Where to go in September?

France · Haute-Corse

☀️ 10.7 h/day · 🌧️ 53 mm/month · 🌡️ 23°C

The Genoese citadel holds the headland, and below it six kilometres of sand curve round the bay towards the pines. Fishing boats and café terraces share the old port, while the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Serra, on a hill inland, takes in the whole gulf and the mountains behind at once. Boat trips run north to the red cliffs of Scandola, a UNESCO reserve.

• Genoese citadel
• Calvi beach (6 km)
• Scandola (UNESCO reserve nearby)
• Notre-Dame-de-la-Serra chapel

When to go to Calvi? →

France · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 10.8 h/day · 🌧️ 60 mm/month · 🌡️ 21°C

The Vieux-Port sets the rhythm, with boats, fish stalls and the whole city sloping down towards the water. Notre-Dame de la Garde watches from her hill, the MuCEM stands on the quay behind its concrete lacework, and the stairways of Le Panier smell of frying panisses. Then the Calanques begin: Sormiou, Sugiton, Morgiou, white limestone dropping into green water.

• Vieux-Port
• Notre-Dame de la Garde (la Bonne Mère)
• Calanques (Sormiou, Sugiton, Morgiou)
• MuCEM and Le Panier (old town)

When to go to Marseille? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 10.8 h/day · 🌧️ 62 mm/month · 🌡️ 21°C

White cliffs fold into inlets of green water, and the coastal path towards En-Vau delivers one drop after another. Back in the harbour, boats moor a few metres from the wine bars, where the local white, grown on terraces above the sea, is the obvious order. Garrigue scents the lanes between one swim and the next.

• Calanques (UNESCO)
• Cassis harbour
• En-Vau cliffs
• Cassis AOC vineyards

When to go to Cassis? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Pyrénées-Orientales

☀️ 10.2 h/day · 🌧️ 43 mm/month · 🌡️ 22°C

The bell tower of Notre-Dame-des-Anges was a lighthouse before it was a steeple, and it has stood in the water making the postcard ever since Matisse and Derain invented Fauvism here — a marked trail sets their canvases where they were painted. The royal castle closes the bay, anchovies are still salted in town, and the Côte Vermeille runs on in coves to the Spanish border.

• Royal castle on the shore
• Notre-Dame-des-Anges and its lighthouse belfry
• Fauvism trail (Matisse, Derain)
• Coves of the Côte Vermeille

When to go to Collioure? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Corse-du-Sud

☀️ 10.4 h/day · 🌧️ 56 mm/month · 🌡️ 23°C

Umbrella pines come down almost to the sand at Palombaggia and Santa Giulia, where the water shades from glass-clear to deep blue. Above the gulf, the upper town keeps its Genoese fortress and a grid of narrow streets that only fill after dark. Maquis scrub scents everything in between: rock rose, myrtle, juniper, warmed all day by the sun.

• Palombaggia beach
• Santa Giulia beach
• Gulf of Porto-Vecchio
• Genoese fortress

When to go to Porto-Vecchio? →

France · Corse-du-Sud

☀️ 10.6 h/day · 🌧️ 71 mm/month · 🌡️ 23°C

Limestone cliffs carry the citadel right to the edge, houses leaning out over a straight drop to the sea. Inside the walls the lanes are narrow enough to funnel the wind, and the King of Aragon's staircase cuts down the rock face in one long diagonal. Boats cross the Straits to coves that can be reached no other way.

• White limestone cliffs
• Citadel and old town
• Strait of Bonifacio
• King of Aragon's staircase

When to go to Bonifacio? →

France · Var

☀️ 10.6 h/day · 🌧️ 67 mm/month · 🌡️ 21°C

Pampelonne's sand runs for kilometres south of the village, while the citadel looks down on ochre roofs and a harbour that still lands fish. On market days the Place des Lices fills with produce and craft stalls under the plane trees. In a former Renaissance chapel, the Musée de l'Annonciade shows Fauve and Pointillist canvases in carefully softened light.

• Pampelonne beaches
• Saint-Tropez citadel
• Musée de l'Annonciade
• Place des Lices

When to go to Saint-Tropez? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 10.8 h/day · 🌧️ 65 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°C

Plane trees and fountains run the length of the Cours Mirabeau, 18th-century façades on one side, café terraces on the other. Cézanne's studio has been left much as he used it, north light and all, and the Sainte-Victoire he painted again and again rises to the east. In the old streets the fountains keep coming, low and green with moss.

