stays

TO ESCAPE the chaos of summer and enjoy the delights of quieter hotels, lots of us like to book holidays between September and November.

Those three months have lots of names like the ‘magic period’ or ‘shoulder season‘ and taking a break then can save you some serious cash.

Whether you want a quick trip to Spain or a holiday to African resorts for winter sun, there are some great deals out there, and lastminute.com have helped us find some of the best.

They told us: “Once the peak summer period has passed, travellers can often find significantly better value on flights and holidays, while still enjoying warm weather and everything a destination has to offer, proving that it is better to leave it until the last minute.”

The cheapest spot is Costa Dorada in Spain where on average holidays cost £79pppn.

The Costa Dorada is a region along the Mediterranean coastline and includes popular spots like Tarragona and Salou.

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What’s even better is that you can definitely still spend time on the beaches too as in October there are average daytime temperatures of around 22C.

It’s also home to the enormous PortAventura World which is one of Europe’s biggest theme parks – and is home to Europe’s tallest and fastest accelerator coaster Red Force in Ferrari Land.

If it tickles your fancy, check into Hotel Best Negresco in Salou.

It’s a beach front spot with rooms that have views of the coast along with a restaurant, bar, swimming pool, sun terrace and spa.

A four-night stay for two with return flights to London Luton in October starts from £248pp – or £62pppn.

If you want to add half-board to have breakfast and dinner included it’s an extra £26pp.

The second cheapest destination for autumn is Sousse in Tunisia.

The coastal resort city is known for having bright blue waters and plenty of beach clubs.

Visitors can explore the Medina of Sousse – a historic walled quarter that is an open-air market where you can pick up ceramics, leather bags, shoes and jewellery.

With lastminute.com you can book to stay at the Hotel Royal Jinene Beach & Spa from £66pn – and it includes return flights and half board.

The hotel has an indoor pool, outdoor pool with a big slide, bar, restaurant and coffee house as well as activities like tennis and mini golf.

There’s also a spa and live music nights and a short walk away is the sandy Plage El Menchia.

A four-night stay for two people with half board and return flights to London Southend in October is £264pp – or £66pppn.

It’s back to Spain for the third cheapest destination in autumn which is the Costa Brava where on average a holiday is £87pppn – although there are cheaper deals to be found.

The coastal region in northeastern Spain has lots of beaches with cliff backdrops and coves.

The Costa Brava has 300 days of sunshine every year and is mild throughout September and October.

Hotel Tahití Playa & Suites 4Sup is right on the Mediterranean coastline and is just a few steps away from the beach.

It also has a swimming pool, restaurant with themed dinner nights, sun terrace, pool bar, activities like table tennis and yoga classes.

There’s also a spa as well as live performances and entertainment.

A four-night room only stay for two in October at Hotel Tahití Playa & Suites 4Sup including return flights to London Stansted is £153pp – or £38pppn.

The Albanian Coast is emerging as a cheap alternative to other coastlines – with white sand beaches, no wonder it’s loved by celebs like Dua Lipa.

Sarandë is known as the the ‘city’ of the Riviera.

It’s surrounded by the blue waters of the Ionian Sea with seafood restaurants and cheap beer, with pints as little as £1.30.

Here, you can book a stay in the four-star Bougainville Bay Hotel which is considered a gallery itself full of sculptures, paintings and mosaics.

The hotel is next to the sea and you can enjoy the views from its beautiful infinity pool.

It also has four bars, two restaurants and four swimming pools.

In October, temperatures in the daytime sit around 21C – although they do drop in the evening.

A four-night stay for two including breakfast in October at the Bougainville Bay Hotel including return flights to London Stansted is £229pp – or £57.25pppn.

Coming in fifth position for being one of the cheapest spots for a holiday in autumn is Hammamet.

The coastal resort town in northeastern Tunisia boasts golden beaches and there’s plenty of historical sites to explore if you fancy a wander.

Hammamet is a great spot for anyone wanting a dose of sunshine and heat as in October temperatures can be as high as 26C.

For Brits it’s ideal as it’s as little as three and a half hours away from the UK.

The Yocca Hotel Residence is slightly outside of the city with spacious rooms some of which have balconies, swimming pool, garden, terrace and restaurant.

A six-night stay for two at the Yocca Hotel Residence including return flights from London Gatwick is £308pp – or £51.34pppn.

Holidaymakers will face a nightly levy on hotel and Airbnb-style stays across large parts of England in a move welcomed by many mayors but described as risking “irreparable harm” to the tourism industry.

Regions across England will be able to charge an uncapped “tourist tax” on overnight stays to potentially generate tens of millions of pounds that would then be spent in those areas.

