Where to go on holiday in September 2015

Barcelona is in full flair during Festes de la Mercè

Creative Commons / Stasiu Tomczak

For city slickers…

Short haul: Barcelona, Spain

If you want to see Barcelona in full flair, it explodes into life during Festes de la Mercè, a 300-year-old fiesta that celebrates the city’s Patron Saint Our Lady of Mercy.

The highlight is always the Correfoc (Fire Run), where fire-breathing dragons and devils wielding sparklers prance down the streets at dusk. Fix your face in flames and stand along Via Laietana for the finest fireside views.

If you can’t stand the heat, the incredible Castellers (human towers) are worth the flight price alone as they tower towards the top of Barcelona Cathedral. Still bored? Parades of mythical creatures and papier mâché giants will wind around the streets as folk dancing, free concerts and projection shows fill the city’s fringes.

Devils light up Barcelona for Festes de la Mercè
Creative Commons / Gerard Reyes

Long haul: Brisbane, Australia

Just because it’s September, it doesn’t mean your sunnies need to go into a seasonal slumber. Make like the Australians and welcome in (their) spring with the Brisbane Festival, an annual extravaganza of the arts that takes over the city.

This three-week celebration runs from 5-26 September with more theatre, music, dance and opera than you can shake a circus stilt at. With everything from Macbeth restructured around Congolese warlords and Singaporean string quartets to 3D illusions and hip hop politics, over a million culture vultures will tap, swing and wail their way through one of the country’s biggest art events.

What’s more, it’s all propped up by Arcadia, a huge waterside village brimming with food trucks, bars, picnic spaces and ad-hoc performances. Don’t end it anywhere other than Sunsuper Riverfire (26 September), where the sky comes to life with a gobsmacking firework display.

Colourful fireworks explode over Brisbane during Sunsuper Riverfire
MegForbesPhotography / Thinkstock

For beach bums…

Short haul: Guernsey

Think Guernsey and you’ll conjure up thoughts of beautiful beaches, Victor Hugo poetry and miniature churches (Google 'The Little Chapel'). Now though, you can add the delicious-looking Guernsey International Food Festival to that list.

The main course will run from 18-27 September, as St Peter Port and the rest of the island will cook up a range of events that will send visitors home with potbellies.

From cook-off challenges and Channel Island cider to cocktails and cinema-inspired snacks, the island will go chef-ing crazy for food. Tours and farmers markets will showcase the island’s finest, but prepare to put on a stone or two.

Guernsey will serve up an International Food Festival in September
Visit Guernsey

Long haul: Virginia Beach, Virginia

September might mean autumn, but Virginia Beach visitors won’t want to put away their flip-flops just yet, not with the Neptune Festival on the horizon.

Whether you’re into devilish seafood and delicious craft beer or daring surfing or delightful symphony orchestras, this annual celebration of the sea will toast the end of the summer from 25-27 September.

Shops, galleries and free concerts are scattered along the boardwalk with everyone from the raucous Spin Doctors to country-rockers The Marshall Tucker Band testing out the sound system.

If they don’t get the ticker going, there’s always a beach volleyball tournament and 8K (5-mile) and 5K (3-mile) runs to take part in. Add in colourful street parades, art shows and yacht races, and summer won’t have had a send off like this in years.

Virginia Beach will come to life during the annual Neptune Festival
Creative Commons / Jeff Futo

For thrill seekers…

Short haul: Surrey, England

It’s not clear whether you’ll get to lamp a producer, but it’s time to buckle your seatbelt and hold onto your helmet as Top Gear returns – with a track experience in Surrey, England.

Sunday drivers need not apply as piston heads get the chance to hammer a Reasonably Priced Car around the hallowed test track like Richard Hammond or get the thrill ride of a lifetime with the Stig.

If that wasn’t enough, an off-road course means you’ll have to out-manoeuvre tanks, climb vertigo-inducing hills and plough through muddy fields. Best of all: you don’t have to be a 45-year-old dad to enjoy it all as there are experiences for 11 to 17 year olds too – provided you can see over the steering wheel.

Top Gear fans can zoom around the show's famed Test Track
Top Gear Track Experience

Long haul: Cape Town, South Africa

Best way to see a UNESCO World Heritage Site? Via four hours of adrenaline pumping zip-lining, of course. Grab your camera and warm clothes, but leave your fear of heights at home, as you soar over the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve in South Africa.

Cape Canopy Tours can show you the massive fynbos-covered mountains and rushing waterfalls of this incredible landscape via harness and sturdy steel cable. Their course features 13 platforms, 11 slides and even a giant suspension bridge.

Once you’re unclipped (and your heart is back out of your mouth), trips finish with a 1km (0.6-mile) hike to Sunbird Café for a light lunch.

Zip through Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve, South Africa
Cape Canopy Tour