1 Join the locals in Italy's South Tyrol for the annual Torggelen chestnut and wine festival. You'll visit farms and inns at the end of the grape harvest to sample young wine, served with roasted chestnuts and traditional food. The Waldhotel Tann (tann.it) near Bolzano has a seven-night festival package from 13 October-10 November, including half-board accommodation, a guided hike along a chestnut trail, a gala dinner, a bath with chestnut oil in the hotel spa and an evening of music making, from £270pp. Ryanair (ryanair.com) flies from London Stansted to Verona Brescia from £10 each way.
2 Once thick with acres of vineyards, the Parisian neighbourhood of Montmartre has hosted an annual Grape Harvest Festival since 1937. This year's festival, on 6 October, will see wine growers, experts and enthusiasts gather for a day of tasting and celebration, a parade and entertainment. On the same night Paris will also celebrate Nuit Blanche, when its museums, monuments, places of worship, parks, and gardens stay open from dusk until dawn. Kirker Holidays (020 7593 2282; kirkerholidays.com) has two-night short breaks to Paris in October from £446pp, including B&B at the Notre Dame hotel, flights or first-class Eurostar, transfers, a Seine river cruise, and a carnet of 10 Paris metro/bus tickets per person.
3 Join ramblers at the Autumn Walking Festival on the Isle of Man (isleofmantravel.com) on 11-14 October. Open to everyone, the walks range from easy to hard and include woodlands, glens, river banks, hills and coast. The price is £346pp, based on two people sharing, and includes sea travel from Liverpool with a car, four nights B&B in the Falcon's Nest in Port Erin, a travel pass for all public transport, and admission to festival social events.
4 For some guaranteed autumnal sunshine head to Crete, the most southerly Greek island, where temperatures remain in the mid-20s well into October, making it a perfect time for walking in the White Mountains or the Imros Gorge. Cyclamen and autumn crocus should be appearing all over the island at this time of year, which is also the time for distilling raki from grape residue. Stay in the Ilios flats in Gerani, 18km south of Chania, the former Venetian capital, and close to a bamboo-fringed beach, for £339pp for a week, including flights and transfers with Sunvil (020 8568 4499; sunvil.co.uk).
5 Take the family on an autumnal forest retreat at a Center Parcs village (centerparcs.co.uk; 08700 673030) where you can walk or cycle through the woods, take a swim in the subtropical pool or treat yourself at the spa. Special Halloween short breaks, where children can make pumpkin masks and lanterns, are available from 26-29 October. A weekend at Sherwood Forest is £649 in a newly refurbished three-bedroom Woodland Lodge sleeping up to six. Lodges now come with DVD players. Parks are also in Whinfell, Elveden and Longleat.
6 Get up close to New England's autumn foliage with an eight-day trekking holiday with Footloose (0870 444 8735; footloose.com). You'll go on guided walks along mountain trails, including the famous Appalachian trail, Green Mountains, White Mountains, Acadia national park and Boston. You can also go biking, swimming and take a sunset cruise. Trips depart 22 September and 6 October and cost from £793pp, excluding flights, but including ground transport, accommodation, a tour guide, and entrance to national parks.
7 Originally a one-off celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and his bride Therese of Saxony, it was such a good bash that Munich has been partying each October for the 170 years since. Head to this year's Oktoberfest starting on 22 October for lots of beer-fuelled fun. Topdeck Travel (0845 257 5215; topdecktravel.co.uk) has a five-day Oktoberfest trip including return coach/ferry from London and accommodation at a campsite just outside Munich, with transfers to and from the city centre, and full English breakfasts to ease your hangover, from £199.
8 See the Gower Peninsula, a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, at its most colourful on a walking break. Stay at the Fairyhill Hotel (0870 042 4163; fairyhill.net), a Georgian house set in 20 acres of woodland, where the restaurant is renowned for using the finest produce from Gower farms. A standard double room costs from £165 per night and includes a full Welsh breakfast. Go walking on your own, or ask at reception about guided walks to remoter spots.
9 According to the people of Boulogne-sur-Mer, nothing beats a glass of new Beaujolais and a fresh herring, grilled on the quayside by the local fishermen. Join them to celebrate the arrival of the first herring of the season, and the new Beaujolais, from 16-18 November, staying for two nights B&B at the four-star Hotel la Matelote, right by Boulogne's fishing port. Price is £171.50pp with Seafrance Holidays (0871 663 2557; seafranceholidays.com), including return travel with Seafrance Dover-Calais Ferries.
