{"id":745964,"date":"2026-08-22T08:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T08:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/745964\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T08:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T08:16:13","slug":"tui-river-cruise-passengers-endure-holiday-from-hell-as-temperatures-skyrocket-past-40c-in-zoo-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/745964\/","title":{"rendered":"TUI river cruise passengers endure holiday from hell as temperatures skyrocket past 40C in ‘zoo’ conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

British tourists travelling on a TUI River Cruise endured a holiday from hell after suffering 40C temperatures on board a vessel plagued by broken air conditioning. <\/p>\n

Dozens of holidaymakers were left stranded in Budapest amid a scorching heatwave with little reprieve while travelling on the Skyla ship operated by the travel firm. <\/p>\n

Other tourists who had travelled on Skyla and her sister ship Isla on other voyages told the BBC they had faced similar problems during their holidays. <\/p>\n

The customers slammed TUI’s response to their concerns, accusing the company of poor customer service and offering insufficient refunds. <\/p>\n

The German firm apologised to holidaymakers who endured voyages that “fell short of the standards we aim to deliver”.<\/p>\n

“We understand the disappointment and frustration caused to affected customers,” a TUI spokesman said. <\/p>\n

In June, Adam Peach booked a week-long trip aboard the Skyla travelling on the Danube with his wife, sailing through Budapest, Vienna and Linz.<\/p>\n

The Briton blasted his experience as “the worst TUI holiday we’ve ever been on” after enduring extreme heat on board. <\/p>\n

\"TUI<\/p>\n

Dozens of holidaymakers were left stranded in Budapest amid a scorching heatwave with little reprieve while travelling on the Skyla<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

TUI<\/p>\n

Mr Peach told the BBC that “big blowers” were installed on the ship instead of air conditioning – causing passengers to suffer through hot air being expelled. <\/p>\n

The holidaymaker said: “One was in the middle of the corridor, blocking the exit.<\/p>\n

“It didn’t seem to cool the place down.”<\/p>\n

Mr Peach said he was left “exhausted” by the end of the trip after enduring seven days of soaring temperatures.<\/p>\n

The tourist also said TUI put passengers up in “really basic” hotels on the second-last day of the trip.<\/p>\n

HOLIDAYS FROM HELL – READ MORE:<\/p>\n

\"Air<\/p>\n

Mr Peach said he was left ‘exhausted’ after enduring seven days of soaring temperatures without air conditioning<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Mr Peach had forked out almost \u00a34,000 for his stay – but was offered just \u00a3300 as a refund by TUI.<\/p>\n

He said he and his wife were given just three days to accept the offer. <\/p>\n

“TUI know there’s problems on these boats, but continue to sell them to people as a full luxury cruise,” Mr Peach said. <\/p>\n

In April 2025, Wendy Charnley and her husband had booked a trip on the Isla departing from Amsterdam to celebrate his retirement.<\/p>\n

After air conditioning units on the ship failed, Mrs Charnley said it was akin to “being in a tropical house at a zoo”.<\/p>\n

\"Tui\"\/<\/p>\n

Mr Peach had forked out almost \u00a34,000 for his stay – but was offered just \u00a3300 as a refund by TUI<\/p>\n

| GETTY <\/p>\n

“Some areas were really, really hot.” she told the BBC.<\/p>\n

“There wasn’t really anywhere that you could go that you could cool down.”<\/p>\n

TUI River Cruises said it had seen “unexpected technical issues affecting air conditioning systems” and a host of other challenges during the voyage on the Danube. <\/p>\n

The travel firm said extreme temperatures which have swept across Europe this summer had put systems under pressure, with repairs and maintenance now carried out on vessels. <\/p>\n

TUI added that updated conditioning systems across its European fleet will be installed – though over the winter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British tourists travelling on a TUI River Cruise endured a holiday from hell after suffering 40C temperatures on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,591,59,50,56,54,55,231],"class_list":["post-745964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-europe","tag-gb","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}