According to a recent report, 62% of UK workers didn’t use all their annual leave in 2022 – a travesty when you consider Brits already get far fewer days off than many other countries. We say: why lose your allowance when long weekends in San Sebastian and Hauts de France are up for grabs, or seven-day sojourns to Kenya or Morocco (if you’ve managed to bank a few extra days)? Plus, autumn is one of the best times of year to travel. Shoulder season is in full swing, crowds begin to thin and local menus are ripe with fresh harvest produce (hello pumpkin raviolis and French champignons). So, instead of frittering away days off at home or committing the cardinal sin of losing them all together, use your remaining holiday allowance to tick somewhere off your bucket list, or be pleasantly surprised by somewhere you’d never previously thought to go.
One Day Remaining...
Another recent survey from the European Society of Cardiology found that men who took more than three weeks of leave per year were 63% more likely to live longer than those who took three weeks or less. So even if you have just one day of holiday left, that’s as good an excuse as any to book a long weekend away. In San Sebastian, the foodie capital of Europe, you’ll feel the years practically piling on as you tour the city’s best pintxos (Basque tapas) bars, learn the tricks of the tradition at one of the city’s top secret culinary societies and admire local artist Eduardo Chillida's impressive wrought-iron sculptures along its halfmoon Playa de la Concha.
Two Days Remaining...
In the summer, most Brits use Calais as a springboard for the country’s sun-drenched south. But with two days of annual leave remaining, we recommend sticking round France’s northernmost region for a while. Firstly, because Hauts de France has been awarded the European Region of Gastronomy for 2023 and secondly because it’s home to some of the country's best beaches and sand dunes (both wonderfully wild in autumn), gothic architecture and marshland (hello floating flower markets). From Le Touquet, where you’ll most likely eat your bodyweight in Michelin-starred surf/turf combinations, it’s on to Lens, home to a futuristic outpost of the Louvre which serves as a symbol of the region’s renaissance. From there it’s just a 30-minute drive to Lille, where you’ll find the incredible La Piscine de Roubaix, an Art Deco pool-turned-museum and cultural hub housed in a former postal sorting centre. Who said France was just Paris and St Tropez, right?
Three Days Remaining...
Luxury walking holidays are on the rise – a trend we have dubbed Bootiquing. Keen hikers are asking for boutique hotels and luxury cabins (a step up from the basic accommodation that has historically catered for the market) and we’re delivering with a host of new luxury walking itineraries including a four-night trip in the Dolomites. The Dolomites in autumn is not to be missed either. Before the slopes become swarmed with skiers and snowboarders, they are festooned with crimson larch trees that turn the mountainside into a riot of red and gold. Use Val di Fassa, home to Locanda degli Artisti (part hotel, part art gallery) as your staging post for one of the most spectacular trails in the Dolomites, the ‘Viel del Pan’ (Way of the Bread). Follow its seven-mile path to your second stop and the only rifugio of the trip – albeit a rifugio with a difference. Complete with a wine cellar, housing more than 700 wines, you’ll hike on before being transferred by car to Hotel Gardena, a Relais & Chateaux hotel with spa and Michelin-star restaurant. On the last day, it’s a ten-mile hike to Alta Badia to stay at Ciasa Salares, a luxury gourmet hotel in the heart of the Dolomites, with its own cheese room and chocolate room (you’ll definitely have earned both).
Image by Faustine Poidevin
Four Days Remaining...
Our concept of Philantourism encourages clients to actively visit down-on-their-luck destinations to offer solidarity and moral and financial support. And in light of its recent earthquake, Morocco is a country that needs it more than most. Fly in and out of Tangier at the country’s northern tip, thankfully left unscathed by the quake. Here you’ll have the chance to explore the city that inspired the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac and Matisse before heading to Chefchaouen, a captivating, blue-washed mountain village perched beneath the raw peaks of the Rif. End your ‘use it or lose it’ trip in the cool coastal town of Asilah, where you can while away days ambling round its extremely pretty medina (thanks to its numerous art galleries and plentiful street art).
Five Days Remaining...
With five days to play with (technically seven once you count the weekend), the world is your oyster. And nowhere is more worldly than Kenya. Home to snow-capped mountains, frenetic cities and three national parks, each teeming with wildlife, a holiday to Kenya is definitely one you’ll want to use – not lose. Spot the country’s top billed animals, aka the ‘Big Five’, on game drives through the legendary Masai Mara, join Maasai guides in Laikipia for bush walks on the wild side and spend evenings cooling down under canvas camps complete with open air swimming pools. If you’re quick off the mark, you may be just in time to witness the wildebeest migration through the Serengeti plains from Tanzania to Kenya.
Image by Olivier Romano
Written by Naomi Pike
Header image by Alix Pardo