• Cours Mirabeau
• Cézanne's studio
• Old town and fountains
• Montagne Sainte-Victoire (day trip)

When to go to Aix-en-Provence? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

Greece

☀️ 11.8 h/day · 🌧️ 11 mm/month · 🌡️ 27°C

The Knights of St John left Rhodes a walled medieval town people still live in, a warren of cobbles, arches and courtyards below the Palace of the Grand Masters. Down the coast, Lindos stacks white houses beneath an acropolis on a headland above two bays. Anthony Quinn Bay keeps its clear water and pine-backed rocks for anyone willing to swim off stones.

• Medieval old town (UNESCO)
• Palace of the Grand Master
• Lindos and its acropolis
• Anthony Quinn beach

When to go to Rhodes? →

Cyprus

☀️ 11.6 h/day · 🌧️ 6 mm/month · 🌡️ 26°C

The floor mosaics in the archaeological park come first: Dionysus, Theseus and Orpheus laid out in coloured stone where Roman villas once stood. West along the shore, the Tombs of the Kings are cut deep into the rock beside the sea. The harbour keeps a small castle, fish tavernas and the road towards Aphrodite's Rock.

• Archaeological park (Roman mosaics, UNESCO)
• Tombs of the Kings
• Aphrodite's Rock
• Old town and harbour

When to go to Paphos? →

Greece

☀️ 11.7 h/day · 🌧️ 8 mm/month · 🌡️ 25°C

Santorini's white villages line the rim of a flooded volcanic crater, terraces hanging over deep blue water. Oia takes its sunset seriously, and so does everyone who walks up for it. Down at sea level the beaches turn red and black with volcanic sand, and Akrotiri lies preserved beneath the ash, its streets and staircases still standing where they were left.

• Sunset at Oia
• Caldera and white villages
• Red beach and black beach
• Akrotiri archaeological site

When to go to Santorini? →

Greece

☀️ 11.7 h/day · 🌧️ 6 mm/month · 🌡️ 25°C

Whitewashed cubes, blue shutters and lanes laid out to confuse: Mykonos town is a maze with the sea at the end of it. Windmills stand above the harbour, and Little Venice puts its balconies directly in the spray. Paradise beach draws the crowds, while the boat to Delos crosses to marble ruins and stone lions among the scrub.

• Windmills
• Little Venice
• Paradise beach
• Delos (archaeological island)

When to go to Mykonos? →

Greece

☀️ 11.6 h/day · 🌧️ 16 mm/month · 🌡️ 24°C

Heraklion still keeps a working Venetian harbour, with the Koules fortress planted at the end of the mole and fishing boats rocking beside it. Inland, the frescoes of Knossos show their dolphins and processions, while the Archaeological Museum holds the Minoan pieces that make sense of them. Between the two, the old town runs on grilled fish, raki and long lunches.

• Knossos (Minoan palace)
• Archaeological museum
• Old town and Venetian harbour
• Koules fortress

When to go to Heraklion (Crete)? →

Tunisia

☀️ 11.0 h/day · 🌧️ 23 mm/month · 🌡️ 28°C

Flat, sandy and full of date palms, Djerba does island life at low volume. Houmt Souk trades pottery, silver and sponges under whitewashed arcades, while Sidi Mahrès unrolls a long strip of shallow warm water. Inland, the village of Erriadh has been covered in murals by artists from around the world, and the Ghriba, one of North Africa's oldest synagogues, keeps its painted blue interior nearby.

• Houmt Souk (medina and souks)
• Ghriba Synagogue
• Sidi Mahrès beaches
• Erriadh (Djerbahood street art village)

When to go to Djerba? →

Greece

☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 30 mm/month · 🌡️ 25°C

Chania's Venetian harbour curves round to a white lighthouse, and the tavernas along it fill up as the light drops. Behind, the old town climbs in pastel lanes of workshops, leather sandals and oregano-scented kitchens. Day trips head out to the Samaria Gorge, a long walk down through the White Mountains, or to the pale sandbars of Balos.

• Old Venetian harbour and lighthouse
• Old town and Jewish quarter
• Samaria Gorge (day trip)
• Balos beach (day trip)

When to go to Chania (Crete)? →

Greece

☀️ 11.4 h/day · 🌧️ 25 mm/month · 🌡️ 24°C

The Parthenon holds the Athens skyline from the Acropolis, marble against a hard blue sky and visible from rooftops right across the centre. Below it, Plaka's lanes wind between tavernas, workshops and orange trees. The temple of Olympian Zeus keeps its surviving columns standing in an open field, while the National Archaeological Museum gathers what the excavations gave up.