10 Feast on fine seafood at the Falmouth oyster festival (falmouthoysterfestival.co.uk) from 18 to 21 October. The event kicks off with a cookery master class with celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson Wright. Stay at Tide's Reach, a stylish apartment in Penryn. A week from 13 October is £102pp based on four sharing with Classic Cottages (01326 555555; classic.co.uk).
11 There is no need to go to New England when our own New Forest is ablaze with colour at this time of year. This area is a paradise for walkers and cyclists with miles of fairly flat traffic-free tracks through the forest, picnic spots, cosy tea shops and traditional English pubs. No need to take your own bikes as there are hire shops in all the main towns, including Fordingbridge, New Milton and Brockenhurst, and stables for those who fancy a ride through the forest. For somewhere to stay try newforestcottages.co.uk, which has plenty available for October, including the two-bed Ipers Bridge, situated on the southeastern edge of the forest, which costs £315 for a week.
12 Go hunting for white truffles, one of the rarest and most expensive foods in the world, in the forests of Istria, Croatia. Kudu Travel (01722 716167; kudutravel.com) now offers a 10-day Istrian truffle trails itinerary, where you can sample the truffles and some of the best Istrian wines while on daily walks through national parks, forests, meadows and vineyards, to hilltop villages and Zagreb. Leaving on 9 October, it costs £1,790pp for twin-share, 10 nights in three-, four- and five-star hotels, all meals and wine, private transport, entrance fees and a tour leader. Flights with Croatian Airlines from Heathrow to Zagreb (via Vienna on the return leg) are available from Expedia.co.uk for £169.20.
13 One of the last remaining wilderness areas in Europe is among the peaks and forests of the Carpathian mountains in central Romania, which also has the highest concentration of bears, wolves and lynx on the Continent. Join Exodus (0845 863 9600; exodus.co.uk) on an eight-day Carpathian conservation, culture and wildlife tour, staying in a guesthouse in a village at the foot of the Piatra Craiului mountains and they'll take you on walks through canyons, virgin forests and Saxon villages. You'll visit a shepherd camp and see traditional cheese made. See Bran Castle, the setting for Dracula, the mediaeval town of Brasov, visit a beaver reintroduction programme and the Carpathian large carnivore project which is hand-raising two wolves. Next departures are on 22 September and 6 October. From £515 including flights.
14 Go foraging for mushrooms with a top tutor from Raymond Blanc's cookery school at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons and Dr Derek Schafer from the Buckinghamshire Fungus Group (01844 278881; manoir.com). Le Manoir's annual mushroom hunt in the Chilterns is on 20 October, followed by a talk and a four-course mushroom-themed lunch with accompanying wines. Each forager also gets to take home a copy of Antonio Carluccio's Complete Mushroom Book. Tickets for the tour and lunch cost £155pp or £140pp for lunch only. Double rooms from £435 a night.
15 Take an autumn colour fly-drive package to West Virginia with American specialist America As You Like It (020 8742 8299; americaasyoulikeit.com). America's third most forested state, it boasts 36 state parks and seven state forests with more than 200,000 acres of natural wonder. From £611pp, packages include British Airways flights to Washington DC, a week's car hire and B&B accommodation.
16 Admire autumnal beauty from the comfort of an armchair in one of Forest Holidays' (0845 130 8223; forestholidays.co.uk) glass-fronted wooden cabins in North Yorkshire, Scotland or Cornwall. Stay in one of the new VIP cabins and you can get a bit closer to nature in a hot tub. While you luxuriate, children will be entertained with treasure hunts, badger watches, den building and campfire stories. Up to six people can sleep in the two-bedroom standard cabins and up to eight in the VIP cabins. From £109 for a four-night break.
17 Take a bike ride through the woods and open heath of Nottinghamshire's Sherwood Pines Forest Park, which offers a network of colour-coded off-road routes of varying difficulty. Look out for birdlife, including nightjars; and fallow deer. When you've worked up an appetite, head for the Full Moon (01636 830251; thefullmooninn.co.uk) in the village of Southwell for home-cooked food by a roaring fire. Sherwood Castle Holiday Forest Lodge Park (01623 824400; sherwoodcastle.co.uk), which offers activities, leisure centre, swimming pool and spa, has log cabins with four-poster beds from £200 for four people.
