Where to travel in June

Copenhagen | Denmark

Denmark is top of our new Good Trip Index for 2023, scoring especially highly on human freedom and quality of life. It's a great city to visit any time of year but especially suited to visiting with children, so if you're planning a city break with the kids this summer Copenhagen is our top tip.

It's also possible to visit without flying. If you fancy a leisurely drive or cruise you can get ferries either direct or via various stopovers, or you can take the boat to Calais and drive.

Copenhagen is a famously child-friendly city. There are public parks everywhere that any other city would class as adventure playgrounds, children under 12 get in everywhere – including public transport – either cheap or free, and parents are accustomed to safely leaving babies outside in prams while they shop.

And of course, while the Danish Legoland is right on the opposite side of the country to Copenhagen, Denmark is small enough to make that just three hours by car.

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Cusco | Peru

Next up is Cusco, Peru, which on 24th June celebrates Inti Raymi (so this one's not so much a 'where' to go as a 'when').

The Incan sun festival was celebrated in the 15th and 16th century, banned for 400 years by the Spanish conquistadors, and then resurrected in 1944 'to restore the pride of the indigenous Quechua people'. Now it's the second largest festival in South America, only behind Rio's famous Carnival, and is legally protected as part of the cultural heritage of Peru.

Inti Raymi is celebrated in Cusco, not far from Machu Picchu, making it an excellent base from which to explore the various major sites of the Incan Empire. You'll normally fly into Lima (though Bogota, in neighbouring Colombia, is almost as close) and then make your way to Cusco by plane or, if you're feeling adventurous, bus overland.

June is the start of high season in Cusco as South America begins to cool down, so walking outdoors in the Andes becomes more pleasant and visibility improves. Everything will be more crowded, and expensive, but if you want to see the spectacle of the Incan sun festival this is when to go.

If you're visiting, be mindful of the altitude. Cusco and Machu Picchu are thousands of metres up in the Andes, so if you can take a day or two to acclimatise before you start trekking up a mountain.

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Porto | Portugal

Why are we recommending Porto? Our new robot overlords told us to.

Porto is the destination that ChatGPT, the most famous of the artificial intelligence bots, recommended to us when we asked it to craft a long weekend somewhere sunny in Europe. Our team headed out there to see whether a robot could really plan a great holiday and, good news, the robot delivered!

Portugal is also the highest-ranking European beach destination on our Good Trip Index for 2023, coming in at 11th. So for a sustainable week in the sun, recommended by a robot, Portugal currently looks like your best bet.

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Uruguay

If you're looking for a more exotic destination that scores well on the Good Trip Index, look no further than Uruguay. Top 5 for LGBTQI+ rights, it's a great destination for gay travellers and Montevideo is rightly called one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world.

Cosmopolitan Uruguay has something for everyone, and July is the southern hemisphere's winter so if you want to get away from the heat of the British summer somewhere mild, warm, welcoming but thoroughly exotic, we'd recommend heading here.

Uruguay is one of our biggest risers in the 2023 Good Trip Index, up 13 points as scores for both quality of life and LGBTQI+ rights have improved. It's the second South American destination we're promoting this month – much of South America, including Chile, Uruguay and Argentina, has rocketed up the Good Trip Index this year so we're more comfortable than ever pointing travellers their way.

Fly into the capital, Montevideo, where you'll find some of the best steaks in the world and local markets such as Mercado de los Artesanos or Sunday's Feria de Tristán Narvaja where you can pick up local arts and crafts to take home.

Head out of the capital to Punta del Este to party, or José Ignacio for world-class seafood. Alternatively, two hours north of Montevideo you can hike and see the Ombu trees. Many of these local tree-like bushes grow in spectacular isolation on the Pampas plains, which can be seen in the Ombu Forest.

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Malta

Malta is number one on our Good Trip Index for LGBTQI+ rights, making it an ideal place for gay travellers to visit this June.

There's so much to do and see in Malta, and getting lost in the narrow streets of the capital Valletta, lined with charming Baroque architecture, is a great place to start. Make sure to visit St. John's Co-Cathedral while you're there, a magnificent place of worship featuring ornate decorations.

A relaxed beach day more your thing? Head to the northern part of the island, where you'll find gay-friendly beaches like Golden Bay and Għadira Bay. These spots offer crystal-clear waters and a welcoming environment for sunbathing and socialising.

When the sun sets, Malta's vibrant nightlife comes alive. Paceville is the epicenter of the island's clubbing scene, offering a range of LGBTQI+ friendly venues. For a more laid-back evening, explore the quaint coastal towns of Sliema and St. Julian's, which boast lots of stylish bars and restaurants.

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Bay of Kotor | Montenegro

Montenegro is one of our top 40 destinations for our 40th anniversary. Comfortably European but not in the EU, it's just four hours away with a change of planes in Vienna. With stunning coastal scenery, low prices and beautiful medieval towns and cities to explore, get there in 2023 so you can have bragging rights among your friends and family for being first to visit.

Since we left the EU, there's been a 90-day limit on how long we can spend in the Schengen zone. If you're retired, have a second home on the continent or visit friends and family regularly, that limit is going to get pretty short pretty quickly.

Enter Montenegro. Neither in the EU nor the Schengen bloc, but just along the Adriatic coast from better-known Croatia, it's easy to get to and comes with the standards of hospitality and accommodation you'd expect in central Europe. It's also scrapped all its old Covid travel restrictions, so you can just fly in and get on with your holiday.

It's a bit like Austria, a bit like Greece, and a bit like Croatia. But Montenegro is its own place which rewards further exploration, and the Bay of Kotor (Boka Kotorska to the locals) is widely considered the best of it.

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Santorini | Greece

Greece is so popular this summer that local hoteliers and travel experts are simply saying it's full. Hotels are booked out and restaurants are fully booked for days and weeks on end in high season. So if you're going for the summer get booking quickly – and if you find your favourite spot is already full, think about going early in June.

Why go in June? Summer is here, the weather is perfect and the sea is warm enough for a swim, but the crowds that come with the school holidays are yet to arrive. Schools start to break up in Scotland at the end of this month and the rush from the rest of the UK is then only weeks away.

The island's great in September too, with warmer seas and the same relative quiet – but if you want to go now, Santorini will definitely give you a warm welcome.