As the school holidays come to an end and many jetsetters throw themselves back into the daily grind after their summer adventures – those in the know are only just dusting off their suitcases and picking outfits for balmy evenings.
Travelling during the shoulder season famously offers more bang for your buck, as flight prices and hotel room rates – sometimes even prices on the ground – veer away from their summer peaks. September and October mean fewer crowds in some of our favourite European destinations, but no shortage of sunshine as jackets are pulled out of storage back in the UK.
With this in mind, the team at travel comparison site Omio combined four factors that travellers tend to consider when choosing a shoulder-season break to reveal where we should be laying our towels over the coming weeks.
Once the seasonal drop in visitors after August, historical weather data for September to October, the potential for onward travel and how easily a destination can be reached are considered – it’s the Croatian city of Split we should be packing our luggage for.
Thanks to an 80 per cent drop in regional visitors across September and October compared to August, enjoyable highs of between 20°C and 24°C and a dazzling coastline that acts as a gateway to some of the best Croatian islands, it’s easy to see the appeal.
The Italian cities of Bari and Bologna come second and third, respectively, each full to the brim with historic sites and a buzz best discovered once the height of summer has passed.
Corfu is the only Greek island on the list, boasting average highs above 21°C in both shoulder-season months, while the Spanish city of Granada is a win for sunseekers, with average highs peaking at 27°C in September.