All change: the new holiday calendar

With sweltering summer temperatures in the Med, prohibitive peak-season prices and changing tastes in travel, this is the year to plan differently, says Chris Leadbeater

2024-01-06 -

There was a time when the European holiday calendar was set, if not in stone, then certainly within four defined boxes. Spring, summer, autumn, winter. One was hot, one was cold – and the other two offered a little of both. Pack your bags accordingly.

But things change. Not least the climate. And the old certainties of travel have changed with them. Where once the southern Mediterranean seafront was the ideal setting for an August escape, now the heat can be unbearable, as last year’s Greek wildfires made all too apparent. Where, not so long ago, you could assume a thick coating of Alpine white in December, now the ski resorts of France and Italy face a nervous wait for the first flakes. Where even the idea of aiming for the mountains during July would have caused confusion in a former decade, now such an idea is just as likely to prompt nods of sage agreement.

And as weather patterns have altered, so have we, moving on from the straitened travel windows of 30 or so years ago into something more flexible: shoulder seasons – still the quieter, great-value options they always were, but now with more reliably good weather – winter-sun wanderings, and journeys further afield in search of whatever it is we cannot find on familiar turf, whether that be Canadian snow or Far Eastern sand. Add in the cost of living crisis, where the value offered by choosing the option less travelled is more important than ever, and the holiday calendar looks rather different to how it did even relatively recently. A little like the following, perhaps. So, if you are already planning your getaways for the year, let our pick of the best new options be your guide.

Stay on unshifting sands

Caribbean

With hurricanes becoming stronger and more common – a new study, published in October, shows that weak storms are twice as likely to develop into category three (or higher) weather events than was the case at the turn of the millennium – there is all the more reason to avoid the peak windy season in the Caribbean (June to November, with an emphasis on September). January, while pricey, is certainly a safer time.

One week all-inclusive in January at the Pineapple Beach Club in Antigua, flying from Heathrow, costs from £2,325pp with Kuoni (0800 098 8161; kuoni.co.uk).

Reach high ground

Switzerland

Rising temperatures have been gnawing at the edges of the Alpine ski season for a while, but the picture became grimly clear this time last year, when resorts including Adelboden and Anzere (Switzerland) and Combloux (France) suffered a December and January blighted by a lack of snow. In other words, if you want to ski in Europe straight after Christmas, you may need to aim high. And resorts don’t come higher than Swiss sentinel

Zermatt (above), whose highest skiable area, at 12,792ft (3,899m), is also the highest in the Alps.

A seven-night stay at the four-star Hotel Derby in Zermatt, flying from Manchester on January 20, costs from £1,498 pp with Crystal Ski (020 3451 2821; crystalski.co.uk).