Winter sun destinations: Traveller's Guide, from Caribbean bargains and Egypt to cruise news and US

There are plenty of affordable places to explore if you want to jet away from the cold. From cruises and birdwatching to Caribbean beaches, Simon Calder looks at the options

Beach beautiful: Goa is cheaper if you avoid Christmas (Rex)

Autumn darkens the skies, and also the mood. Even before the clocks go back, daylight dwindles rapidly. For example, in Manchester today, the sun rises at 7.16am and sets at 6.39pm. Should the city skies be clear (which they are not always), that adds up to 11 hours and 23 minutes of sun. By next weekend, though, the length of the day will fall by half an hour. By the time of the winter solstice, you will get four hours less daylight. So, what you need is some sun.

And you need not spend a fortune to get it. Between the autumn and spring equinoxes anywhere south of Britain offers more daylight, and often a more benign climate. The ideas here can provide winter sun for as little as £41 a day, including flights and accommodation.

The de facto capital of the Côte d'Azur, Nice, has long been a favourite winter escape. It has an alluring old quarter and the appealing Promenade des Anglais – as well as big-city amenities that include some of France's best restaurants and art collections. You can fly from a wide range of UK airports. Jet2 Holidays (0800 408 0778; jet2holidays.com) allows you to start November in style, with three nights at the Hotel Acanthe in Nice from for £219 per person, including flights from Manchester on 31 October and breakfast (based on two sharing, as all these prices are).

The deeper winter becomes, the further you need to go to maximise the chance of fine weather. Spain's Costa del Sol, southern Italy, Malta and Tunisia are excellent Mediterranean locations, but if you go further south the Atlantic is a good choice. In the band of latitude between 28 and 32 degrees north, several options involve flights of four hours or less: the Canary Islands, Madeira and southern Morocco. Each has much to recommend it: the spectacular landscapes of Madeira, the winning combination of culture and scenery in Morocco, and the reliable resorts of the Canaries.

Cosmos (0843 227 1464; cosmos.co.uk) offers the first week in December at the Aguamar Apartments in Los Cristianos, Tenerife, for £287 including daytime flights with Monarch from Birmingham. That works out at £41 per day.

The two West African options for combining a tropical location with the appealing economics of a mid-haul package holiday are Gambia and the Cape Verde Islands. The former British possession of Gambia is half way between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator, and six hours from Gatwick. The nation is surrounded on three sides by Senegal, but it is the fourth that commands all the attention: the Atlantic shore. The beaches are excellent, and while hotels and restaurants are adrift from European standards there is a fascinating hinterland to explore which offers some superb birdwatching opportunities.

The Gambia Experience (0845 330 2060; gambia.co.uk) is selling a week at the Kombo Beach Hotel in the leading resort of Kotu for £599, including flights from Gatwick (with a 20kg luggage allowance) and breakfast. The price applies to many departures through the winter.

Cape Verde comprises 10 volcanic islands emerging from the ocean about 350 miles off the coast. The former Portuguese possession is slightly north of Gambia but still well within the tropics. The vast majority of British visitors aim for the island of Sal – which "makes Mars look fertile", as guidebook author Aisling Irwin wrote in The Independent Traveller, but has lots of tourism infrastructure in the main resort of Santa Maria. Thomas Cook (0843 506 8870; thomascook.com) is selling one-week Airtours packages for £410 in early December, including flights from Gatwick (with 15kg of luggage) and accommodation, with breakfast, at the Hotel Pontao.

Cape Verde is an excellent example of how a search for winter sun can embody much more than just a "fly and flop" holiday. This outpost grew rich as an Atlantic staging post for the slave trade. Today, you can discover landscapes ranging from "brooding volcano to flat desert, and from verdant, mist-strewn mountains to panoramic white and abandoned beaches," says Irwin. In January and February, the winds draw windsurfers from all over the world to Sal and Boa Vista. At any time of year, divers can explore lava tubes and the shipwreck-strewn ocean floor. Cape Verde can also offer sightings of the raso lark and the frigatebird for twitchers, and provides serious big-game fishing for blue marlin.

Winter sun-plus-adventure is available in many more distant destinations, with the deep south of the planet the most extreme. Exodus has a three-week hiking trip through New Zealand , taking in the extraordinary landscapes of both islands. Departures on 10 January or 7 February next year cost £5,489. The price includes international flights, internal transport, guiding and most meals. Single travellers can avoid supplements by sharing with someone of the same gender.

Ramblers Worldwide (01707 331133; ramblersholidays.co.uk) has a 12-day trip departing on 26 February that combines the Falkland Islands and Chile, and features some of the planet's rawest terrain. The price of £4,195 includes flights, guides and most meals.

Finally, if you can avoid Christmas, then doing so will save you a fortune. Monarch is offering a week in Goa, departing 20 December, for £1,330 including flights from Gatwick and accommodation (with breakfast) at the Lui Beach Hotel, but if you make it new year instead, the price drops to £1,010; go a week later, and it's down to £671, barely half the Christmas price.

Long legs

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has the "legs" to extend winter-sun options and reduce travel time. Yet, so far, none of the UK operators – British Airways, Thomson Airways and soon Virgin Atlantic – has shown much interest in flying non-stop to Bali, Hawaii or Tahiti. The "new" destinations unlocked by Thomson's ultra-long-range jet are, however, fine winter-sun spots.

Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast used to be an exhausting journey with a refuelling stop en route, but the Dreamliner turns it into a single 6,000-mile hop. Leaving Gatwick in January, a one-week all-inclusive holiday at the Riu Vallarta hotel in Nueva Vallarta costs £749.

