Click, pack and go: our pick of this week’s last-minute travel deals

So: on the one hand, national rail strikes are imminent and British Airways is grounded again. On the other, the clocks are about to go forward, marking a real end to winter. Let’s look on the bright side, and assess how to make the next few weeks a “spring of content”, rather than one of fractious industrial relations and blighted Easter holidays.

Start with Morocco, where you can warm to the late deal offered by Luxury Holidays Direct ( www.luxuryholidaysdirect.com) which is offering four nights for the price of three at Mazagan Beach Resort. The price of £599 includes return flights with Royal Air Maroc, private transfers from Casablanca airport and B&B accommodation. The resort opened last year and includes an 18-hole golf course, a seven kilometre stretch of beach and eight restaurants.

Travel City Direct ( www.travelcitydirect.com) is offering a special low-season price on visits to Antigua. For £499 per person (based on two sharing) you get return flights from Gatwick and seven nights at Antigua’s Halcyon Cove resort. Price is based on 4-15 June departures.

Alternatively, if you’d rather spend your time on a Mediterranean rather than a Caribbean island, ebookers ( www.ebookers.com) is offering five nights B&B in the three-star St Julian’s Bay Hotel in Malta for £343 per person including return flights from, departing 28 April 2010. Leaving on the same day, but to an entirely different sort of destination, ebookers is also offering five nights in Beijing for £518 per person, staying at the four-star Golden Palace Silver Street Hotel, and including return flights from Heathrow.

No sign of industrial action on cruise ships: a seven-night Middle East cruise booked through cruise118.com is just £629 per person, including flights from Heathrow. Departing on 15 April, the trip starts in Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt, then calls at Aqaba (Jordan), Sokhna (Cairo) and Safaga (Luxor) before returning to Sharm-el-Sheikh.

Travelling with children? For £1,279 a family of three can spend a week at the five-star Fuerteventura hotel if they book through Sovereign Luxury Holidays ( www.sovereign.com). Flights are from Gatwick on 5 May, with access to the airport lounge and private transfers included.

Finally, what do you get when you cross a piece of cheese with a volcano? Find out on a seven-night family adventure in Italy with Explore ( www.explore.co.uk). The price of £1,065 per person includes flights from Gatwick, all transportation, seven nights B&B and the services of a tour leader. (Departing 3 April. Minimum age seven.) Highlights include peering inside the crater of Vesuvius, hikes along the Amalfi Coast and helping out on a buffalo farm – including producing fresh mozzarella cheese. The base is a small hotel in the cliff-top town of Sorrento... which is about as far from the cancelled 7.43 from Clapham Junction as you need to be.