Quick Answer
“Where should I go in October?” is a different question from “when should I visit Greece?”, and the answer changes every four weeks. These guides are built for the first question. Every one uses the same table, so you can compare a Canary Islands October with a Thailand November on the same terms.
The month guides
- Where to go in September : the Mediterranean’s best month. Sea still 23 to 26 degrees, schools back, prices down sharply after the first week.
- Where to go in October : the southern Mediterranean, the Canaries, Egypt, Turkey and Morocco for sun; New York and Japan for cities and colour; plus the autumn half-term dates.
- Where to go in November : winter sun begins (Canaries, Egypt, Cape Verde, Dubai, Thailand’s dry season) and European cities hit their cheapest weeks before the Christmas markets.
More months are on the way; the seasonal guides in Trip Types and the country pages under Destinations cover the rest of the calendar for now.
How these guides work
VoyageHacks compares the same published figures for every destination: 1991 to 2020 climate normals from the national meteorological services (Met Office, AEMET, DWD, JMA and others) or WMO, sea temperatures from the same sources, and price levels described relative to August rather than as invented percentages. Where a price is quoted, its season and booking window are stated in the same sentence. Every page prints the date its facts were last verified.
Two things these pages do not do: they never claim a destination is “guaranteed” sunny, and they never hide the catch. If a place is warm but wet, or cheap because it is stormy, the table says so, and the disruption guides in Travel Insurance cover what to do when the weather wins.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does VoyageHacks rank destinations for each month?
Each month guide compares the same columns for every destination: average daytime high, sea temperature, number of rain days, flight time from Western Europe and the price level relative to August, taken from national meteorological services and WMO climate normals, with the verification date printed on the page. Picks are ranked by how reliably warm and dry they are that month, then by value.
Which months are cheapest to travel from Europe?
The cheapest windows are the shoulder and low seasons that follow school holidays: the first three weeks of September, most of October outside the autumn half-term weeks, and November until the Christmas markets open. Airlines switch to the thinner winter schedule on the last Sunday of October (25 October 2026), which is when many sun routes drop frequency, so book those early.
Where can you still swim in the sea in autumn?
Sea temperatures above about 22 degrees Celsius feel comfortable to most swimmers. In September that covers the whole Mediterranean; in October it narrows to the southern and eastern Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, Madeira, Egypt’s Red Sea coast and Turkey’s south coast; by November the reliable warm-sea options from Europe are the Canaries, Egypt, Cape Verde, Dubai and long-haul destinations.