Best Summer Holiday Destinations
There is a particular thrill to planning a summer holiday. The whole year is pointing toward those warm weeks, the ones built around swimming, good food, long light, and zero obligations. I have spent plenty of summer holidays chasing the perfect version of the season, and over time a short list of destinations has emerged. These are the places I trust for a proper summer escape.
Santorini and the Greek Islands
The Greek islands remain my gold standard for a summer holiday. I love the classic white and blue lanes of Santorini, the sunsets everyone lines up to see, the volcanic beaches and cliffside pools. But I also love going a step off the main path, to islands like Milos and Naxos, where the crowds thin and the taveras are quieter. Swim, eat, nap in the heat, repeat. It is the simplest, most perfect formula I know.
The Amalfi Coast, Italy
For drama and beauty, the Amalfi Coast is unbeatable in summer. The pastel villages cling to cliffs above an impossibly blue Tyrrhenian Sea, and the lemons and bougainvillea are at their most vivid. I base myself in a village like Positano or Praiano and boat between the coves, swim off the rocks, and eat long seafood dinners as the sun goes down. It is glamour and honest beauty rolled into one.
Mallorca, Spain
Mallorca gave me one of the most relaxed summer holidays I have ever had. The island has everything, and in summer it all shines. I spend mornings on the wild, limestone coves of the north, afternoons in the shade of an almond orchard, and evenings in the old town of Palma. You can be as active or as lazy as you want, and the food is a constant joy. It is the Mediterranean at its most versatile.
The Maldives
If your summer holiday means total escape, the Maldives is the answer. I have stayed in the little water villas where you roll off your deck straight into the warm lagoon, and it rewired my idea of rest. Snorkeling the house reefs, eating fresh fish over the water, reading in a hammock over the blue. It is expensive and remote and completely worth it. It is the ultimate reset.
Cornwall, England
For a slightly cooler but endlessly charming summer, Cornwall in the southwest of England is a delight. The surf beaches, the cliff paths, the fishing villages of St Ives and Padstow and the cream teas. I love the wild Atlantic energy and the way summer here is spent in the salt air and the harbor light. It is a different kind of summer, but a very real and lovely one.
Building the Perfect Summer Holiday
The best summer holidays share a few things. I book early, because summer is the busiest window of the year, and I build in time to do nothing at all. I pick destinations where the food is part of the experience, where swimming is easy, and where I can be outside from morning until night. And I always save a few days with no plan. The unplanned days are where the memory of a summer holiday is truly made.
Summer Made for Remembering
A summer holiday is not just a trip. It is the thing you carry through the dark months, the photographs you look back on, the days that smell like sunscreen and sea salt. Whether you choose an island, a coast, or a village on a cliff, the right destination gives summer the shape it deserves. Wherever you go this year, give yourself the gift of the season and swim in it while it lasts.
