Where to Go When You Cannot Decide

If you want warm sea late in the year

The Mediterranean holds its heat into October, and the water in Crete, the Dodecanese, Cyprus and southern Turkey is often warmer in late September than in June.

The Algarve stays swimmable into October too, and prices there drop sharply once the Portuguese school year begins.

If you want mountains without altitude

The Dolomites give you spectacular scenery at 1,500 to 2,500 metres with cable cars and refuges, so nobody has to climb 1,200 metres to see anything.

Madeira, the Scottish Highlands and Slovenia's Julian Alps offer the same effect at even lower elevations, with sea or lakes nearby.

• Warm water in autumn: Crete, Cyprus, Algarve, southern Turkey
• Big views, low effort: Dolomites with lifts, Madeira levadas, Lake Bled
• Cheap in winter: Krakow, Porto, Valencia, Naples, Budapest
• Good in rain: London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Bologna's porticoes

If the budget is the binding constraint

Portugal outside Lisbon, inland Spain, southern Italy, Poland and Greece off the famous islands all deliver a great deal per euro. Within them, the specific choice matters less than staying put and eating lunch as the main meal.

December to February in any of these is the cheapest travel in Europe, with short days and mild weather in the south.

If you are tired rather than curious

Choose one base, somewhere with a short transfer, and book it for the whole trip. A quiet town on the coast or in the hills with a couple of good restaurants and one bus route is not a failure of imagination.

The best trip is occasionally the one where you read four books and learn the name of a cat.

How to break the tie

Pick the option with the shortest travel day. Over a week, that decision compounds into more time and better moods than any other factor on the list.

And if two options remain genuinely equal, take the cheaper one and spend the difference on staying longer.