I just got back from DC. I was there all week for work, but I tacked on a couple extra days to catch up with old friends and get some salsa dancing in. Now that's what I call work life balance.

Now I'm home for a bit. Just enough time to plan the next trip. And if you're wondering where I'm going next, keep reading.

So here's where I'm headed. Iceland. Which, I'll admit, is the most basic thing a traveler can do this summer.

Everyone is going. Flight searches for Iceland are up 85 percent this year. It's the poster child for the whole escape the heat movement. If there were a trophy for following the crowd, I'd be holding it.

But here's the catch. I didn't pay extra to do it.

Let me back up.

This summer, there's a name for what everyone's doing. They're called coolcations. Instead of roasting in southern Europe or sitting through another heat wave, people are chasing cooler weather. The Nordics, the Alps, Iceland, Canada. Searches for cooler destinations are up 74 percent from last year. It's the defining travel move of 2026.

Sounds smart, right? It mostly is. But there's a part nobody puts on the brochure.

Cool air now costs more than the heat ever did.

Flights to cooler destinations run about 16 percent higher than comparable warm weather routes. Airfare overall is up almost 15 percent from last year. So yes, you can escape the heat. You'll just pay a premium to do it. Everyone's rushing toward the same cool places at the same time, and prices are climbing right along with them.

Here's how I skipped that part.

First, I stayed flexible with my dates. I didn't lock myself into one travel week. I poked around, moved things by a few days, and found a fare that was already cheaper than usual. Flexibility is the easiest discount in travel. The price of a flight can swing a lot just by shifting a day or two.

Then, I paid with points. I had Chase Ultimate Rewards points sitting in my account, so I booked the flight through the Chase travel portal. My older points still redeem at 1.5 cents each there, which stretched them way further. Between the cheaper fare and the points, my out of pocket cost was almost nothing.

Quick heads up on this one, because the rule is changing.

Chase used to give Sapphire Reserve holders a flat 1.5 times value on anything booked through their travel portal. That's going away. New points now use a system called Points Boost, which gives up to 2 times value on select premium flights and hotels, but only 1 times on everything else.

The good news if you already have the card. Points you earned before October 26, 2025 keep the old 1.5 times value until October 26, 2027. So if you're sitting on a pile of older points, you've got a clock. That's exactly why I'm burning through mine now.

Now, you might not have a stack of Chase points ready to go. That's fine. There are other ways to chase cool weather without the markup.

Go south for their winter. While we sweat through summer, the Southern Hemisphere is in winter. New Zealand, Argentina, and South Africa sit in the 40s to 60s during June through August. That's crisp, comfortable weather, and those routes often have better award availability because it's their off season. You can find roundtrip flights for around 70,000 to 85,000 miles from the US.

Pick a cheap cool city. You don't have to fly across the world. Canadian cities like Halifax, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary have been showing summer fares under 400 dollars. Cool weather, a passport stamp, and a reasonable flight all in one.

Swap the expensive cool for the cheap cool. Love the idea of the Nordics but not the Nordic prices? The Baltics feel a lot like Finland with all the lakes and forest, but they cost about a third as much. Meals under 8 dollars. Hotel rooms in the 35 to 46 dollar range. Eastern Europe runs around 35 to 55 euros a day for food, transport, and attractions.

Here's the truth. Cool weather doesn't have to come with a hot price.

The crowd is right that escaping the heat is worth it. They're just going about it the expensive way. A little flexibility, the right points, or a smarter destination, and you get the same cool air for a fraction of the cost.

I followed the herd to Iceland. I just didn't pay like the rest of the herd did.