From Sicily to Sri Lanka – seven places to visit to see out summer in style.

Lucifer, the fearsome heatwave that brought fire and frayed tempers to vast swathes of Southern Europe earlier this month, was a timely reminder to anyone caught in its sweaty grip of the perils of high-summer travel. Throw in grossly inflated prices, snaking queues outside restaurants, crowded beaches and historical sites that creak under the weight of perspiring tourists, and it’s a wonder anyone who isn’t a parent goes anywhere in July or August. So don’t. In the industry, they call them the shoulder seasons, the periods in June and, better still, September, when fresh air blows through streets and beaches are allowed to breathe again, and hotels welcome savvy travellers with open arms and rates that fall with the mercury. From the Med to Morocco via New England and New Mexico, here are seven destinations that shine brightest come September.

There was an old man named Mr Edward Lear, who popularised the limerick and the art of literary nonsense in the 19th century. He was also a big fan of Gozo, Malta’s little sister in the southern Mediterranean. So moved was the writer after a walking tour there, he had to make up new words to describe its dramatic coastline of cliffs, coves and beaches: “pomskizillious and gromophiberous” (he liked it). Hiking boots remain a popular conveyance for visitors who take the ferry from the busier and much bigger Malta. Gozo is only nine miles across at its widest and brims with medieval citadels, ancient ruins and secluded beaches linked by easily navigable routes. Temperatures can be fierce in high summer, but dip to around 25°C in September – perfect for walkers (you can rent a car, too, of course). Don’t miss the remains of Calypso’s Cave, where Odysseus is supposed to have shacked up with a hot sea nymph for seven years during that journey, or the wide golden sands of Ramla Beach below it.

**Where to stay: **Thirtyseven Gozo

More than 20 years ago, Milanese fashion designer Mr Giuseppe Piazzi bought his wife Patti an old farmhouse in Muxnar, a village on the south coast. Thirtyseven Gozo has expanded since to include 10 impeccably appointed suites around a jade pool and courtyard.

Any visitor to Sicily who is not in love with stifling heat, suffocating crowds or premium prices would be madder than a peeled sea urchin to go there in high summer. Hold off a month or two and visit the island when the temperature dips below 30°C and many of the tourist hoards retreat. Food festivals abound in September: an homage to arancini near Catania, a street food festival in Cefalù, a celebration of sausage in Aragona and of cous cous in San Vito Lo Capo, the regional fish dish betraying Sicily’s centuries of Arabic influence. The sea remains warm, the black volcanic beaches are bewitching all year round, and Palermo is a riot of crumbling baroque palaces, Arabic domes and a fast evolving modern art scene. The chi-chi resort town Taormina, and its surroundings on the east coast, remains as popular as it was when Mr DH Lawrence lived there in the 1920s, and is the place to begin an ascent of Mount Etna to watch the island spread out beneath your feet.

**Where to stay: **Zash Hotel

Halfway between Taormina and the eastern city of Catania, Zash Hotel is a slice of modernity on a historic coastline with views east across the Med and west to the summit of Etna. The work of local architects, the minimalist retreat is set in citrus groves and offers free bikes for the mile-long trundle to the sea.

Swerve the torrid freneticism of Marrakech for a quieter, breezier slice of North Africa 100 miles to the west. The walled city of Essaouira unfolds behind a gentle bay on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. And while it swelters often late into the summer, its famous trade winds blow through the gates, gently air conditioning the city’s fortified medina of palm-lined avenues, art galleries and some of chicest hotels in the country. The winds also mean Essaouira has never attracted the package market, and brightly painted fishing boats in the harbour are as common as crowds on the beach beside it (the place is also a major draw for kite and windsurfers). More recently, hip young Moroccans have converged on the town to turn guesthouses into boutique hotels and open stylish restaurants, invigorating a bohemian city with a decades-old reputation for cool (Mr Jimi Hendrix is supposed to have written “Castles Made Of Sand” in Essaouira).

Where to stay: 5 Columns

A giant dining table carved from a single eucalyptus tree is the dramatic centrepiece of 5 Columns, a recently restored house in the heart of Essaouira’s old textile district. The four-bedroom house’s table sits in the mosaic-tiled open-air courtyard surrounded by the sandstone columns that give the place its name. Whitewash and exposed, gnarled timbers abound and bedrooms are airy and understated.

