HF Holidays blog

Adored by poets, painters, and literary giants for centuries, the UNESCO-listed Lake District has always had an irresistible pull. Located in the heart of Cumbria, it delights first-timers and returning visitors with charming villages, tumbling waterfalls, mirror-glazed lakes, forest-clad hills, and the mist-shrouded fells that walker and author Alfred Wainwright wrote about in his guides. And as England’s largest national park, there’s no shortage of walks to choose from. Here are five of our favourites. 

If you’re already thinking about next year’s adventure but don’t know where to start, we’ve rounded up our top 12 holidays to take in 2024. Whether you want to discover beauty spots close to home or travel to far-flung locations, here’s some inspiration to help you start planning.

Stretching the entire length of Portugal’s south coast, the Algarve’s golden beaches, tucked-away bays, and soaring sea cliffs draw in over four million visitors every year. So it’s mighty impressive that the western corner of this incredible coastline has managed to maintain such a low profile. Not only is it home to two of the region’s tallest mountains, but also sea-facing fortresses rich in maritime history, average year-round temperatures of 22C, and mainland Europe’s most south-westerly point.

Measuring only 35 miles long and 14 miles wide, small-but-mighty Madeira offers a walking holiday in Portugal complete with flower-filled landscapes, interesting cultural sites, delicious food and wine, and year-round sunshine. There’s also a landscape crisscrossed with levadas (irrigation channels used as walking trails), thundering waterfalls, prehistoric forests, green mountains, and sea cliffs that soar high above the Atlantic Ocean. It was a favourite haunt of Winston Churchill for good reason, too; when holidaying here in 1950, he was smitten with this “floating garden” and its sub-tropical climate. 

According to the meteorological calendar, the autumn is defined by three months: September, October, and November. Unlike any other season, it comes with plenty of welcoming associations; from feelings of comfort and nostalgia to a time of layering up for maximum cosiness and making the most of beautiful scenery all around.