October, at the world’s best hotels.

Warm seas and golden light after the season ends.

October seas are still warm and the summer crowds are a memory.

Late season: the sea is at its warmest and the crowds are gone.

October seas are still warm and the summer crowds are a memory.

Autumn mists and the lake's grand villas in their quietest season.

Autumn mists and the lake's grand villas in their quietest season.

The sea holds its summer warmth and the yachts thin out with the crowds.

Late season: the sea is at its warmest and the crowds are gone.

Autumn mists and the lake's grand villas in their quietest season.

Autumn mists and the lake's grand villas in their quietest season.

Quiet island, warm water, open tables.

October seas are still warm and the summer crowds are a memory.

Late season: the sea is at its warmest and the crowds are gone.

Late season: the sea is at its warmest and the crowds are gone.

The sea stays warm enough to swim well into October while ferry crowds and room rates fall away before the island's hotels shut for winter.

September seas at their warmest, meltemi winds gone, tables easy to find.

The sea stays warm enough to swim well into October while ferry crowds and room rates fall away before the island's hotels shut for winter.

The sea stays warm enough to swim well into October while ferry crowds and room rates fall away before the island's hotels shut for winter.

October seas are still warm and the summer crowds are a memory.

Autumn Provence: vendange, markets, and hilltop villages returned to themselves.

The vendange and golden plane trees, minus the summer set.

The Adriatic stays warm long after the August crowds have gone.

Warm sea, soft light, and Oia's lanes finally quiet.

Larch season: the Dolomites turn gold and the trails empty out.

Autumn mists and the lake's grand villas in their quietest season.

Golden autumn light, the olive harvest and the start of white-truffle season, with mild days and far fewer visitors.

Late season: the sea is at its warmest and the crowds are gone.

Late season: the sea is at its warmest and the crowds are gone.

Warm sea, soft light, and Oia's lanes finally quiet.

The islands after the season: warm water, olive harvest, empty coves.

Warm sea, soft light, and Oia's lanes finally quiet.

The Alentejo's quiet half-year: olive harvest, starlit skies, fireplaces lit.

The Alentejo's quiet half-year: olive harvest, starlit skies, fireplaces lit.

Autumn Provence: vendange, markets, and hilltop villages returned to themselves.

The gentle end of the season: swimming into late October.

Heather on the hills and stalking-season stillness in Braemar.

The Adriatic stays warm long after the August crowds have gone.

Warm sea, soft light, and Oia's lanes finally quiet.

Autumn Provence: vendange, markets, and hilltop villages returned to themselves.

Larch season: the Dolomites turn gold and the trails empty out.

The quiet months in spa country: thermal baths and three-star cooking without the summer cure crowd.

Green-season Niseko: alpine hiking and onsen at a fraction of powder-season rates.

The shoulder between monsoons: calm seas on the way in, the archipelago near-empty.

Clear autumn light on the inland sea and its art islands.

Green-season Angkor: moats full, rice paddies electric green, temples uncrowded.

The green season in Lanna country: dramatic skies, full rivers, empty temples.

Between monsoons: calm seas and the islands at their emptiest.

Autumn Tangier: mild straits weather and the summer set long gone.

Fall on the ranch: golden larch and cottonwoods, prime fly-fishing water, the valley at its quietest after summer.

Once the foliage crowds clear out, lakeside lodges drop to their lowest rates of the year and you get crisp, silent trails and firelit evenings before the holiday rush.

Warm sea and desert storms light — the quiet late-summer window.

Warm sea and desert storms light — the quiet late-summer window.

Warm sea and desert storms light — the quiet late-summer window.

The quiet green months — warm sea, brief rains, beaches emptied out.

The quiet green months — warm sea, brief rains, beaches emptied out.

The ghost town before the snow: golden aspens, steaming pools, empty trails.

Green season in the rainforest: rivers full, wildlife loud, lodges at their gentlest rates.

Warm sea and desert storms light — the quiet late-summer window.

The quiet months: afternoon rains, empty ruins, the peninsula at its greenest.

Green-season jungle and warm Pacific swells, the resort at its quietest.

Once October arrives the desert heat has gone and the valley becomes the place people picture: eighty-degree days, cool evenings, mid-century streets worth walking, and rates that have not yet climbed into the winter season. It runs until the Christmas surge.

Once October arrives the desert heat has gone and the valley becomes the place people picture: eighty-degree days, cool evenings, mid-century streets worth walking, and rates that have not yet climbed into the winter season. It runs until the Christmas surge.

Late-summer Baja: warm Pacific swells and the desert before the winter crowd.

Patagonian spring: guanaco calves, wildflowers, and the park before peak trekking season.

Cartagena's quietest months, before the December high season ignites.

Aurora season begins over the fjords, the lodge at its calmest.

North Atlantic autumn — berry barrens, storms, and firewood.

The green season under the Pitons — brief showers and the island unhurried.

The green season: warm seas, passing rains, the island near-private.

Golden early autumn is prime hiking and hot-air-balloon weather in the Saanenland, and summer rates ease before the hotels close mid-October.

Spring shoulder keeps Arequipa's trademark sunshine and clear volcano views while high-season crowds and prices ease off.