Yahoo Sports It’s not too late to beat the summer rush if you can travel in term time – here's where to go
Last August, on a delayed, oversold, cacophonous flight home from a family holiday in Spain, we waited on the runway for a take-off slot. Babies cried, children kicked the seat in front, and the few adults without children felt obliged to make conversation.
A woman in the row behind me asked her neighbours if they had enjoyed their holiday. Well, said the lady, the hotel was lovely, you couldn’t fault it, except it was full of screaming kids. You couldn’t get near the pool, and the buffet was bedlam. She and Alan couldn’t understand why on earth the hotel didn’t ban children from the restaurant in the evening.
What I can’t understand, I thought irritably as I asked my son again to stop scraping the window blind up and down, is why on earth anybody would choose to go to Spain during the school holidays unless they absolutely had to.
August in Europe is hellishly busy, hellishly expensive, and hellishly hot. There are 10 million school children in Britain alone; and 76 million of them in the EU. All those families, trying to bag the same flights, the same hotels, the same sunloungers on the same beaches and all in the same beloved honeypots.
People who don’t have children to go on holiday with, or who don’t teach in schools or colleges, have the luxury of choice regarding when and where to take their summer break – so why choose August and late July? Not only are prices lower and destinations quieter outside the school summer holidays, but June and September are better weather-wise, too.
June in the Mediterranean is heaven. It’s a time when summer is still fresh in the air, the days are warm but not too hot, and the evenings long and light. Sun spangles the bright water; a rush of jasmine and orange blossom scents piazzas, sweet and soapy. Now is the time for the quiet roads and pristine beaches, the pick of restaurant tables and hotel rooms, and flight tickets at a fraction of the price they reach in high season. There is a feeling of optimism and excitement in the air. You are the early birds. Everything is gearing up for the season; it is the calm before the storm, the exclusive preview before the party really gets started and the masses descend.
So if this is you: go, quick, and have your pick. Before 76 million school children get there first.
Spain
Mallorca like you oughta
Is there an island more beguilingly beautiful, more quintessentially Mediterranean, more popular in late July and August than Mallorca? But June is her finest hour, when the landscapes vibrate with life and colour under clear skies, mountainsides vivid in green, trees pendulous with sweet, ripe fruits; and then there is the resounding blue of the sea. There is life, too, in the hill towns and beach restaurants – but, at this time, not too much.
How to do it: You can get great deals on villas with pools outside the school holidays, whether you are travelling as a couple or with friends. Son March Petite, in the countryside outside Pollensa old town, is new for 2023, so still has availability throughout June and early July, from £1,998 a week (sleeps five; August price: £3,224) with Vintage Travel (01954 261431; vintage travel.co.uk). Oliver’s Travels’ collection (0333 888 0205; oliverstravels.com) includes the cute two-bedroom Finca Lledons, from £2,204 a week in June (August price: £3,847).
Brava bravo
A sense of old-school seaside elegance triumphs over mass tourism on the Costa Brava, that stretch of coast between Barcelona and France. Its long, sandy beaches are more popular with Spanish and French holidaymakers than Britons and its cobbled seaside towns are packed with Spanish flavour and art heritage: Dalí had a house in Cadaques – Picasso and Miró spent summers there, as did Chagall and Matisse in pretty Tossa de Mar.
How to do it: In S’Agaro, the 1930s Hostal de la Gavina (lagavina.com) is a classy old dame – statues and colonnades around the pool, tennis club, spa, antique four-poster beds, dressing for dinner in the white-tableclothed restaurant helmed by a Michelin star-winning chef. As well as Dalí, past guests have included Elizabeth Taylor and Sean Connery. Kirker (020 7593 2288; kirkerholidays.com) offers a week’s holiday there from £2,149pp (August price: £2,585), B&B, including flights and car hire. Go from September 18 and you’ll pay just £1,765.