Residents of Albuquerque are possibly tired by now of hearing how a show about crystal meth put the sprawling desert crossroads in the middle of New Mexico on the map, but it really did. For decades, it was overlooked or used as a gateway to Santa Fe, the mountainous state capital up the road, but Albuquerque took advantage of an unexpected trade as Breaking Bad fans came to get their fix of the city’s big skies, Route 66 diners and Pueblo Deco architecture. Enterprising businesspeople have variously offered Biking Bad cycle tours, Bathing Bad bath salts and Touring Bad, a self-guided tour of the show’s locations. But Albuquerque, also the star of spin-off Better Call Saul, is more than a backdrop with Hollywood tax breaks. On Central Avenue, the city’s main drag, old Route 66 neon signs illuminate revived neighbourhoods full of exuberant Art Deco monuments to Albuquerque’s railroad boom. Many of them now house organic cafés, art galleries and hip breweries. Along the Rio Grande, new bike paths open the city to the farms and ranches beyond its limits.

**Where to stay: **Los Poblanos

An old farm on the western edge of the city and the banks of the river has become an unlikely magnet for Instagrammers and fashion-forward visitors to New Mexico. Los Poblanos is known across the US, thanks, in part, to its range of retro apothecary products, from lavender salve to natural sunscreen, but its old inn, first opened in the 1930s, is also now emerging as a photogenic, laid-back retreat with a beautiful salt-water pool at the foot of the Sandia Mountains.

As if a captivating island already renowned for its Unesco-protected Stone Town and perfect beaches required a resurgence, well – it’s having one. Zanzibar Island, the biggest jewel in an archipelago off the coast of Tanzania, has variously been a focus for the trade in spices, palms and slaves. Now, an influx of tourists and a series of high-end hotel openings and refurbs is revitalising its coastline, as big hitters such as Park Hyatt land in the old town and luxury resorts continue their grip on the north-west coast. It can be stiflingly hot, as you would expect. When Mr Evelyn Waugh stepped off his boat during a tour of the region in the 1930s, he noted later that “an hour’s stroll ashore sufficed, then I retired to the ship for a cold bath and an afternoon under the electric fans”. September brings the freshest weather by the standards of the Indian Ocean, and is firmly within the dry season. Follow Mr Waugh’s footsteps in Stone Town, where the island’s history of colonisation by Omani Arabs as well as the British is most evident in the elaborately carved doors on its jumble of lime-washed houses of mangrove timber and coraline stone.

_Where to stay: _Star Of The East

You would be hard pushed to top Diamonds Star Of The East, a ritzy resort within an already pretty swanky resort outside the town of Nungwi on the island's northern tip. Its clusters of thatched villas with private terraces and pools – and easy access to the private beach – offer seclusion that Robinson Crusoe would approve of, as well as a full butler service.

Well-heeled travellers have raced to visit Sri Lanka in ever greater numbers since the end of civil war in 2009 heralded a big round of interest and new investment. Resorts and honeymooners are ten a penny on the south and east coasts, but for the design and culture conscious among the new wave, Galle (pronounced “Gawl”) Fort, the historic former colonial trading port, has become the go-to stop on the south coast. For centuries, empires vied for control there, beginning with the Dutch in the 17th century and ending with independence in 1948. Traces of Portuguese, Moorish and British architecture are still uncommonly well preserved within the city’s ramparts, where, increasingly, bohemian boutiques and hip hotels are mushrooming behind the white-washed facades. For a break from history, some of Sri Lanka’s famous golden beaches, including at Unawatuna, are only a few miles away.

Where to stay: Amangalla

Aman Resorts-owned Amangalla, has been in town for more than a decade and occupies one of Galle Fort’s finest buildings. Built in 1684 as the headquarters for the Dutch, it later found fame as the New Oriental Hotel in the 19th century, when P&O steamers disgorged weary Victorian travellers there. The hotel preserves all the whirring fans and four-posters of yore alongside its modern fixtures and spa.

Grey-shingled mansions with driveways of crushed shells, cobblestoned streets, ranks of private jets on a quiet airport and wide beaches with dunes and some of the best lobster on the eastern seaboard. Nantucket is a dream of an all-American holiday destination that has traditionally competed with neighbouring Martha’s Vineyard for the big money flying out of Boston and New York City. Arguably, 19th-century whaling riches mixed with an austere greyness that betrays its Quaker roots give Nantucket an authentic edge over the more boastfully colourful Vineyard. That sophistication is evident in the island’s museums and smart restaurants, which, combined with endless beaches and heavy doses of American seaside nostalgia, attract bare-footed CEOs and society figures by the dozen in summer. Things cool off come September when room rates tumble and restaurant reservations open up wide while, across New England and beyond, the annual conflagration of autumn colours takes hold.

Where to stay: TheWauwinet

Head to The Wauwinet, nine miles out of the main town on the island’s northeastern shore. The grand old inn, first opened in 1875, unfolds via a vast lawn onto a secluded bay, while offering access to big ocean beaches that face east. Interiors are as sophisticated as nautical can be, while service is as you would expect from a member of Relais & Châteaux. Proximity to the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge makes it the best spot from which to observe the changing colours.

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