The move will bring England into line with many European nations and the US, where holidaymakers have for years been paying overnight visitor levies.

However, tourism and hospitality bosses warned it would have a “hugely damaging” impact on an industry already under pressure from a rise in tax and employment costs.

UKHospitality, the industry’s trade body, said a 5% overnight levy across England could result in 33,000 job losses and a £2bn hit to the economy, with regions more reliant on tourism, such as the Lake District, being worst affected.

The owner of Premier Inn, Britain’s biggest hotel chain, said it would be “hugely damaging” and urged ministers to “avoid inflicting what could be irreparable harm on this large and vital sector of the economy”.

The proposal for an overnight levy was backed by Keir Starmer’s government in November and is similar to a scheme running in Scotland.

Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, outlined the details behind the levy to England’s regional mayors in a meeting at No 10 North in Manchester on Thursday.

Under the proposal, which is expected to be introduced as a bill in parliament within months, mayors will be given the power to decide what is best for their area, but ministers do not expect the levy to become overly expensive.

Allen Simpson, the chief executive of UKHospitality, said the plans would put jobs at risk in some communities, and that the new tourism tax in Edinburgh was “already having damaging effects”. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme holidays in the UK were “already more expensive” than they appeared because of higher VAT.

“What we’re talking about here is an open-ended power for mayors to set tourism taxes at any level they want,” said Simpson. “And remember that if you go to Paris, if you go to Rome, if you go to Berlin, you’re paying a small tourism tax, but it’s capped.”

He added: “It will be the case that you’ll have holiday parks which can’t open in the shoulder seasons, and of course people who go on holiday will just have that little bit less money in their pocket.”

The overnight visitor levy was outlined in the king’s speech in May, but legislation was not brought forward before Starmer stood down as prime minister. Andy Burnham is likely to pitch the policy as part of his wider devolution agenda. No 10 has previously said local leaders would be “able to set out plans for how revenues will be invested by March 2028”.

As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham introduced the city visitor charge in April 2023 – a £1 per room per night fee – to pay for measures aimed at attracting more tourists. Last year other mayors, including Sadiq Khan in London, wrote a letter to the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, and the then chancellor, Rachel Reeves, urging the government to introduce a visitor levy.

Sources from the London mayor’s office said a plan to make the payment a percentage rather than a flat fee was welcome. No decisions had been made on the design of the scheme or how revenues would be allocated, they said, but any levy would not be more than 5% of accommodation costs. “This will really help us support London’s growth and our offer to visitors,” they said.

Edinburgh became the first city in Scotland to introduce a tourist tax, at 5% in July, after the Scottish parliament passed a law last year granting councils the power to implement their own visitor levies. In Wales, councils will have the power to charge £1.30 a person a night in tax for most accommodation from April 2027.

But UKHospitality, which represents thousands of restaurants, hotels and pubs, has said a levy of 5% would be one of the highest tourist tax rates in Europe and hit households continuing to struggle with the cost of living. It has written to Burnham urging him instead to consider plans for a “holiday bonus”, under which central government revenues would be devolved to local authorities based on the number of visitors they attract.

Tourist taxes are common in Europe and the rest of the world, and are used in cities such as New York, Barcelona and Venice to fund local services.

For more than three decades, California and Texas have been like tectonic plates drifting in opposite directions.

California, the ancestral land of Republicans Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan, has become a Democratic stronghold. It’s been 20 years since a GOP candidate won statewide office.

Texas, which bred Democratic giants such as Sam Rayburn and Lyndon B. Johnson, has become a Republican fortress. A Democrat hasn’t been elected statewide in more than 30 years.

And yet with the midterm election about to enter its final, post-Labor Day sprint, Texas is home to not one but two competitive contests, for governor and U.S. Senate. It’s a stark contrast with California, where Democrat Xavier Becerra appears to be a shoo-in for governor and Adam Schiff, in 2024, waltzed into his Senate seat.

There’s still plenty of time between now and election day on Nov. 3. Democrats, to their deep consternation, have repeatedly seen their hopes rise, only to crash once Texans actually turn out to vote.

“You don’t take anything for granted,” said James Aldrete, a Democratic strategist in Austin, who’s watched for years as his party wandered fruitlessly in the campaign desert. “But there is beautiful native wildlife that grows in the desert, and it’s blooming right now.”

The question — for the moment, at least — is why California hasn’t budged while Texas has become a surprise battleground.

The answer involves individual personalities, demographics and political headwinds.

Of the two contests, the fight for Texas’ open Senate seat appears to be much closer. Election handicappers rate it a toss-up.

The Democrat, state Rep. James Talarico, is a highly gifted campaigner and prodigious fundraiser. But arguably the best thing he has going for his candidacy is his Republican opponent, Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, whose history of scandal, shady dealings and moral lapses trail him like dirty footprints on a white carpet.

