Is early October too late for a European beach and sightseeing holiday?

[rangoonbr]

We can only go away for the first week or two of October due to work. We usually try and go to Greece or Italy for a week in June. A mix of sight seeing and beach.

Is early October too late for a European holiday?

Honestly I think that's the perfect time.

I was in Sicily toward the end of September last year and it was still properly hot and the sea was still warm; I actually think a couple of weeks later would have been perfect with slightly cooler temperatures.

I’ve done this as I don’t like the sun and burn easily. The problem I’ve found isn’t the weather - which is often lovely - it’s that all the infrastructure in these places set up for holidays has been closed down for the season. So it’s a bit like a ghost town, with only one or two restaurants still open and not much on/to do. I’d research where you are going carefully before going at that time - and probably look to skew your trip more towards sightseeing. (Much, much nicer to do that when it’s less hot and less busy and you get a better experience of it.)

It depends where you go, the further south the more likely it will still be hot and many busier places have a longer season so there will still be plenty open until the end of October. There's a fairly reliable autumn storm that goes through the Med somewhere between mid September and mid October before it settles down again for a few weeks, so there's an element of luck. We've been there during the stormy period but in reality it's not usually that bad, you might lose a day to stormy weather but you can always choose that day to visit the museums and galleries.

I don't know about Greece or Italy, but if you went to the Malaga area, you'd have a good chance of good weather and there's lots to do in the city if less so. You could always go to the Canaries, Lanzarote has plenty of cultural and volcanic interesting sites for non beach days.

I've actually booked to go to the east coast of Mallorca in mid October as the Canaries were looking expensive. I'm hoping for good weather and the sea will be fine for swimming as long as it's not stormy and I'm planning to do some walking, especially if it's not hot, and will be able to visit the Caves and just wander around and chill for a few days.

Depends where. Crete yes, Corfu dodgy, some rain some sun. In smaller villages restaurants and bars may have closed,

Nope it’s perfect. We’ve had many holidays at that time and it’s always been warm enough but not too hot to move. We are off to Italy this year.

Malta is gorgeous in October

I think it’s a great time, especially if you don’t want it to be too hot whilst sightseeing. I went on a cruise around the Greek islands late October/early November and the weather was lovely even then, around 24c, but it was the last week of the summer season so places were starting to close up.

I think it’s the best time to go!