Europe's secret season for travel starts now

Kastel Gomilica on Croatia's coast is still dazzling in autumn. (ugurhan/iStockphoto/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Summer might be the most popular season for tourism to Europe, but it hardly promises a calm, cool and collected experience.

Who can forget this summer’s protests against overtourism in Barcelona and Mallorca, the wildfires that raged across Greece during the country’s hottest June and July on record and selfie spotlights to help control crowds on the clogged streets of Rome and Florence?

For travellers looking to avoid all that — as well as break less of a sweat literally and financially — welcome to Europe’s secret season.

From roughly mid-October to mid-December, shoulder season for travel to Europe comes with fewer crowds, far more comfortable temperatures in places that skew scorching hot during the summer months and plunging prices on airfare and accommodation.

Plunging prices

“The cheapest time to fly to Europe is typically from about the middle point of October to the middle point of December,” said Hayley Berg, lead economist at travel platform Hopper. “Airfare prices during those eight or nine weeks or so will typically be about an average of 40 per cent lower than prices in the peak of summer in June.”

Hopper’s data shows that airfare to Europe from the United States during the period between Oct. 20 and Dec. 8 is averaging between US$560 and US$630 per ticket — down 9 per cent from this time last year and 5 per cent compared to the same timeframe in 2019.

The data also shows that average nightly accommodation rates in the top 10 cities for travel in Europe (including places like Amsterdam, Paris and Munich) drop by 27 per cent in December compared to June, when tourism is at its peak.

For Americans not beholden to a family and turkey-centric holiday in the U.S., even Thanksgiving week can be considered shoulder season for European travel, said Katy Nastro, of travel site Going.

“Because so many folks are focused on domestic travel due to the Thanksgiving holiday, domestic prices shoot upward,” she said. “But the upside to that is international travel, namely over to Europe, gets downright cheap due to airlines cutting fares in hopes to fill seats.”

The in-between period starting the last week in November and into the first two weeks of December is another sweet spot for airfare from the U.S. and accommodation deals in European destinations, Nastro said, citing this period as “the calm before the storm of winter holiday business.”

She advised trying to travel before the week of Dec. 16, when prices across the board begin to creep up.

Travellers — and travel advisers — are taking note

Jack Ezon, founder of EMARK Beyond travel agency, said he’s seen a 22 per cent shift recently from clients who traditionally travelled to Europe during the summer months now choosing to visit during the shoulder seasons of spring or fall instead.

He attributes this trend to the fact that summers have become unbearably hot in many places, prices are roughly 40 per cent to 50 per cent higher in popular European destinations during the summer and the fact that overtourism has plagued so many places.

Among the best spots Ezon points clients toward for autumn travel are Madrid, Barcelona and Ireland — where it’s not too hot or too cold in fall and you can avoid summer’s hordes of road trippers. Another great spot for fall? The principality of Monaco, bordering the French Riviera.

“Though the beach clubs in St. Tropez are closed, Monaco is truly an all-year-round destination, with beautiful, mild weather well into December,” Ezon said, adding that the tiny country on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea offers shopping, great dining and access to stunning nature within close reach.

Madeline Steuber, Virtuoso adviser and co-founder of Steuber Travel Group, said that being flexible with shoulder season travel can lead to the best prices on luxury accommodations as well as an all-around more fulfilling travel experience.

“We encourage a lot of our clients who want to travel in what we call the festive period, which is later December, to consider moving their dates back to the week after Thanksgiving through the first two weeks of December,” she said.

“We can get premium guides, premium drivers and excellent hotels at just lower price points for the same product than what they would pay for those in the summer,” she said.

Steuber points to river cruising in Europe as a good fall option for covering a lot of ground with food and beverage expenditures included. The week after Thanksgiving through the first two weeks of December is the best time to get deals on river cruises, she said.

And it’s a bonus that many river cruises along the Danube, Main and Rhine rivers visit Christmas markets at this time of year, too.

“Any traveller who has wanted to take advantage of European Christmas markets but suffers from a lack of PTO may be in luck this year,” said Nastro. “Because Thanksgiving is the last week of November this year, you can squeeze in a winter holiday trip over the Thanksgiving week.”

