Seven spots to catch the last of the season’s rays.

Mr Roy Orbison had about the measure of this point in the calendar when he started warbling, “it’s over and it breaks your heart in two”. It does, Mr Orbison, it really does – how can the summer have gone so fast? Was it something that we said? It seems but a minute ago that it was June and the golden days of July and August were unfurling before us. But, alas, that’s all gone now. Autumn approaches like a tank on a bowling green. But, look, there are still rays of sunshine to be had and revelled in. You just might not be able to step out of your door and spend the rest of the afternoon prostrate on the nearest flicker of grass, but there is warmth to be had – you just need to travel a bit further in the northern hemisphere. Read on for the best places to enjoy the last of the summer wine.

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Club Scannella

Ischia is a volcanic island neighbouring Capri in the Gulf of Naples and is its younger, cooler brother. To put it plainly, if Capri is the chino-wearer, Ischia is more Gucci sweatpants. That is not to say this destination, but an hour from Napoli by boat, is some wild teenage playground, but it is a small island with a big personality. It has six main towns and a coastline that might have escaped from a daydream, or perhaps a novel – the island plays host to many a summer adventure for the characters in Ms Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed series The Neapolitan Novels. There are thermal baths, a botanic garden and plenty of pasta, and the temperatures now are much more manageable than in the heat of high summer. Stay at Club Scannella, a remote, simple hotel with rustic charm that has just about the best views of any place on Ischia and offers yoga on the clifftop and pools heated by the volcanic thermal currents that bubble below.

clubscannella.it

Gara Rock

There is no prettier spot in all of Britain than Salcombe on a sunny day. But since sunshine is anything but reliable on the English coast, we can promise that a stay at Gara Rock will be memorable whatever the weather. Standing to attention on the cliffs, and looking out onto the Atlantic like an admiral put ashore, the recently renovated hotel is a mixture of loft suites, sea apartments and cottages – a miniature village, really – and one that is very well serviced. There’s a private cinema, heated pool, Jacuzzis and access to the secluded beach, as well as a bar and restaurant in the care of head chef Mr Lewis Glanvill, who serves up a refreshing menu of locally sourced and foraged food. A boat is on call to ferry you to Salcombe town if you want to explore, but we reckon you’ll be content to stay put.

gararock.com

White Hotel

Portugal is having a bit of a renaissance of late. Your Instagram, like ours, is no doubt filled with pictures of pastéis de nata and decorative tiles in Porto and Lisbon. Cut your own furrow, though, and head to the Azores, that archipelago of volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean known for their rugged natural beauty. Stay at the 18th-century, family-run White Hotel, which sits on ragged, dark-stone coast. Use the hotel’s nine-metre motor launch to explore the waters or settle down and sunbathe on it. Or else flop out in the rooms, which are all suites with kitchens – the hotel has no restaurant (though there are a gross of them nearby) – before a day spent scuba diving with the hotel’s gear in local coves.

whiteazores.com

Terre Blanche Hotel Spa Golf Resort

It’s coming up to 30 years since Mr Peter Mayle wrote his memoir, A Year In Provence, and yet still we all long for the rosé and the ratatouille of this lavender-tinted smudge of southern France. Less than 30 miles from the flash and din of Cannes is Terre Blanche, a 750-acre estate turned over to the amusement of guests in its 115 suites and villas. The hotel is known for its list of illustrious owners – including everyone’s favourite James Bond (or at least in the top two), Mr Sean Connery – and its cossetting levels of comfort, designed to drain away the stress. There is a 3,500sqft spa, two 18-hole golf courses and views that would have pleased Mr JMW Turner. Oh, and of course a Michelin-star restaurant among the four on site for seasonal Provençal delicacies and plenty of that rosé.

terre-blanche.com

**Royal Mansour **

Book a room at Royal Mansour and the experience begins from the moment you step off the plane at Menara Airport. Elegantly attired staff greet you and whisk you through customs into a rose-gold Range Rover, which deposits you at the Moorish marvel that is the Royal Mansour. But perhaps this level of service ought not surprise, since the place was built at the behest of the King of Morocco as a medina within a medina. Set in almost four hectares of fragrant gardens, the Royal Mansour is made up of 53 private riads onto whose roof you can retreat to at night now the air has cooled from its summer excess. It has all the appurtenances you would expect of a hotel built buy a king, and with a palace-full of servants – 500 in total – every whim is catered for. A jewel of a place.

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L’Horizon Resort and Spa

Built by the architect Mr William F Cody in 1952 as a retreat for TV producer Mr Jack Wrather, it was initially intended to be a hideaway for his Hollywood pals and has only latterly been turned into a beautiful Palm Springs resort. Yet it still retains that down-home charm in a number of thoughtful personal touches: you can find your room by virtue of engraved gold plaques. Everything is mid-century, in key with the exteriors, and in pleasing contradistinction to the prehistoric San Jacinto Mountains that encircle it. Sit by the pool and enjoy the view or else get to work in the SO•PA restaurant. Visit for a weekend and you will leave happy, tanned and pleasingly plump.

lhorizonpalmsprings.com

Son Brull Hotel and Spa

Now, don’t roll your eyes like that. Mallorca is having its moment in the sun in every sense. In August, this small island had, in one single week, and on one beach, Mses Kate Moss, Liv Tyler and Alexa Chung and Messrs Bob Geldof, Bobby Gillespie and Kim Jones. Quite the line-up, so no more about lager louts in Magaluf. Anyway, it was in excess of 30ºC in August, but mellows to mid-twenties by September, which is much more civilised. And what is more civilised still is Son Brull, sequestered in the north part of the island at Pollença. A 12th-century farmhouse built during the country’s Arabic rule, the property was later turned into a monastery in the 18th-century, but today is a five-star hotel offering the sort of privacy and quietude that would please an A-lister. That is by no means the only attraction, though. It is incredibly chic, with a modernist interior, a capacious spa with all the bells and whistles and a vast outdoor infinity pool that would make Mr David Hockney weak at the knees. The crowning glory though are its restaurants: the casual tapas-y Bistró and the fabulously Spanish upscale gastronomic joint 365. Oh, and they make their own wine, too, which you should definitely try.

sonbrull.com

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