Balearic beach
Menorca is the in-betweener of the Balearic Islands. It’s not the party one, the arty one, or the little bohemian one; but Menorca wins when it comes to laid-back beach holidays. Its coves are the kind with pale, fine sand and opalescent shallows, backed with pine trees and invariably a beach bar serving sardines under a palm-thatched parasol – wildly popular with families in July and August, sheer bliss in June. Its most grown-up places to stay are the fincas- turned-boutique hotels popping up in its rural hinterland, though in Menorca, you are never far from the sea.
How to do it: Spanish hotelier extraordinaire Pablo Carrington has created Menorca’s most splendid sanctuary in Torralbenc (00 34 971 377211; torralbenc.com), a restored finca crowned with pink bougainvillea and beautiful interiors, set in 70 acres of farmland; superior rooms cost from £482, B&B, in June (August price: £720).
France
The island’s your oyster
The Ile de Ré is France’s finest holiday island, encircled by sandy beaches, crisscrossed with cycle paths and dotted with oyster shacks where the delicacies are served with a crisp white wine. Villages of stone houses with green or blue shutters are postcard-pretty and the preferred mode of transport is the bicycle or sailing boat. Le tout Paris saunters down here in August, so get there early to bag a villa and a harbourside table at sundown.
How to do it: Oliver’s Travels (0333 888 0205; oliverstravels.com) has availability for Maison Yasmina, sleeping five, with its cool interior and charming courtyard; no pool, but the beach is nearby. From £3,420 in June (August price: £5,536).
A yay in Provence
Provence is dreamy at any time of the year, and dreamiest of all in June. It is sunny and warm, the painterly landscapes bloom with lavender and sunflowers, villages thrum with food and flea markets, and traditional festivals are also thrown at the end of the month. This is fertile ground for superstar hotels, old and new – the kind of glamour that doesn’t come cheap, but which is rather less cher outside late July and August.
How to do it: Doubles at the five-star golf and spa hotel Terre Blanche, in Var (00 33 4 94 39 90 00; terre-blanche.com), cost from £678 in June (August price: £1,000). If you would rather travel in September, nightly rates are cheaper still: £527.
Portugal
An oasis in the Algarve
The Algarve was purpose-built for Brits abroad and is best avoided in high summer, when temperatures are uncomfortably high and tabernas uncomfortably rowdy. Between the crowds and the concrete, however, can be found a few elegant sanctuaries, most appealing before the hordes descend.
How to do it: One such place is the Pine Cliffs Resort (pinecliffs.com). This manicured enclave of villas and three hotels also includes a golf course and a serious spa, set above a sandy beach. Scott Dunn (020 8682 5080; scottdunn.com) can arrange a week’s holiday from £4,500 per couple in June (August price: £7,500), including seven nights’ B&B in a two-bedroom residence, flights and private transfers. In September, this drops to £4,250.
Rules of Comporta
Portugal’s quietly chic beach towns of Comporta and neighbouring Melides are still a bit of an insider secret and relatively undiscovered by Britons. There are only a handful of hotels – a villa holiday is the thing here, which can be super-pricey in August, but better value in June and early July.
How to do it: The Luxury Travel Book (020 7586 5342; theluxurytravelbook.com) offers the contemporary, four-bedroom Villa Varzea, which has a lavender-fringed pool, and a track leading through wilderness directly to the beach. From £4,780 a week in June, sleeping eight (August price: £6,950).
Italy
Trulli scrumptious
Italy is at the height of her powers in June: the sea electric blue, the bougainvillea obscenely pink, the pastel-painted coastal towns feverishly beautiful. Consequently, Amalfi and the Cinque Terre are at peak popularity with honeymooners – so, for good-value holidays at this time of year, head for Puglia. Down in Italy’s deep south, August is sun-bleached and stultifying, but the start of summer is lovely: warm, sunny days on the beach, cooler nights for meandering around the baroque towns, and the social calendar is always packed with festivals in June.
How to do it: Rentals range from rustic little trulli to rambling masseria. Try the Thinking Traveller, which has exquisite properties such as Casa Fernandez, from £6,755 a week in June (August price: £9,649; thethinkingtraveller.com). In September, prices fall back to £6,266 from the 23rd. Or for a big get-together with friends, A&K’s six-bedroom Trulli Franca is next-level amazing, from £15,305 a week in June (August price: £19,120; 03301 734589; akvillas.com).
