Nine low-season travel destinations

The words “low-season travel” conjure up images of bitterly cold resorts in which hotels and restaurants are shuttered until the spring. In warmer climes, holidaymakers aquaplane around the lobby while staff sandbag doorways to keep the monsoon rains at bay. Instead of cultivating a golden tan we end up with foot rot. You don’t have to settle for unrelenting grey skies, though. It’s possible to get just as much out of some places once the peak season crowds have moved on.

1 LAKE BAIKAL

Booking a February trip to Siberia might bemuse your travel agent but Lake Baikal is a fascinating place to visit in the depths of winter. Temperatures hover around minus-20 degrees Celsius for so long that the ice can be two metres thick in some places and translucent turquoise waves hang in frosty suspension. The Pearl of Siberia is the world’s largest freshwater lake and besides walking and skating on the creaking, glassy surface, wilderness adventurers can sign up for husky dog sledding, cross-country skiing, ice fishing and jeep tours. There’s even a Lake Baikal Ice Marathon. And once you’ve finished pretending to be a polar explorer, soothe tired limbs in a banya, or Russian-style sauna. Every Siberian hotel and home has one.

2 SRI LANKA, EAST COAST

What Sri Lanka lacks in size, it makes up for in climate variety. Seasons are a fluid concept as weather patterns are highly localised. The palm-fringed beach resorts of the southwest are at their best from January to April but travellers to the up-and-coming east coast town of Trincomalee and surfing hot spot Arugam Bay will enjoy clear skies from May to July. This means it’s possible to swap low season for high season by simply jumping on a bus to another part of the island.