Where to go in October
Want to know where to go in October? For sun, try Botswana or China or for amazing natural colours try New England, Canada or the forests of Asia
Aah, season of mist and mellow fruitfulness... Well, in the northern hemisphere at least, where summer heat turns to cooler climes and rusty autumn colours (good for crowd-free trekking in the Mediterranean).
In the southern hemisphere, spring is on the way (check out the wildflowers of South Africa’s Namaqualand), while many tropical nations – notably India and Nepal – emerge from monsoons and reopen for business.
Events & festivals
BEER – Celebrate beer across the world: Munich’s Oktoberfest is Germany’s biggest (though other towns will host smaller celebrations); for an African alternative, the Windhoek Oktoberfest sees Namibia hail ale. Or go to Canada for the Kitchener and Waterloo Ontario Oktoberfest.
WORLD MUSIC – The Rajasthan International Folk Festival sees world musicians gather at Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh Fort while Malawi’s superb Lake of Stars bash offers DJs and bands on the shores of the Lake Malawi.
FOOD – Go mad for Mexico’s national dish at the San Pedro Mole Festival, when the locals of San Pedro Atocpán cook up delectable dishes of the chilli-chocolate sauce. Elsewhere autumnal forests sprout many mushrooms, from the woodlands of the UK to the hillsides of Taiwan (where Ani guides can show you fluorescent fungi). In Italy it’s time for truffle-hunting.
CULTURE – Wince as the devout of Phuket, Thailand, impale themselves with knives and other sharp items at the annual Vegetarian Festival. For something more sedate, come over cultural at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in Australia, head to Budapest, Hungary, for the start of the new opera and theatre seasons or take to the streets of downtown Lima, Peru, for the purple-wearing procession of the Lord of Miracles fiesta.
Wildlife
POLAR BEAR – Head to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada (the ‘Polar Bear Capital of the World) for trips out in tundra buggies to see the endangered beasts up-close.
MARINE LIFE – The killer whales are just starting to pass by Norway’s Tysfjord (the world’s most extreme snorkelling). Southern right whales can be seen from the clifftops of Hermanus, South Africa, and calving off Peninsula Valdes, Argentina. Or swim with whale sharks off the Seychelles.
OTHER WILDLIFE – Madagascar is warm and dry, perfect for lemur spotting. In Sri Lanka elephants congregate – colourfully decorated at Kandy’s Perahera Festival and gloriously wild at the Minneriya Gathering. Millions of bats migrate at Zambia’s Kasanka National Park while 100,000 common cranes populate the Great Plains of Hungary.
Activities
TREKKING – Milder climes are great for getting outdoors – try Sardinia, Corsica, Turkey and Cyprus for European trails without the tourists. Plus this is peak trekking season in the Himalaya – with clear skies and good temperatures. The monsoon has also left India, Nepal and southern China, making travel much more comfortable.
RAFTING – October is the end of the Colorado, USA rafting season; likewise for many of Peru’s rivers. Nepal’s season is just starting, and the rivers of New Zealand begin to fill with paddlers.
DUNE-BASHING – Relenting temperatures open up North Africa and the Middle East once more, great for camel-trekking in the Moroccan or Tunisian Sahara, meeting the desert-swelling Dogon of Mali or sleeping out in Wadi Rum Jordan.
Natural phenomena
FALL COLOURS – Though well-known and undeniably spectacular, the USA’s New England region doesn’t have the monopoly on leaf-peeping; you can see burning red-orange-gold forests worldwide: neighbouring Canada puts on a good show, while in Asia try the forests of Japan and South Korea.
EVERLASTING STORM – It occurs all year round, but October seems the perfect time to pay a visit to Venezuela's never-ending storms. Located on the mouth of the Catatumbo River, this natural phenomena is a cloud-to-cloud lightening storm that forms a voltage arch more than five kilometres high during 140 to 160 nights a year, for ten hours a night, and bolts can be seen as many as 280 times an hour.
The weather is nice in...
FRANCISTOWN, Botswana 17-33°C
DAMASCUS, Syria 13-28°C
TRIPOLI, Libya 19-28°C
WHUZHOU, China 20-28°C
BRISBANE, Australia 17-28°C
Temperatures are cooling in the northern hemisphere, meaning it's time to take advantage of the fleeting hours of sunlight by visiting romantic Tuscany, Italy with warm temperatures of 20°C or the Canary Islands for a toasty 27°C. Alternatively, in the south spring is on its way, making it perfect climate-wise, for a tango in Buenos Aires, Argentina, or a dive in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.
Conventional wisdom says:
Solo travel is lonely travel.
Wanderlust says:
Travelling solo doesn't mean travelling alone – share your company with other travellers or friendly locals at Munich's Oktoberfest in Germany.