Let’s not mince words here — it’s been a crap summer this year! It’s rained so much over the course of the past few months that I’m now worried that I might develop webbing between my fingers and toes. If you are one of the countless disappointed souls who waited and weaited and waited this summer to see if prices would drop or that you might benefit from some last minute deal that never happened then you know that you’re faced with two choices — push this year’s holiday even further back or else say goodbye to 2012 altogether and resign yourself to booking early for 2013.
The problem with the former choice as you know is that the further into September, October and beyond that you go, the harder it is to guarantee that you’re going to get the weather that you crave in some of the more popular destinations. By default, the Canaries (and to a lesser extent, Madeira) come into their own at that time of year but there are a number of other destinations that equally fit the bill but which don’t seem to attract the same numbers of Irish holidaymakers and I suspect that this is for no other reason than many people are reluctant to move out of their comfort zone — a classic case of ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!’
Don’t get me wrong — I love the Canaries —all of them, but to cite another over-used cliché; ‘a change is as good as a rest’. Why not consider somewhere like Malta? It’s approximately the same flying time as the Canaries (just over four hours); everyone speaks English; they drive on the left hand side; it’s extremely good value for money and the weather is almost guaranteed most of the year with the exception of the period between December and March. Parts of the Turkish mainland are also good, weather-wise, up to the end of October as is Morocco. Somewhat further afield, you can enjoy great sunshine in Israel (Eilat) or Dubai or Abu Dhabi — both of which are now served more or less daily on direct, non-stop flights from Dublin and which boast a tourist infrastructure, second to none!
