Destination planning guides

These are not travel guides. They will not tell you the ten best restaurants. They cover the things you need in order to actually plan the days: what the currency is, what the weather does, what to pack for it, and a sensible shape for the trip.

We only publish a destination where we have enough genuinely useful detail to be worth reading. There are 10 here, not a thousand.

• Malta

  Malta · EUR · 5 to 7 days

  May, June, September and October for heat without the peak crowds

• Ibiza

  Spain · EUR · 4 to 7 days

  May, June and September. July and August are hottest, busiest and most expensive

• Dubai

  United Arab Emirates · AED · 4 to 7 days

  November to March. Summer is extremely hot and largely spent indoors

• Paris

  France · EUR · 3 to 5 days

  April to June and September to October

• Barcelona

  Spain · EUR · 3 to 5 days

  May, June, September and October

• Rome

  Italy · EUR · 3 to 5 days

  April, May, September and October

• Amsterdam

  Netherlands · EUR · 3 to 4 days

  April to June and September

• Lisbon

  Portugal · EUR · 3 to 5 days

  March to June and September to October

• Mykonos

  Greece · EUR · 4 to 6 days

  May, June, September and early October

• Marbella

  Spain · EUR · 4 to 7 days

  May, June, September and October, though the season runs long here