Alternative winter sun: Why surging flight prices have me sticking to short-haul this season

Hi, I’m Lucy and I’m addicted to winter sun. (All together: “Hi, Lucy.”)

This is just one of the types of holiday we got used to having prior to the pandemic, isn’t it? Picking a miserable, deepest-winter week in our diary – I like exactly a month before Christmas, when the UK is dark at 4pm, wet and cold but not yet delightfully cosy and festive – and browsing for a vivid long-haul holiday, with sunshine and swims on tap.

This was an annual ritual of mine. Until, that is, the lockdown winters of 2020 and 2021 made me go cold turkey in more ways than a Boxing Day sandwich. I had to get comfortable with those horrid British November evenings, the ones when you look up from your laptop only to see that it is already, surely, bedtime. Dark, long nights with only Bake Off and a hot chocolate to warm you up.

So this year, I thought: I’m going back to the sunshine, exactly where and when I want to. But lo! More unwelcome cold turkey awaited the month before Christmas. When I started to browse my go-to winter-sun destinations – Thailand, Mexico, the Caribbean – the flight prices were enough to make me spurt that hot chocolate from my nostrils. More than £1,000, minimum, for a 15-hour connecting flight, return, to Thailand leaving on 25 November? Over £900 for the cheapest direct return to Cancun?

Granted, I was only booking a month beforehand, but for such mainstream travel destinations, these felt staggeringly high. Browsing into my B-list choices, things weren’t much better elsewhere: Cape Town at £800 return minimum; Oman from £775. Many of these places typically have returns for sub-£600 or even £500, especially when connecting en route. Unlike most of the year outside school holidays, factoring in two to three days’ flexibility on departure and return dates didn’t seem to make things any cheaper either.

One thing’s for sure, people are travelling long-haul again. And they all seem to have been more organised than me. Capacity is one reason for the surge in prices for top winter sun spots – not every flight link has returned following certain destinations reopening after Covid, meaning less choice and competition. Another is simply demand – the thousands of others who had the same thought as me, but earlier. They smartly booked up many of the seats jetting off for warmer climes, after two winters of staying put.

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According to Laura Lindsay, a trends and destination expert at Skyscanner, it’s not that flights to everywhere have rocketed; more that I’m an extremely basic traveller who is playing the favourites. “Current pricing is reflecting the continued return of travel and in the short term we are likely to see continued fluctuations as many take their first trip abroad in two years,” she tells me.

“The primary driver for the cost of an airfare has always been demand and supply, and traveller demand has returned much faster than anticipated by the industry. Some routes are already seeing higher interest than pre-pandemic.” Her biggest tip? “Our data shows those who are flexible on both dates and locations will unlock the best value deals available.”

I should say at this point, I’m something of a winter sun purist. When people tell me they’re going to Cyprus or the Canary Islands in midwinter, I scoff. That sort of mild winter sun is not what I get on a plane for: I want blazing temperatures, sea-tousled hair, late nights without a jacket in sight. (Yes, I have considered moving abroad permanently, but all of my people are here – not to mention my preferred sense of humour.)

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I start to widen my destination radar. Where else is warm and intriguing? Kenya has returns from £600, and reportedly gorgeous east-coast beaches (alas, hours and hours’ drive from the capital) as well as safari. Would Abu Dhabi (£565) feel pretty enough for a winter sun trip? Perhaps, but it may not have enough to enjoy away from the poolside over seven whole days.

I realise how much my idea of winter sun is tied up in far-flung climes and pristine beaches. Is that really what I’m craving? Or is it simply a change of scene, with warmer days a bonus? I lower my expectations and narrow my circle to within the four- or five-hour flight mark. Tenerife is mild, but not scorching, in late November – up to 26 degrees in the daytime – but undoubtedly the leading budget option, thanks to Wizz Air flights from £50 return. There are certainly some lovely hotels in which to while away a week with a stack of books. But part of the Thailand-Mexico tropical allure is seeing the odd temple or historical site. Egypt’s Red Sea coast also gets a good browse, but I’ve been and, though the sea was delightful, the resorts felt a bit low quality and identikit for what I want this winter.

As I search the warmer-than-here, cheaper-than-long-haul options skirting continental Europe and the Med, I decide I may as well trade off some daily degrees and rays for some culture and prettiness. I opt for Marrakech – 23 or 24C peak on a good day, but with enough culture, beauty and spa fun to distract me on a chilly one. Although it’s not quite the travel teleportation I’d dreamed of: stepping onto a plane in drizzly, dark London and off in bright, balmy-breezed coast.

Admittedly, the booking joy is part £100-return bargain, part destination curiosity. But the closer I get to my departure date, the more excited I become: I’ve always wanted to go to the Yves Saint Laurent Museum. In a spa-rich and booze-critical setting, I could have a little DIY health retreat. I could do my Christmas shopping in the souks! But, most of all, I’m delighted not to be overstretching my budget in a winter of soaring energy bills and rising inflation. Even for this winter sun nut, splurging thousands on a “proper” escape is simply not worth it.