Autumn adventures: ’Tis the season for off-season travel

As travel remains complicated and long haul still largely off-limits, we’re considering places and trip timings we’d never glanced at before, says Lucy Thackray

Wales in winter is truly magical (Getty/iStock)

Manchester in drizzly October? Madrid in chilly November? Gothenburg in six-hours-of-sunlight-a-day December?

This may not sound like the most obvious travel hit list for autumn and winter, but it’s the one that’s skimmed through my mind over the past month. In fact, I spent the weekend happily checking off item one.

Over a luxurious four-day break, I wandered Manchester’s handsome redbrick streets – substantial brolly in hand – ducking into the most fabulous restaurants and warming myself in a hotel with a steaming heated pool.