There is nowhere better for a late glimpse of sunshine than the unspoilt beaches of the Algarve in Portugal.

Why go?
One word: sun. Not the limp, pale, autumnal sort, which is all very well if you live for the season of mellow fruitfulness and have ignored the shortcomings of summer, but the type that actually makes you want to remove a layer of clothing. The Algarve, with more than 3,000 hours of sun a year and an average temperature of 26C in September/22C in October, is the perfect last-blast-of-sunshine saloon. The coastline, which stretches approximately 100 miles from the westernmost tip to the Spanish border, is home to some of the most dramatic ochre cliff faces and unspoilt beaches in Europe. Always family-friendly, the Algarve will now also be largely family-free, so if your household is untouched by school terms, there really is no better time to go.

Travel by…
Plane. Several major airlines offer competitive prices for flights to Faro, so it is worth researching. Major delays both in and out of Faro may be anecdotal, but our 10-hour delay courtesy of Monarch airlines (www.monarch.co.uk) did nothing to dispel the myth. In an ideal world, a two-and-three-quarter hour flight should be followed by a 45-minute drive to central Algarve.

Read the rest of the article… Telegraph UK