18 Portugal's Douro Valley is one of the few places in the world where grapes are still trodden by foot. Join the locals in late September/early October as they tread to the rhythm of the local accordionist at the Quinta de la Rosa winery. Inntravel (01653 617949; inntravel.co.uk) has a 'Valley of Gold' walk, following the traditional wine route along the banks of the Douro, taking you deep into rural Portugal, with stops en route to sample port wine. A week costs £678pp sharing, B&B, including five dinners, four picnic lunches, luggage transferred between hotels, walking maps, and outward rail and boat (return transfers cost £15pp).
19 Go at your own pace on a New England motorhome holiday (020 7193 2873; motorhomebookers.com). Take long country drives, stop off for a jug of cider or an ice-cream at a local farm stall, go apple picking, visit a state fair, or follow a bike trail. From Boston, head to the White Mountain national forest in New Hampshire or head south to Connecticut for historic towns. Fly to Boston from London Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic from £268 per adult, £241 per child (virgin-atlantic.com) on 1 October. A 14-day hire costs £572 for a four-person motorhome.
20 As part of British Food Fortnight (22 September-7 October), the Isle of Wight is launching its first ever Sweetcorn Festival. Four days of fun at Arreton Barns start with a beer festival on 27 September, followed by the 'Day of the Sausage' and then a sweetcorn roast, apple pressing, BBQ and a barn dance. Launching at the event is the Wight taste trail, a gourmet route around the island. A free guide (call 0870 582 7744) features the makers of the award-winning cheese, Isle of Wight Blue, top free-range producers, the best farmers' markets and 10 top restaurants serving local fare. A two-night Wightlink package at the Hambrough, including dinner, B&B and ferry crossings from Portsmouth or Lymington, costs £207pp midweek (based on two sharing) or £290pp at weekends (0870 582 0202; wightlink.co.uk).
21 Get spooked by the After Hours Ghost Train and Halloweeny Weekend on 27-28 October, run by the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway (01229 717171; ravenglass-railway.co.uk). A specially decorated ghost train leaves at 4.45pm and takes you up the valley for a creepy welcome at Dalegarth. Be warned, there will be sudden encounters with spooky characters and other ghostly goings on as the train arrives at Muncaster Mill, before arriving back at Ravenglass at 6.25pm. The ride costs £9.60 for an adult return, £4.80 for a child and £24.90 for a family ticket. Stay in Muncaster Castle's Coachman's Quarters from £30-£35pp, per night, in a double/twin or family room, including breakfast. The Granary costs from £130 per night sleeping six (01229 717614; muncaster.co.uk).
22 Join thousands of spectators at the World Conker championships on 14 October in Ashton, near Peterborough, when modern day gladiators do battle armed with a nut and 12 inches of string. Entrance is £2 for adults and £1 for senior citizens and children. Stay at holiday cottage the Lily Pad (01780 784394), 10 mins from Peterborough, which sleeps six, with use of an indoor pool and large barbecue overlooking a meadow. Price is £100 per night (visiteastofengland.com).
23 Capture on canvas the warm beauty of the autumn on a painting holiday in Aberdeenshire's Cairngorms. Whether you want to paint Balmoral Castle, the crags of Lochnagar or Glen Muick, the rich autumnal tones will inspire a master piece. Weeks run on 28 October and 4 November from £690, excluding flights. Price includes accommodation in the Queen's Buildings on the estate, meals and tuition (01273 600030; responsibletravel.com).
24 Where better to spend Halloween than a castle with resident ghost? Four hundred-year-old Ballygally Castle on Northern Ireland's Antrim coast is said to be populated by the ghost of Lady Shaw, who either jumped or was pushed to her death from the tower window. Groups of 15 or more staying at the castle can throw themselves into the medieval theme and dress up as Lord and Lady Shaw to dine on a banquet of suckling pig, honey-glazed duck and roast capon while being entertained by jugglers and musicians. B&B for one night costs £45pp in October, booked through hastingshotels.com or call 028 2858 1066. The medieval banquet must be booked two weeks in advance.
25 Watch local cooks compete to create the finest dishes in Tuscany at a two-day Autumn Festival in the main square of medieval Abbadia San Salvatore, 70km south of Siena, from 13 October. If you are lucky you'll get to taste local chestnut and mushroom delicacies. As well as the feast, there will be dancing, live music, arts and crafts exhibitions, antiques stalls and street games. Expedia.co.uk has three nights B&B in the three-star Hotel Gambrinus on the outskirts of the town for £153pp, including flights to Florence from London with Meridiana.
