The Hub
Luxury travel guides
Everything we publish, in one place: twelve month-by-month guides on where to travel and what it costs, 47 honest destination safety briefings, and 64 town listings with real houses, published rates and live partner prices for hotels and rentals in the same place.
The travel calendar — all twelve months
Pick the month you can travel and the destination follows. Each guide gives the places at their best that month, indicative nightly rates, crowd levels and how far ahead the good houses book.
Calendar — January
Best places to travel in January
From 4 January onward the travel world empties and the rates follow. January is the connoisseur's month: peak-season weather at the Caribbean, snow at its deepest in the Alps, and a fraction of the festive crowds.
Read the month
Calendar — February
Best places to travel in February
February is high season's high point: the Caribbean at its driest, the Alps in deep snow, the Maldives in clear water. It is also half-term month — the art is knowing which weeks to take and which to avoid.
Read the month
Calendar — March
Best places to travel in March
March is the winter season's graceful exit: the Caribbean still dry, the Alps still holding snow, the Maldives ending its clear-water run — and rates softening as the month goes on.
Read the month
Calendar — April
Best places to travel in April
April is the year's first true shoulder month: the Caribbean quietly excellent, the Mediterranean waking up, the ski season ending in style — and the lowest rates since the autumn.
Read the month
Calendar — May
Best places to travel in May
Ask anyone who works in the Mediterranean when they take their own holiday and they will say May: warm seas by the month's end, everything open, nothing crowded, and rates a third below July.
Read the month
Calendar — June
Best places to travel in June
June is the Mediterranean's perfect month: long light, warm seas, everything open — and for its first three weeks, still priced below the school-holiday peak that July brings.
Read the month
Calendar — July
Best places to travel in July
July is the month everyone travels. The trick is not avoiding the crowds — it is knowing where the crowds are worth it, where they are avoidable, and what peak season actually buys you.
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Calendar — August
Best places to travel in August
August is the Mediterranean's great shutdown: everyone is on holiday, which is both the charm and the problem. Where the crowds are the point, where to escape them, and the case for going north.
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Calendar — September
Best places to travel in September
September is the answer to almost every Mediterranean question: the sea at its warmest, the crowds gone home, the harvest starting — and rates that fall by a third while the water holds its heat.
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Calendar — October
Best places to travel in October
October is the year's most underrated month: the Mediterranean's warm tail, Marrakech back in season, the Caribbean quiet before its reopening — and shoulder rates almost everywhere.
Read the month
Calendar — November
Best places to travel in November
November is the hinge of the travel year: the Caribbean and Dubai come back on stream, the Alps wait for snow, and the canny traveller finds the year's last shoulder rates before the festive machine starts.
Read the month
Calendar — December
Best places to travel in December
December splits in two: the quiet, excellent first fortnight and the festive fortnight, which is the most contested inventory in travel. Where to go in each half, and what the difference costs.
Read the month
The safety series
A plain verdict for every destination we sell, reviewed on a cycle — what the real risks are, what they are not, and what to do about them. Start with the safest destinations shortlist or read the full series.
Austria
Barbados
French Polynesia
Greece
Indonesia
Japan
Morocco
Philippines
Saint Barthélemy (France)
Spain
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Thailand
The Bahamas
United Arab Emirates
Town listings — where to stay
One page per town: the houses we hold there with photos and nightly rates, plus live partner prices for hotels and other rentals in the same place for your dates.