There really is no single best time to take a villa holiday. From the luminous warmth of the Kenyan coast in January to the last golden weeks of a Moroccan autumn, our Villa Collective calendar stays full all year. Here, a month-by-month guide to planning your 2027 holidays.
The Kenyan coast in January is everything a British winter is not. In Lamu, the UNESCO-listed island town built from coral stone and centuries of Swahili civilisation, the pace is slow, the light extraordinary, and the Indian Ocean warm and clear.. This is a holiday that asks very little of you and gives back considerably more.
February half term on the Kenyan coast is becoming one of the most popular windows in the Villa Collective calendar — and for good reason. Watamu and Kilifi offer some of East Africa’s most beautiful shoreline: wide, unhurried and fringed with gardens generous enough for a large family or group to spread out properly.
Spring arrives early and softly in Marrakech. March temperatures are comfortably warm without the intensity of summer – perfect for riad terraces, long mornings in the souks and evenings scented with jasmine. The city is at its most atmospheric before the summer heat takes hold, and the light is spectacular: a golden glow that tinges the rose-pink walls at every turn.
April in Tuscany is a secret that many tourist aren’t aware of. The hillsides are vivid green, the roads are quiet, the restaurants are excellent and the villas — those old stone houses with their cypress-lined drives and views that have barely changed in centuries — feel entirely yours. This is Italy at it most evocative.
May half term in the Ionian is an excellent choice. Corfu, Paxos, Lefkada and Kefalonia are at their most beautiful in May — lush, green and warm, with a sea that is clear and swimmable but not yet crowded. These are the islands that reward those who arrive a little ahead of the summer rush, and the early booking window for this week in particular fills faster than almost any other in the year.
June is the sweet spot of the European summer. In the Cyclades — Paros, Sifnos, Antiparos, Tinos, Syros — the season is fully open, the days are long and the evenings are warm enough to eat outside without a second thought. Meanwhile, Menorca in June is quietly exceptional: wilder and less visited than its Balearic neighbours, with hidden coves and a slow, unhurried character that suits the season perfectly.
July on the Greek mainland offers a different kind of summer to the islands – dramatic, deeply historical, and considerably less crowded. The Peloponnese is the obvious choice for those looking for something a little different: ancient sites, rugged coastlines and villas with the kind of views that make everything else feel secondary. In Puglia, the Adriatic is at its most brilliant in July — whitewashed towns, olive groves, and a food culture that is arguably Italy’s finest.
Peak summer, and the full breadth of the collection comes into its own. The Dodecanese, Patmos in particular, offer a more contemplative Greek island experience even at the height of August: quieter, more spiritual and extraordinarily beautiful. The Ionian hums with summer energy. Mallorca’s north coast and its hilltop villages are magnificent in this month. The Côte d’Azur remains one of the world’s great summer destinations — the light, the water and its cuisine absolutely justify its reputation.
September is the connoisseur’s month. In Provence, the vendange begins and the landscape turns golden — lavender fields giving way to the first pressing of the harvest, markets piled high with figs and tomatoes. Back in the Cyclades, the sea is at its warmest, the light is lower and softer than August, and the islands are almost entirely your own again.
October half term rewards those who planned ahead. Andalucia in autumn is at its most perfect — warm, golden and genuinely unhurried, with flamenco rhythms, whitewashed villages and a landscape that looks best in the low October light. In Umbria, the truffle season is beginning, the hillside towns are magnificent and the crowds of summer are a distant memory.
November belongs to Marrakech. The summer heat has long since passed, and what remains is warm days, cool evenings and a city that feels pulses with life.. The souks, the hammams, the rooftop dinners are at their best without the crowds and the city returns to itself.
December on the Kenyan coast is quietly spectacular — the season is fully open, the Indian Ocean is calm and warm, and the wide-garden villas of Diani and Kilifi offer something genuinely rare: Christmas or New Year somewhere beautiful, unhurried and far from the ordinary. For those who have done it once, it’s difficult to go back to your old ways.
