Where is hot in October, when summer leaves Europe

October is a month of reversals. In Britain the clocks go back and the heating goes on. Across the southern Mediterranean and North Africa, the heat that made July and August hard work eases into long, warm, golden days. Some of the most rewarding places to go in October are the ones that are too hot to enjoy in high summer. Further afield, the tropics are coming out of their rainy seasons, though not all at the same speed.

Morocco, from the cities to the dunes

Morocco is the obvious choice for October warmth within a few hours' flight of Britain. The summer heat in Marrakech and Fes, which can be fierce, has gone. The days are warm and sunny, the evenings comfortable, and the desert, which is impossible in midsummer, becomes a pleasure. In the Sahara the days are warm and the nights cool and very clear.

Explore Worldwide's Upgraded Morocco: Imperial Cities, Mountains and the Sahara Desert, fourteen nights, takes the full sweep of the country. It runs from Casablanca and Rabat on the Atlantic coast to the blue-washed town of Chefchaouen in the Rif mountains, the Roman ruins of Volubilis and the medieval medina of Fes. It then crosses the Atlas to the dunes of Merzouga and returns by the Todra Gorge, Skoura and the fortified village of Aït Benhaddou to Ouirgane and Marrakech. October is one of its months, and probably the best of them.

Fes is the heart of the trip for many people. Its old medina, Fes el-Bali, is one of the largest car-free urban areas in the world, a maze of lanes, mosques, madrasas and workshops behind medieval walls, where goods still travel by donkey and handcart. Its tanneries, with their honeycomb of dye pits, are best seen from a terrace above. On the far side of the Atlas, the fortified village of Aït Benhaddou, a cluster of earthen kasbahs on a hillside above a river, is a World Heritage Site and has appeared in a good many films. October light suits the earthen colours of the south particularly well.

Following the sun across the Atlantic

For a slower way to chase the warmth, there is the old route of the sailing ships: south from Europe on the trade winds to the Caribbean. Ambassador's Atlantic Horizons and Caribbean Discovery, eighteen nights from London Tilbury in October and November, calls at Amsterdam, Vigo for Santiago de Compostela, and Santa Cruz de La Palma in the Canaries. It then crosses to the Caribbean, with calls including Barbados, St Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, St Kitts and Curaçao.

The point of a voyage like this is the change in the weather along the way. You leave England in autumn, and each day at sea is a little warmer, until you arrive in the islands. Early in the season, the Caribbean can still have showers, and the official hurricane season runs until the end of November. Itineraries can be changed if a storm threatens, which is worth bearing in mind.

The Indian Ocean and Kerala

Further east, October is a transitional month. In the Maldives, the south-west monsoon is ending and the dry north-east monsoon is not yet fully established, so there are more showers than in January or February. But the sea is warm and the water is clear. G Adventures' Maldives Dhoni Cruise, six nights by traditional boat among the local islands of the Vaavu atoll, starts its season in October.

In Kerala, the long south-west monsoon has passed by October and the land is at its greenest. The retreating monsoon still brings some rain, often in afternoon downpours, but the hills are cool and the tea estates are particularly lush. Explore Worldwide's Walking in Kerala, ten nights, walks in the Western Ghats around Munnar, including Meesapulimala Peak and the Rhodo Valley, and around Thekkady and Periyar National Park. It also visits Kochi and the backwaters around Alleppey and West Chennamkary. October is one of its three months, alongside November and March.

October will not be as reliably dry as February in the tropics. But for anyone who missed the summer, or wants a second one, it is a good month to find it.