The Thai island of Phuket is about 6,300 miles from Gatwick, and previously required a tedious connection in Bangkok. With Thomson's non-stop flight, a week's B&B at the Phuket Ocean Resort on Karon Beach costs £862 in January.

Mauritius (6,050 miles) has long had non-stop scheduled flights from the UK, but this weekend Thomson is putting in the first charters. A 4 January departure to the Veranda Grand Baie costs £1,212pp, including flights, transfers and B&B.

Christmas warmth

Air fares are at their highest for departures shortly before Christmas, but can fall dramatically on Christmas Eve, allowing you to make a great escape and wake up on 25 December somewhere exotic. With Expedia, using Emirates' non-stop from Manchester, you can arrive in Dubai just after 7am on Christmas morning, and stay until the afternoon of New Year's Eve at the Splendor Aparthotel in the city centre, for £769 (room only).

Iberia will take you from Heathrow to Rio via Madrid (with British Airways UK-Spain sectors) for £808 return, leaving Christmas Eve and returning New Year's Eve. Fares for dates on either side are hundreds of pounds higher.

Virgin Holidays has a week's B&B in the colonial-style River Manor in Stellenbosch for £1,911, leaving 23 December on its Heathrow-Cape Town flights. By comparison, the flights alone cost £1,608 - and the hotel is "sold out" to individual guests.

Cuba is full of interest away from the resorts

Caribbean bargains

For sheer value, the two big nations of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean offer better value than the French and British islands. Cuba and the Dominican Republic are full of interest away from the resorts.

Journey Latin America (020 3603 7278; journeylatinamerica.co.uk) has a 15-day group trip called Parakeet: Cuba beyond the Beach. The trip, departing on 4 December, is available for £2,478; there are also several dates in the New Year.

You fly non-stop to Havana from Gatwick with Virgin Atlantic, then take a domestic hop to the eastern end of the island and visit most of the worthwhile locations along the length of the country. Accommodation is in hotels and casas particulares – the Cuban take on B&B. The firm warns that "many of the hotels have seen better days".

The Dominican Republic has some fascinating colonial history, too, but the vast majority of holidays in the country feature all-inclusive resorts.

First Choice, the all-inclusive sister brand to Thomson, has a week over Christmas in Puerto Plata for £1,195pp for a family of four, flying from Manchester aboard the 787 Dreamliner on 22 December.

P&O from Barbados: You are only about eight hours in the air from the UK to Barbados and are taken straight from the plane to the port for 14 nights of island hopping.

Cruise news

"The best place for a winter sun cruise is the Caribbean," says Jacqui Ridler of the Luxury Cruise Company (0800 883 0411; theluxurycruisecompany.com). Lots of cruise lines sail from Florida, most of which can be packaged together to make a cruise-and- stay holiday.

"My personal choice, though, is P&O from Barbados. You are only about eight hours in the air from the UK to Barbados and are taken straight from the plane to the port for 14 nights of island hopping. On 6 December on Ventura, the price is from £1,149 including flights.

For culture and a more relaxed journey, an alternative is a Vietnam and Cambodia river cruise. The weather is especially beautiful in January and February when you can cruise the Mekong in style with APT (0800 012 6683; aptouring.co.uk). Book by the end of October for a "companion flies free" deal. A two-week trip from Saigon to Siem Reap works out at £1,765. It offers two nights in Saigon with a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a Mekong River Cruise and two nights in Siem Reap, where you can enjoy the sunrise at Angkor Wat, including meals and select drinks on board, sightseeing and tips.

US: some like it hot

Thanks to intense competition between airlines across the Atlantic, North America is well worth considering – as long as you aim for the south-west of the US.

The state capital of Arizona, Phoenix, stands out at one of the sunniest places on earth – and provides easy access to great sights such as the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is refreshingly empty in winter. Or fly in to San Diego, whose claim to have the finest climate in the world is easy to believe. Some like it hot at the Hotel del Coronado (001 619 435 6611; hoteldel.com) just south of the city, where the 1959 Marilyn Monroe film was shot. In the city centre, the new Andaz San Diego (001 619 849 1234; sandiego.andaz.hyatt.com) is the coolest hotel in town.

British Airways (0844 493 0787; ba.com) flies daily from Heathrow to both Phoenix and San Diego. The airline offers good package deals, such as £1,524 for a week at the Andaz – though you will have to pay extra for breakfast on the rooftop.

Egyptian escape

The parameters for choosing any winter-sun destination are distance, cost, weather and interest. There's a strong case for selecting Egypt as the country that best combines them all. You can fly on low-cost airlines from Gatwick and Manchester to Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea coast, or take a more extensive trip along the Nile using Egyptair's links from Heathrow. The carrier (0844 822 1110; egyptair.com) has two flights a day to Cairo, and one a week (Monday) to and from Luxor.

In January, a circuit flying from Heathrow to Luxor, then to the capital, and from Cairo back to London costs £467. Hotels are widely available at good prices, and New Year on the Nile is a joy.

For a Red Sea escape, the value this winter is exceptional. Flexible Trips, an offshoot of Thomas Cook (01733 224 800; thomascook.com) has a week in Sharm El Sheikh for £241, including flights from Gatwick and B&B at the Falcon Hills Hotel.

The Foreign Office has placed part of Egypt off limits, however, warning: "We believe that terrorists continue to plan attacks. Attacks could be indiscriminate and could occur without prior warning."