Solo female travel expert, focusing on travelling around a 9-5 job, getting the most bang for your buck and soft-adventure experiences.
Shoulder season travel is something I recommend to everyone. What could be better than cheap flights, cheap accommodation and best of all, having a destination all to yourself away from hoards of tourists?
When it comes to shoulder season travel, I am the Queen. From soaking up 30 degrees sunshine in Malta in October to avoiding the crowds in Prague in May (my friend went in August and said it was unbearable), I’ve done it all.
But there is a slight downside… the weather likes to mess with me.
You know those glorious photos of Lake Bled that everyone and their dog are currently posting? Yep. My experience involved being stuck in a car for the day with no ability to see Lake Bohinj or Vintgar Gorge due to extreme fog and dangerous weather conditions. When we could exit the car at Lake Bled, we almost got stuck on the island due to a torrential thunderstorm. It’s all fun and games! The next day, a girl from the hostel went and was greeted by a big beaming sun!
RELATED: Read all about my foggy storm-filled day at Lake Bled here!
Lake Como? Same thing happened. Luckily I wasn’t a photo obsessive travel blogger back then! But I can assure you that my old photos look nothing like the sunny Italian scenery you’re used to seeing!
Halstatt? Forget being able to see those gorgeous mountains, here comes the fog! That was the luckiest experience of the three however as it did brighten up eventually!
RELATED: Find out exactly what there is to do in Hallstatt here!
Should the weather affect your experience, I hear you say? No, it shouldn’t. All three times I was with great people and still had a great time. On the even brighter side, it gives me an excuse to go back (although that’s a scary prospect – I’m not sure my life is long enough to see everywhere that I want to see)!
Last year when I was planning an September trip to Bergen and the Norwegian fjords, I was told by so many sources that I was stupid for even thinking about planning a trip to Bergen outside of May – August as even some of Bergen’s biggest tourist attractions close in that time! So, I cancelled the trip.
2 weeks later on the weekend I was meant to be exploring the magical land of the fjords, Planet D post photos of Bergen on their Instagram page looking gorgeous – the caption even saying how they were experiencing freak good weather!
Do I regret it? Life’s too short or regrets, but I would I have had more fun in Norway that weekend than I did sitting at home studying? Most definitely.
Moral of the story & a message to future Danielle – don’t cancel a trip because it might not be “perfect” at that time of year. You never know what might happen. You know you’re too addicted to finding cheap flights to give it up!
What are your thoughts on travelling in shoulder season? Has the weather ever ruined your trip?
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post and all thoughts are my own.
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It was FREEEEEEZING when I recently went to Prague! But so so worth it! I think it's fine for a weekend trip but if I was to go farther afield and get bad weather id be pretty bummed 🙁 But then again, a few years ago we went to visit our old home in Cali during high season and the weather was sooo rainy and cold. So it could happen any time of year, you've just gotta go for it!!
I'm one of those people where I have to go to a certain place at a certain time (mostly to get the good pictures that you see everywhere of it haha). We usually have the worst luck with travelling in shoulder season, like the time we went to Marrakech and they'd just had flash flooding and we nearly died in the waterfall, and the whole city practically shut down because of some rain (think the way the UK shuts down when it snows). But, we had amazing weather while we were in Dubrovnik in October.
I love travelling in shoulder season – when we went on our cruise around the Med a couple years ago, it was the beginning of July and everywhere was SO packed it actually ruined our experience of Rome.
xo April
This is my first year travelling off season (normally I go in the summer but to really obscure/lesser-visited areas so very few tourists) and I have gotten SO lucky! The weather has been fantastic, everything has been super cheap & I've basically had all the big tourist spots all to myself. They all would have been perfect photo opps if I knew how to use a camera…
But with all that being said, I'm off to Lake Bled tomorrow so the weather still has time to screw me over 😉
I've never heard of the saying 'shoulder season' before BUT I'd class my Budapest trip as just that. We stayed at a 5* hotel that was absolutely incredible and I wouldn't dream of being able to stay there come the peak months. Flights, hotel and transfers to Budapest for 4 days all in was £210 which is just madness. It was SO cold, heavy snow every day which made it hard to walk anywhere and see anything BUT we had the most amazing time. I can't wait to go to Budapest again though so that a) I don't have to walk cauciouslly on ice again and b) i can actually see things!! xx
Hannatalks
It poured it down when I was in Lake Bled when I went in AUGUST, thankfully we were there for a week though so we had about 3 nice days!
I know what you mean though, I work in a school and get 3 months off in the summer…when it's winter in Australia and hurricane season in the Caribbean, I'll be going but I am worried the weather could potentially ruin it!
I think that bad weather can have an effect on your vacation whether you go in the usual season or outside of it. How the weather will be is rather unpredictable.
When I went to Japan, it was foggy, so I gave up going to Mt. Fuji to stay in Tokyo. But, we did other fun things so it made up for it. I've had friends come to visit me in Seoul in the winter and be unable to hardly step outside because of the biting cold.
Also, unfortunately, being a teacher means that I don't have as much choice on when to go places.
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