores in the best cities, when everybody's hot and miserable and looking trashy?
That goes double, for those who can't afford new and reliable cars. The heat can turn automotive malfunctions into deadly events. I remember being young and poor, and changing a tire on our first Volvo, in a blazing-hot jet-black asphalt parking lot. An older person could easily have died. As It was, I caught the worst cold of my life. Luckily, though, I was just running errands near home.
Imagine that happening, two hundred miles from home, in a luggage-packed car, with children along - and with limited credit cards.
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