The alternative guide to summer holidays

A holiday is supposed to be enjoyable from end to end, not a series of small moments of relief sandwiched between the frustrations of getting there, the noise of a crowded pool, the wait for a table at the only restaurant worth going to, the slow realisation that the beach you were looking forward to is shared with what feels like half of northern Europe.

It doesn’t have to be like that. The summer months are full of destinations that reward travellers who are willing to look a little beyond the obvious: places that are cooler, quieter and more interesting, where the holiday you actually imagined when you booked it is largely the one you get. What follows is our pick of the best of them.

Fancy something different?

Every trip we put together is tailor-made around how you like to travel: the right pace, the right places to stay, and the local knowledge that makes the difference between a good holiday and one that stays with you. If any of the destinations below are speaking to you, get in touch and we will start planning.

There is something about Iceland in summer, the light, for a start… The sun barely sets in June and July, and the quality of the evening light across the lava fields and the glacier tongues and the black sand beaches is unlike anything else in Europe. Then there’s the landscape itself, which has an almost theatrical quality to it, as if someone turned up the contrast on everything.

Travelling Iceland by road is the best way to explore: the Ring Road circles the entire country, and a fortnight gives you enough time to follow it properly and still allow for the detours, which is where the real Iceland tends to be found. A waterfall that isn’t on the map. A geothermal pool at the end of an unmarked track. A fishing village in the East Fjords where the only other visitors are the puffins nesting in the cliff-sides. The scale of the country means the crowds, such as they are, tend to disperse quickly once you leave the main stops, and by the time you reach the Snaefellsnes peninsula in the west, the sense of space is something you carry with you long after you get home.

Average summer temperature: 10 to 15°C

The Azores occupy a peculiar and wonderful position in the middle of the Atlantic, with nine volcanic islands spread across six hundred kilometres of ocean, each with its own geology, its own pace, its own particular way of being beautiful.

São Miguel has its caldera lakes and its thermal springs and its mist-draped hillsides. Pico has a mountain that rises straight from the sea and vineyards that have been cultivated behind volcanic stone walls since the fifteenth century. Flores, out on the western edge of the archipelago, has waterfalls and crater lakes and a feeling of genuine remoteness that is increasingly hard to find anywhere in Europe.

Summer is the most settled time to visit, with reliable weather, calm seas and the best conditions for whale watching, which in the Azores means sperm whales seen from boats crewed by people who have been reading these waters for generations. Island hop by ferry, hire a car when you arrive and give yourself time to get properly lost in it.

Average summer temperature: 22 to 25°C

Albania has a way of exceeding expectations, partly because the expectations tend to be low, and partly because the country is genuinely extraordinary in ways that catch people off guard. The Albanian Riviera has the kind of coastline that the rest of the Mediterranean used to have before it was discovered: clear water, fishing villages that are still primarily fishing villages, and a quietness that feels less like absence and more like the place simply hasn’t been overwhelmed yet.

In summer, though, the most compelling case for Albania is the north. The Albanian Alps are among the most dramatic and least visited mountain landscapes in Europe. The road to Theth winds through the kind of scenery that makes you keep stopping the car to look, and the villages in the Valbona Valley have a stillness and an authenticity that is genuinely rare. The people you meet in these places are welcoming in a way that feels natural and unperformed, shaped by a tradition of hospitality that long predates the arrival of tourism. Albania is a country worth visiting now, while the experience of being there still feels like your own.

Average summer temperature: 20 to 25°C in the mountains, warmer on the coast

The Peruvian highlands in June, July and August are one of the best kept secrets in long-haul travel. Most people assume Peru is a warm, tropical destination. In the Andes, the reality is quite different. The dry season brings clear skies, crisp air and temperatures that sit comfortably in the high teens during the day before dropping sharply at night. Cusco, which sits at 3,400 metres above sea level, feels like a city that belongs to a different altitude and a different time, its colonial architecture built over Incan foundations, its markets full of colour and produce and the particular energy of a place that has been the centre of things for a very long time.

The Colca Canyon, where Andean condors glide on the thermals in the early morning light, is among the most humbling landscapes anywhere on the continent. Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake on earth, has a quality of light and stillness that stays with people. And Machu Picchu, seen in the dry season when the clouds have lifted and the Inca citadel sits sharp against a blue sky, is one of those places that justifies all the distance it takes to get there.

Average summer temperature: 18 to 20°C in the highlands

Canada in summer tends to be underestimated by European travellers, which means it remains less crowded than it deserves to be. The Canadian Rockies in July and August are spectacular in the most uncomplicated sense of the word: the mountains are vast, the glacial lakes are a colour that seems implausible until you see them, the meadows are full of wildflowers, and the sense of space is something that genuinely takes getting used to after years of European travel.

Beyond the Rockies there is a great deal more. Vancouver Island has old-growth rainforest and exceptional whale watching and a cycling culture that has developed some of the finest trails on the continent. The Maritime provinces in the east have a character shaped by the sea and the seasons, and a seafood culture built around what comes out of the water that morning. Throughout all of it, the summer climate is warm and genuinely pleasant without the extremes that make outdoor life difficult, which is the particular gift that Canada offers to the summer traveller.

Average summer temperature: 18 to 25°C depending on region

Namibia asks something of the traveller that not everyone is ready to give: a willingness to recalibrate what a landscape can be. The red dunes of Sossusvlei, which rise to nearly four hundred metres and glow in the early morning light with a colour that shifts from amber to deep burnt orange as the sun moves, are among the most extraordinary natural formations anywhere on earth. The plains of Etosha, where elephants and lions and hundreds of species of bird gather around the waterholes in the dry season, offer game viewing that is unhurried and intimate in a way that the more visited safari destinations can struggle to match.

June to August is Namibia’s cool, dry winter, which happens to coincide with the British summer. Days are warm and clear, nights are cold, and the skies after dark are among the darkest and most star-filled you are likely to see anywhere in the world. It is a long way to go, and it is not a destination that makes sense for everyone. But for those who want a summer holiday that offers something genuinely unrepeatable, Namibia in the dry season is a compelling and often life-changing option.

Average temperature June to August: 15 to 25°C (warm days, cool nights)