One of Germany’s famous Christmas markets opens on Nov. 29 in Nuremberg, and France’s beloved Strasbourg Christmas market opens Nov. 27, which means you could be sipping mulled wine and snacking on gingerbread while everyone back home is busy gobbling turkey and stuffing, she said.

Think beyond the usual destinations

London, Paris and Rome remain the most searched European destinations for travel regardless of the time of year — including those end-of-year trips between mid-October and mid-December, said Berg.

But more off-the-beaten path destinations in Europe that are showing an uptick in demand (including for searches at this time of year) include Marseille in Southern France, Cyprus, Denmark’s Faroe Islands, Longyearbyen in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago and Helsinki, according to Hopper data. All also offer lower prices on airfare from the U.S. for end-of-year travel this year compared to the same periods last year and in 2019.

Mediterranean cities in the south of France, Greece and Cyprus stay temperate into November and December and Northern European destinations including the Faroe Islands, Finland and Norway offer the chance to see the Northern Lights.

“There’s definitely a trend among younger travellers toward many of these destinations,” said Berg. “Those domestic travellers from a few years ago who went to Jackson Hole are now headed to the Arctic Circle.”

Nastro said that while the Croatian coast and Kotor in Montenegro get packed with sun-seekers during the summertime, the shoulder season in these places offers a coziness that’s appealing, too.

“Cultural festivals, homemade pumpkin seed oil, and gorgeous and almost tourist-free views should be considered,” she said. But she advises travellers to “stick to the bigger cities as some smaller seaside towns may be closed for the season.”

And while Tuscany booms during the toasty summer months, November and December usher in crisp weather and white truffle season. Hotels like the 18th century Borgo San Vincenzo in Montepulciano can arrange truffle hunts and visits to local truffle markets, and a Chrstimas market even takes over the town’s Piazza Grande starting in mid-November.

Dates and rates to consider

If you decide to break from the pack and head to Europe instead of a domestic destination, flying on Thanksgiving Day offers the added benefit of being the least crowded day at U.S. airports during the holiday crush. And it’s best to avoid the jampacked Sunday after the holiday.

Along with airfare, average nightly accommodation rates drop dramatically across Europe at the end of the year compared to during the peak summer months.

Hopper’s data shows average nightly rates in cities like Paris and Reykjavik down 30 per cent and more at the end of the year compared to peak summer. In Rome, the savings on nightly rates soars to 40 per cent at the end of the year, with average room rates clocking in at US$200 per night.

That means a hotel you might have always dreamed of experiencing might suddenly be within reach.

“Finding availability at certain European gems can be nearly impossible in the summer without early planning, but some of our favorite places still have availability for Thanksgiving,” said Fora adviser Kim Hannum. Among those luxury properties are Adare Manor in Limerick, Ireland; J.K. Place Roma in Italy; and Grand Hotel Son Net in Mallorca, Spain.

An online search for rooms at Adare Manor shows rates of US$814 for two people with breakfast on November 28, 2024, while a similar room on June 29, 2025, costs nearly double that at US$1,524.

At Mallorca’s Grand Hotel Son Net, a room on Thanksgiving night this year is 515 euros (around US$560) while the same room on June 19, 2025 (when a two-night minimum is required due to peak season) costs 1,075 euros (around US$1,168).

Another opportunity for savings

And even if you can’t make a secret-season trip to Europe happen before the winter holidays are upon us, Berg said to mark your calendar and set price alerts for Travel Deal Tuesday — the travel equivalent of Black Friday. Those deals drop on December 3 this year.

“The Tuesday after Thanksgiving is probably the single best day of the year to book a trip to Europe or anywhere international,” she said. “We see deep discounts on airfare deals and on hotel stays across the travel industry, and then obviously on the Hopper app as well.”

Even though traveling to Europe in January or February is likely to bring even cooler temperatures, you can reap many of the same benefits of the fall lull, including lower prices and fewer crowds, she said.

“There’s much more of a focus on tourism in summer,” Berg said. “Whereas during this period you’re having a much more local experience, which is what a lot of travellers are craving.”

Florida-based travel writer Terry Ward lives in Tampa and is crossing fingers and toes for enough snow during an early-December ski trip to the Montana Lodge & Spa in Italy’s Aosta Valley.