Where to go in November and December 2026, and who with

It is a wet Tuesday in November. You still have five days of annual leave to use before the end of the year, and you have known it since September. You open a flight search. Then you do the usual sum: who could come with you on a random Wednesday in November? Nobody. So the days stay where they are, and in January they disappear.

If you are wondering where to go in November and December, the short answer is that they are two of the easiest months to travel from the UK, as long as you avoid the Christmas rush. For winter sun, the Canary Islands, where Gran Canaria averages highs of about 24 °C in November and 22 °C in December. For a warm city break, Málaga or Seville, both around 20 °C in November. For Christmas atmosphere, a market weekend in the UK or in Europe. And if nobody you know has the same days off, you can post the trip on TravelMatch with your dates and let people who are free then ask to join, for free.

The hard part of these two months is rarely the destination. It is finding someone who is off at the same time as you.

Why November and December, when nobody goes

That is exactly the reason.

Most people travel when the calendar makes it easy: summer, half-term, the long weekends. November has no bank holidays at all in England and Wales, according to gov.uk, so nobody gets a free long weekend and the weeks between Bonfire Night and mid-December stay quiet. If you have loose days to use, this is your moment.

Then comes Christmas, and 2026 is a generous year. Christmas Day is a Friday, the Boxing Day bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December, and New Year's Day is a Friday. Book 29, 30 and 31 December and you get ten days off in a row, from Friday 25 December to Sunday 3 January, for three days of leave. Plenty of people will do the same sum, so expect that week to be busy.

One thing worth saying before going further: the days are short. Clocks go back on the last Sunday of October, and by December a day of sightseeing has far fewer usable hours than in June. Plan fewer things per day than you would in summer, and plan them earlier.

Where to go in November for sun

The Canary Islands are the classic winter-sun choice from the UK. According to Spain's state weather agency, AEMET, Gran Canaria airport has average highs of 24.2 °C in November and 22.2 °C in December, with around four days of rain a month (1981-2010 averages). That is T-shirt weather in the middle of the day and a light jumper at night.

The honest caveat: the Canaries are not empty in winter, because plenty of other people have the same idea. What changes outside the school holidays is that you are not competing for the same flights as every family in the country.

The Costa del Sol is the other option for anyone who wants sun without a long flight. Málaga airport averages a high of 20.1 °C in November, compared with 30.8 °C in August, and 17.5 °C in December. It is not beach weather for most people, but it is lunch outside and a seafront walk without a coat.

Warm cities without the crowds

What is punishing in August is pleasant in November. Seville goes from an average high of 35.5 °C in August to 20.2 °C in November and 16.6 °C in December, according to AEMET. It is the time of year when you can walk around the centre at four in the afternoon without planning where to shelter from the sun.

Granada is the classic pairing. The Alhambra keeps winter hours from 8:30 to 18:00, according to its official site, and the Nasrid Palaces can only be entered at the time printed on your ticket. Outside holidays, getting a ticket stops being a race, but it is still the one thing to book before you fly.

The same logic works further afield: Lisbon, Rome or Athens on a Tuesday in November are different cities from the same places on a Saturday in July. Pack an umbrella and plan one museum afternoon instead of one more viewpoint.

Where to go in December without the Christmas rush

December has two faces. One is the week of Christmas and New Year, when everyone travels at once. The other is the first half of the month, which almost nobody looks at.

Christmas markets are the obvious plan, and for good reason. In the UK, most open in November and some close well before Christmas: we have the 2026 dates for Manchester, Edinburgh, York, Bath and Winchester in Christmas markets in the UK. In continental Europe the rule is stricter, because most markets shut on Christmas Eve; which city to pick and which dates to avoid is in when to go to the European Christmas markets.

Snow starts to matter in December, with the first ski weeks of the season. If that is your plan, solo ski holidays explains how to go without a ski group of your own.

And if the part you are dreading is Christmas itself rather than the weather, that deserves its own plan: it is in solo holidays at Christmas.

Going solo in November, or not quite solo

This is where the usual problem appears, the one no weather chart solves. Almost everyone who does this sum reaches the same conclusion, that November and early December are a good idea, and then runs into the same wall: your friends do not have those days off, or they do, but a different week.

You can go alone, of course. Southern European cities are a good place to do it, and in November even more so, because everything moves more slowly. But if what holds you back is picturing the fourth dinner alone in Seville, there is a middle ground: finding people who are free on exactly those dates.

That is what TravelMatch does. You post the trip you have in mind, with a destination and dates, and people who can make those days ask to join. Or you join a trip someone else has posted. Before saying yes, you see each person's profile: their pace, their budget, the kind of accommodation they like, the age range they prefer to travel with, and your affinity percentage. The reviews on a profile can only be written by people who have actually travelled with that person. Whoever created the trip decides who comes, and once the group is formed you have a group chat, an itinerary, polls and shared expenses in one place. It is free and it does not book anything: everyone books their own flights and room.

The alternative is an organised group tour, with fixed dates and a fixed destination. It is comfortable if you do not want to organise anything, but the dates are given to you, and they rarely match a Tuesday in November. If the bigger problem is that nobody around you travels any more, start with I have no one to travel with.

Choosing by the days you have

With two or three days, one city: Seville, Málaga, Lisbon or a UK market city. Do not try two destinations in that time, especially with December daylight.

With four or five days, the Canaries at an easy pace, Granada and Seville together, or a European market capital.

With a week or more, two islands, an Andalusian loop or the long Christmas break from 25 December to 3 January.

November is two weeks away. There is still time for someone to join.

On TravelMatch you can post the November or December trip you have in mind, with the destination and dates, and let people who are free those days ask to join. You see how each person travels and what people who have travelled with them say before deciding anything. It is free.

→ Find who to go with · Free, in a minute.

Reviewed in October 2026. Temperatures and rain days from AEMET's climate normals for Gran Canaria, Málaga and Seville airports (1981-2010) and Alhambra opening hours from alhambra-patronato.es, read on 19 October 2026. Bank holidays from gov.uk, read the same day: no bank holidays in England and Wales in November 2026; Christmas Day Friday 25 December, Boxing Day substitute Monday 28 December, New Year's Day Friday 1 January 2027.