The Sardinia run
The Costa Smeralda has some of the most stunning shores in the world – the palest shell-pink sands, limpid turquoise shallows. The best of these are highly coveted in August, when Rome’s super-rich take over. But in the run-up to that peak time, this coast is still relatively quiet and its five-star seaside resorts are somewhat more affordable.
How to do it: The Forte Village Resort (fortevillage resort.com) is a collection of villas and a number of hotels shaded by pine trees, with more than a dozen restaurants, loads of pools and sports, and a thalasso spa and Ayurvedic park, all spread behind a pristine beach. Elegant Resorts (01244 897581; elegantresorts.co.uk) has a week at the Forte Village Hotel Castello from £3,320pp (August price: £4,545), including half board, flights, lounge passes and private transfers, based on a June 17 departure. In September, it is even cheaper: £2,315pp.
Greece
A legend of Crete
Once a humble fishing village, Elounda has grown up into one of the smartest shorelines in Greece. This pebbly bay is lined with top-drawer hotels – go sooner rather than later to take advantage of lower rates and lower temperatures; Crete can be unbearably hot in high summer.
How to do it: The Blue Palace, a Luxury Collection Resort (bluepalaceresort.gr), has been a stand-out of Elounda’s five-stars for the past 20 years. Jet2holidays (0800 408 0778; jet2holidays.com) offers a week there, including B&B, flights from the UK and transfers, from £1,629pp in June (August price: £2,019).
Greek chic in Zakynthos
The playground of the gods Artemis and Apollo, Zakynthos (or Zante) is bewitchingly beautiful. Its poster girl is Shipwreck Beach – impossibly sheer white cliffs sliding into waters of an unreal pale blue – but its forested interior and lesser-known beaches have their own appeal, and come without the pirate-ship day trippers.
How to do it: Oliver Bernard Escapes (020 7118 0747; obprivate.co.uk) has some exquisitely designed villas in Zakynthos on its books, away from the “lively” south coast. Villa Margerita is brilliant for groups of friends; it has three bedrooms, spacious open-plan living areas and a kitchen, plus a pool in green gardens with views of the sea. From £3,931 in June (August price: £5,321).
Posh Corfu for half the price
Queen of the Ionians, Corfu is cloaked in verdant splendour in June. Evergreen forested headlands cradle bays of purest blue. The beautiful north-east coast is where you want to be, where villas can be hard to come by in August.
How to do it: Vintage Travel has lots of villas with pools on the island, some less than half-price in June compared with August. Two-bedroom Villa Klima, not far from Nissaki, is five minutes’ walk from the nearest beach and less to the nearest taverna, and costs from £1,224 a week in June (August price: £2,575).
Kos I love you
The Dodecanese island of Kos has some of the best beaches in the Greek Islands. Ikos Aria resort (ikosresorts.com) sits plum on one such bobby-dazzler on the south-west coast.
How to do it: Olympic Holidays (020 8492 6868; olympicholidays.com) offers a week’s holiday for £668pp departing June 21, including flights, all-inclusive accommodation, and transfers (August price: £1,143).
A quieter side to Mykonos
The star of the Cyclades becomes a veritable Hades in August, its glitzy beach bars a maelstrom of bling and champagne spraying. Earlier in the season is better, when its sandy beaches and superb restaurants are buzzy but not overly busy, and room rates slightly more accessible.
How to do it: Christos Stergio of Greek travel company True Trips (truetrips.com) recommends a six-night break staying at new boutique hotel Cali Mykonos, including cookery classes, a day’s sailing trip and a private tour of the mythical island of Delos and the Temple of Apollo. From £4,920pp in June (August price: £6,635).
Partial to Parga
On the sunny west coast of Greece, the rainbow-painted seaside town of Parga comes to life in June, and gets steadily livelier as summer progresses.
