If summer's done and you're not ready for grey skies, a batch of reader tips gathered by The Guardian Travel offers a shortlist of places where October and November still feel like holiday season.
The theme running through them: go where the crowds don't. Collioure, on France's Catalan coast near Perpignan, was one reader's accidental find — a tip from a waiter turned a planned weekend into a week of warm evenings, cobbled alleys in the Le Mouré district and €5 happy-hour wine with fish tapas, all with the Pyrenees behind the beaches. Over in Portugal, Lisbon delivers mid-20s October temperatures, tram rides up the cobbled hills and riverside sunsets from tavernas like Ponto Final on the Tagus.
For proper winter sun, the smaller Canary Islands beat the big names. El Hierro, far quieter than Tenerife or Lanzarote, mixes pine forest with black lava coast, and its volcanic swimming hole Charco Azul is exactly what it sounds like — hours on the rocks above the Atlantic. Sunshine there holds well into November, and the island runs on guesthouses rather than resorts. Madeira earns a mention too: Funchal's seafront, Mercado dos Lavradores and rooftop cable car all stay open year-round, with levada walks and mountain scenery a short hop away.
Crete has a neat trick up its sleeve. When autumn storms batter the north coast, the southwest village of Palaiochora — no big hotels, rhythms set by the little Loutro ferry — often stays dry and swimmable, sheltered by the White Mountains. One recent visitor swam and walked daily while thunder rolled elsewhere on the island.
Not every pick is about sun. St Davids in Pembrokeshire empties out after summer, leaving near-private beaches and seals below the coast path towards Whitesands — bring boots and layers. Woolacombe in north Devon worked for one family with a toddler: three miles of sand for castle engineering, Mortehoe and the South West Coast Path on the doorstep, and a strict packing rule of waterproofs and sunglasses. St Abbs in the Scottish Borders adds a Marvel twist — it played New Asgard in Avengers: Endgame — plus a clifftop walk to St Abb's Head and crab rolls at the harbour. Görlitz, on the German-Polish border east of Dresden, makes a baroque base for day trips to Bad Muskau's palace and the photogenic Rakotzbrücke Devil's Bridge, reached by a narrow-gauge forest railway.
If you'd rather a city break, the winning tip is Zaragoza during October's Fiestas del Pilar: flower offerings at the Plaza del Pilar, Aragonese street food from chistorra sausage to roast chestnuts, the Aljafería Palace and a scatter of tiny tapas bars.
Who's this for? Anyone with leave to burn between September and December who wants either late beach weather or empty coastal paths at low-season prices. The common advice across all nine: pack layers, embrace whatever the weather does, and book before everyone else reads the same tips.
Tip round-up via The Guardian Travel.
