Looking for trip inspiration can be a frustrating experience especially if you’re super reliant on tour books. You’ll find quickly that you’ll be overloaded with tons of recommendations for busy tourist traps open only during the day.
01.09.2023 - 21:39 / euronews.com
After a summer of travel plagued by extreme heat, disruption and unpredictable weather, many of us are looking to holiday outside of the peak season.
But how do you find out the optimum time of year to visit your chosen destination?
Travel search engine Kayak has just launched a new tool that could help you discover the best time to go. Using information on flight prices, hotel costs, weather and how busy your destination could be, it predicts the ideal time of year for your trip.
Once the tool has narrowed down which month is best, you can look at the cost of flights on each day to see exactly when to travel. It even recommends when you should make the booking to get the cheapest prices.
We gave it a whirl to find out when to travel to some of Europe’s most popular holiday spots.
For the purposes of this experiment, we’ve chosen Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam as our home base but bear in mind that your results could vary depending on where you are leaving from.
Earlier this year, Croatia joined Europe’s free-movement Schengen zone. It has resulted in a record tourism season with travellers exploring its idyllic islands and historic walled cities.
The busy summer season brings average temperatures in the mid-20s but warm weather can appear as early as spring. And we found that March offers the cheapest flights from Schiphol to two of the most popular destinations in Croatia: the coastal city of Split and the walled city of Dubrovnik.
The average cost for flights to Split in March was €135 - dropping to €123 if you travel during the last week of the month, according to Kayak. For Dubrovnik, the average is €145 with the last week of March offering a lower price of €132.
The travel boom has meant bigger crowds too but both of these Croatian cities typically see some of their lowest visitor numbers in March.
Accommodation in Dubrovnik will set you back around €110 per night on a weekday and €123 on a weekend. It's slightly cheaper to stay in Split at €105 per night on average for a weekday and €116 weekend.
With the money you save by travelling off-season, you could even visit both of these Croatian cities in one holiday.
February is the best time to take a city break in the Spanish city of Barcelona, according to Kayak’s new tool. This often-crowded city sees fewer visitors during the first two months of the year but flight prices are more expensive on average in January.
In February, we found that a flight from Schiphol to Barcelona El Prat will set you back around €104 but it can drop as low as €95 if you choose the right dates. In 2024, these exact dates would be from 6 to 12 February and the calculator recommends you book before the end of October to secure these prices.
There’s little payoff when it comes to the
Looking for trip inspiration can be a frustrating experience especially if you’re super reliant on tour books. You’ll find quickly that you’ll be overloaded with tons of recommendations for busy tourist traps open only during the day.
Mallorca is a great place to visit for its beautiful beaches, stunning scenery, rich history and culture, excellent food, and variety of activities. It is a popular destination for all ages and interests, and there is something for everyone in Mallorca.
Ibiza is for partying.
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If I had to recommend one place to eat tapas in Spain, it’s Bar Poë in Granada, not only for the food, but for the atmosphere. It’s always bustling (come early to guarantee a seat) with a local and international crowd. Run by a friendly husband-and-wife duo, every drink comes with a free dish, and, unusually, you can choose your tapa. International and big on flavour, the menu includes Portuguese piri piri dishes, salt cod, curries and more. Jason Rich
Balmy temperatures, fewer crowds and lower prices: Now is the perfect time to take a trip to Greece.
Of all the art exhibits NYC has to offer, some of the best come not from the permanent collections of storied establishments but instead, the temporary shows at museums, galleries, and other more unconventional spaces. As summer comes to its inevitable close, several new shows are opening around the city—some celebrating great masters, others with an eye for the contemporary and/or the unsung. Plus, some of summer's tentpoles—Africa Fashion at the Brooklyn Museum, for example—will run all the way into October, so if you haven't made your way to them yet, there's still time. Of the myriad options, we've rounded up some of the best to hit now or in the coming weeks—we're certain you'll find something to your liking.
For the first time, a nation is allowing travelers to cross its border with a digital passport on their smartphone instead of a physical passport. While the trial is happening in Finland, the European Union wants at least 80% of citizens in the 27-country bloc to be using a digital ID by 2030.
When Courtney Danser's Aer Lingus flight home from Croatia was delayed, panic immediately set in.
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Once associated with cheap package deals and a hedonistic party scene, recent steps have pivoted Mallorca into a luxury destination with an emphasis on cultural and sustainable travel. Late nights in Magaluf are slipping out of fashion in favor of catching the sunrise over UNESCO-listed mountains. Horseback wine tours, vintage train journeys, and sea kayaking excursions offer a far more memorable experience than the booze cruises that once orbited the island’s coastline. Venturing beyond the high-rise resorts, rural and oceanside Airbnbs in Mallorca, Spain, bring tourists even closer to the raw beauty of the Mediterranean island.