Shoulder season starts to rival summer peak, lastminute.com booking data reveals

Autumn escapes expand almost seven times faster than summer getaways

A shoulder season surge in holiday bookings this year means that autumn breaks are now growing nearly seven times faster than the traditional summer getaway, data released by European OTA lastminute.com has revealed.

Departure growth year on year at lastminute.com was up 7% in September, 12% in October and 23% in November, with November becoming the fastest growing month of 2025.  

Shoulder season travel - which lastminute.com classifies as travel in September, October and November - now accounts for 19% of annual trips, and has reached 58% of the size of the summer peak.

The data covers package holiday bookings across lastminute.com’s core European markets of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.  

The majority (60%) of shoulder season travel are beach breaks, confirming that holidaymakers continue to make an active choice to avoid the heat of high summer. The remainder are city escapes. 

Bookings to London surged 30% year on year in the week when Radiohead played their anticipated London shows in late November. 

Alessandro Petazzi, CEO at lastminute.com, said: “The trend of shoulder season travel is here to stay. We are seeing travellers extend the summer well into the autumn, with November seeing the biggest growth in departures of 2025.  

“We are also seeing travellers favour shorter but more frequent getaways, which is accelerating the shoulder season surge. At lastminute.com we are well placed to meet travellers’ growing demand for flexibility and personalisation throughout the year.”  

The top five destinations for holidaymakers from the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain for the period September-November 2025 are Mallorca; Tenerife; Crete; Amsterdam Greater Area and Barcelona Greater Area.

The company will release its next Travel Horizons report early in 2026.