Paxton stomped incumbent John Cornyn, with the help of President Trump, in a vicious GOP primary that left ill will among a number of Republicans. Had Cornyn won, many doubt the Senate seat would be in play.

‘A big ask’

In the race for governor, Republican Greg Abbott is facing Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa as he seeks an unprecedented fourth term — “a big ask of voters,” in the words of J. Miles Coleman, who analyzes elections at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the center’s forecasting project, recently moved the gubernatorial race to “likely Republican,” a shift away from “Safe Republican.”

Other election handicappers have done the same.

Texas has long fancied itself a place apart; secession is one recurring fantasy. But for all its perceived go-your-own-way independence, the state isn’t immune from broader trends, which helps explain why it’s suddenly in play.

“One of the external factors that’s making Texas competitive is the degree of wind in Democratic sails,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas in Austin.

Whether it’s anti-establishment anger, directed at the party in power, or frustration with Trump, his war-making and failure to deliver the sterling economy he promised, “when you think of the problems Republicans are having at the national level … that’s helping Democrats here as well,” Henson said.

(Trump’s taint is also a problem for California Republican Steve Hilton, running for governor in a state where the president’s approval rating rests at the subbasement level.)

By the numbers

Henson, who conducts polling statewide, said another reason Texas is more competitive than California is simple mathematics: “Democrats [haven’t] fallen quite as far in Texas as Republicans have in California.”

Texas doesn’t register voters by party. But weighting political surveys by demographics and following election results, Henson expects about a 10% Republican turnout advantage in November. By contrast, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in California by nearly 2 to 1.

Yet another reason Texas appears to have grown more competitive is the apparent discontent of Latino voters, an increasingly important part of the state’s burgeoning electorate.

Though Latinos shifted strongly in Trump’s favor in 2024, many have grown disillusioned in the nearly two years since. “They’re moving away from both parties,” said Mike Madrid, a California strategist who’s spent decades studying the Latino vote. “When the environment is bad, they’re punishing whatever party is power.”

Two years ago, it was Democrats. Now it’s Republicans.

In recent years, as the country cleaved, California emerged as the unofficial capital of blue America, offering a political, social and cultural counterweight to Texas, the unofficial capital of red America. The two states anchor the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, and are key to their financial well-being and the success of their candidates nationwide.

A Democratic toehold in Texas would instantly scramble long-standing political calculations, starting with the 2028 presidential race.

“It changes the narrative. It changes the demographic strategy,” Madrid said. “It changes the 270 [electoral college] map. It changes the whole strategy.”

In short, a November win would be more than symbolic, or gratification after years of Democratic futility. It would be a political earthquake.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Whistleblower says USPS defied court to push ‘untested’ portal for Trump mail voting order
The deep dive: A conservative California upbringing paved Natalie Harp’s way to Trump
The L.A. Times Special:Don’t look now, but suddenly the U.S. Senate is in play

Until next time,
mzb
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BUTLIN’S has announced that eight new shows will launch at all three parks in 2027.

The new shows include Britain’s Got Talent and DreamWorks’ Madagascar musical.

Britain’s Got Talent will headline every school holiday break in 2027 with the talent show brought to life in Studio 36 across the Minehead, Bognor Regis and Skegness resorts.

Each show will be hosted by a mystery celebrity presenter and feature a line-up of faces seen on the TV show.

Guests can even show off their own talents as well.

Every break from February Half Term will then also featureDreamWorks’ Madagascar musical with Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo.

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The much-loved film will be transformed into a musical, following the friends as they escape New York to head to Madagascar.

On selected Showtime Midweek breaks, families with kids under the age of five can join children’s TV star Andy Day with Andy’s Dino- Rap.

Other shows include K-Pop Forever on every school holiday break and a new Animal Guyz show from February Half Term.

There will also be three new West End-style productions including A Billion Streams, which will feature some of the world’s biggest songs and Playtime Party with Billy and Bonnie Bear.

What makes it even better is that you could head to one of the resorts during February Half Term for just £54 – which is £13.50 per person or just £3.50 per person, per night.

Mike Godolphin, Entertainment Director at Butlin’s, said: “As the Home of Entertainment, live shows are at the heart of what we do, and our 2027 line-up is one of our most exciting yet.

“We’re taking things to another level by bringing Britain’s Got Talent to our resorts for the first time, with celebrity presenters and performers that families will recognise from the show.

“From Madagascar and K-pop to dinosaurs and some of the biggest songs in the world, we’ve created a line-up with something for every age.

“Best of all, it’s all part of the Butlin’s experience, so families can enjoy brilliant live entertainment throughout their break at no extra cost.”