How to do it: Early summer deals are to be found at the laid-back Parga Beach Resort (pargabeachresort.gr), where a week’s holiday costs from £2,110 for two people in June, B&B, including flights, with Jet2Holidays.com (August price: £1,600).
Rest of the world
Look Hvar you’ve come
Croatia has more than 1,000 islands, and the most highly prized of them all is Hvar. It gets overrun in late July and August with a party-hearty crowd of beautiful young things draped over the decks of superyachts, but come before then to appreciate Hvar’s quieter charms: its sandy beaches, high-end restaurants, and bays of crystalline green-blue waters.
Maslina is Croatia’s finest hotel – a wellness resort arranged along a secluded shore.
How to do it: Original Travel (020 3958 6120; originaltravel.co.uk) offers a week there from £4,120pp in June, including B&B, flights from London airports, fast-track service and transfers (August price: £5,050).
Join the gulet set
A pine-forested finger of land stretching into the Aegean on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast, the Bozburun Peninsula is largely undeveloped and unknown to British holidaymakers. By mid July it gets uncomfortably hot, and its sleepy fishing villages swell with the gulet set coming ashore for lunch and parties. But June and September are wonderful – warm, sunny, and still fresh enough to go exploring around its calm bays, ancient ruins and seaside villages. Selimiye is the loveliest of them – it is quite remote so has retained an undeveloped feel, but thanks to its location on the Blue Voyage route it has plenty of smart restaurants and bars.
How to do it: Simpson Travel (020 3839 4520; simpsontravel.com) has a hotel in Selimiye called Losta Sahil Evi, which is rustic, quirky and utterly charming, and still has availability for this summer. A week’s holiday in late June and early July costs £1,659pp, including flights, transfers and B&B (August price: £1,779).
Elephants in June
Mid June is the start of the dry season in Kenya. It’s a prime time for going on safari – the air is clear, the scenery still green, and it’s not yet too hot; but predators and prey are beginning to gather at the watering holes, making for a thrilling wildlife viewing theatre.
How to do it: Red Savannah’s Essential Kenya is an eight-day safari that includes stays at luxury camps in the Loisaba Conservancy (including a night in a Star Bed, on a platform under the stars) and Maasai Mara at Elephant Pepper Camp (01242 787800; redsavannah.com). From £5,142pp in June, full-board, including internal flights, transfers, and conservation fees (August price: £6,200).
Or, for a really cost-effective Kenyan safari, try Kuoni’s small-group, six-day Taste of Kenya trip, which takes in Nairobi, Lake Nakuru and the Maasai Mara, from £2,675pp (August price: £3,345) with a June 20 departure, including flights, accommodation, transport and experiences (0808 258 9048; alfredand.kuoni.co.uk).
Spice up your summer
Off the coast of Tanzania, the spice island of Zanzibar is where Dr Livingstone presumed he was in paradise. It feels like a proper adventure – exotic, laden with riches and history, its shores desert-island transportive – but is also host to an increasing number of five-star beach resorts.
Our summer is the ideal time to visit Zanzibar: dry season runs June-October, with daytime highs of about 29C. Surprisingly, a trip here can cost less than a summer holiday in a European beach destination, especially if you go outside of late July and August.
How to do it: Kenwood Travel (020 7749 9220; kenwoodtravel.co.uk) offers a week’s holiday at suite-only five-star hotel the Residence Zanzibar, from £1,691pp in June, including half-board in a garden pool villa, transfers and return flights from Gatwick (August price: £3,032).
Walking into sunshine
The start of summer is ideal walking weather in the northern hemisphere, from Cumbria to Canada. The Sunshine Coast Walking Summer Adventure is a five-day journey from Vancouver to the Sunshine Coast by foot, road and sea, hiking beach trails, boating along tidal rapids and including some well-earned craft-beer tasting.
How to do it: From £1,132pp in June (August price: £1,460), including four nights’ accommodation, activities, transport and some meals, with Intrepid (0808 274 5111; intrepidtravel.com).