• Acropolis and Parthenon (UNESCO)
• National Archaeological Museum
• Plaka (historic quarter)
• Temple of Olympian Zeus

When to go to Athens? →

Egypt

☀️ 11.6 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 33°C

Ancient Thebes spreads over both banks of the Nile, and a felucca is still the sensible way between them. Karnak's hypostyle hall is a forest of columns you walk through rather than look at, while Luxor Temple is best after dark, when the lighting picks out the reliefs. On the west bank lie the Valley of the Kings and the terraces of Hatshepsut's temple against the cliff.

• Karnak Temple
• Valley of the Kings
• Luxor Temple
• Temple of Hatshepsut

When to go to Luxor? →

Egypt

☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 34°C

Ras Mohammed, where two gulfs meet, hands Sharm El Sheikh some of the Red Sea's finest diving: sheer walls and coral gardens a short boat ride from shore. Naama Bay takes care of the rest, with sheltered swimming, dive centres and long evenings. Inland the Sinai turns granite and empty, and the classic outing is the night climb up Mount Sinai to meet the sunrise.

• Ras Mohammed National Park (diving)
• Naama Bay beach
• Sinai desert (day trip)
• Mount Sinai (sunrise)

When to go to Sharm El Sheikh? →

Egypt

☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 34°C

The Nile is at its most photogenic at Aswan: granite boulders, white sails and desert on both banks. Philae stands on its island, columns and pylons rising straight from the water, while Abu Simbel and its colossi lie upriver to the south. In town the souk sells hibiscus, spices and cotton, and Elephantine Island is a short ferry hop away.

• Abu Simbel (day trip, UNESCO)
• Philae Temple (island)
• Nile cruise
• Aswan souk and Elephantine Island

When to go to Aswan? →

Egypt

☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 31°C

Everything here points underwater: Red Sea coral just off the beach, and day boats out to the Giftun Islands for snorkelling over gardens of soft coral and reef fish. Back on land, the marina fills up in the evening with seafood restaurants and slow strolling. Behind the town, the Eastern Desert opens into flat gravel plains best crossed by 4x4.

• Coral reefs and diving (Red Sea)
• Giftun Islands (snorkelling)
• Marina Hurghada
• Eastern desert (4x4 day trip)

When to go to Hurghada? →

United Arab Emirates

☀️ 11.3 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 33°C

Two cities, really. There is the Burj Khalifa and the mall at its foot, where the fountains perform against the tallest tower in the world, and there is old Dubai over the creek, reached by wooden abra. Bastakiya keeps its wind towers and courtyard houses, the gold and spice souks keep their haggling, and offshore Palm Jumeirah curls into the Gulf with Atlantis at its tip.

• Burj Khalifa (world's tallest tower)
• Dubai Mall and Fountains
• Old Dubai (Bastakiya, gold and spice souks)
• Palm Jumeirah and Atlantis

When to go to Dubai? →

United Arab Emirates

☀️ 11.2 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 34°C

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is the set piece: white marble, inlaid flowers and reflecting pools that double everything at dusk. On Saadiyat, the Louvre Abu Dhabi shelters its galleries under a perforated dome that filters the light into a slow rain of dots. The Corniche unrolls beach and cycle path along the whole waterfront, while Yas Island keeps the theme parks and the Grand Prix circuit.

• Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
• Louvre Abu Dhabi
• Abu Dhabi Corniche
• Yas Island (Ferrari World, F1)

When to go to Abu Dhabi? →

Egypt

☀️ 11.6 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 30°C

Nobody has yet photographed the Sphinx without a camera app failing at precisely the wrong moment, and that faint smile suggests it has noticed. The pyramids, magnificently indifferent to your satellite navigation, will still be there long after you have finished haggling for a camel at Khan el-Khalili as though it were a takeaway. Above it all, the Citadel keeps watch over queues that lengthen like evening shadows.

• Pyramids of Giza and Sphinx
• Egyptian Museum
• Citadel of Saladin
• Khan el-Khalili bazaar

When to go to Cairo? →

Egypt

☀️ 11.9 h/day · 🌧️ 1 mm/month · 🌡️ 27°C

Alexandria faces the sea rather than the desert, and the Corniche curving along the bay is where the whole city walks in the evening. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina answers the ancient library with a tilted disc of granite and glass, while Fort Qaitbey takes the wind head on at the far end of the harbour. Underground, the catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa mix Egyptian, Greek and Roman carving in a single chamber.

• Bibliotheca Alexandrina
• Fort Qaitbey (on the site of the Pharos)
• Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa
• Corniche and beaches

When to go to Alexandria? →