Best Summer Flights from London 2026: Beaches, Cities & Bargains

Crete returns from £89 on easyJet from Gatwick are some of the best beach deals you'll find right now for June, though July and August push that closer to £160-£210 return. The island is enormous, so it handles crowds better than Santorini or Mykonos, where you're genuinely shoulder-to-shoulder on every viewpoint. Heraklion and Chania both have their own airports, so pick your base before you book.

Rhodes from £104 return on Jet2 from Gatwick or £97 on TUI from Stansted is the one most families end up booking, and honestly it earns that reputation. August is properly rammed in the old town, 35°C most days, and every rooftop bar has a queue. Go in June and you get the same heat, half the people, and prices around £89 return if you move fast.

Split, Croatia, returns from £74 on Wizz Air from Luton in June, rising sharply to £140-£190 in peak August. The city itself is small and the Riva promenade gets absolutely heaving in late July, so lower your expectations for a quiet dinner. That said, the ferries out to Hvar and Brač are easy and worth doing, so use Split as a hub rather than a destination.

Tenerife South returns from £98 on Ryanair from Stansted or from £112 on easyJet from Gatwick is the Canaries option that works year-round, which means summer is no cheaper or quieter than winter. The upside is the weather is guaranteed, around 27-29°C with a reliable breeze, and it works well if you want zero risk on the forecast. Pack your patience for the resort strips in Los Cristianos in August though, it's relentless.

Rome returns from £79 on Ryanair from Stansted to Ciampino sounds great until you remember that August in Rome hits 36°C and the Colosseum queue can swallow three hours of your trip whole. Locals largely leave in August, which makes the city feel oddly empty in residential areas but absolutely crushed around every tourist site. Go in June, budget around £95-£130 return, book your Colosseum slot weeks ahead, and you'll have a genuinely great time.

Seville from £49 one-way on easyJet from Gatwick means returns from around £96, which is fair value, but Seville in July and August is properly extreme heat, regularly hitting 40°C. Most people who go in peak summer spend the afternoons indoors or by a pool, which is fine if you plan for it. Truthfully, Seville in June is the sweet spot: high 30s rather than catastrophic, and prices are a fraction lower.

Lisbon returns from £83 on TAP Air Portugal from Heathrow or from £67 on Ryanair from Stansted to Lisbon is one of the better-value city breaks for summer 2026. July crowds are real, especially in Alfama and Belém, but the city is big enough to absorb them and the Atlantic breeze keeps temperatures around 28-30°C rather than punishing. The trams are heaving, so just walk, most of the good stuff is within 20 minutes on foot anyway.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria, returns from £68 on Wizz Air from Luton to Sofia, then a 90-minute bus east. Yes, there's a transfer involved and the bus station in Sofia is chaotic, so factor in half a day of travel. The payoff is a genuinely beautiful old town, craft beer bars, good food, and temperatures around 32°C in July without anything like the tourist volume of Prague or Krakow at the same time of year.

Porto Santo, a small island near Madeira, returns from around £180 on TAP Air Portugal from Heathrow via Lisbon is pricier than the budget options here, but the 9km beach is one of the best in Europe and the island gets a fraction of the visitors Madeira does. Peak summer sees mostly Portuguese families rather than stag parties. The connection through Lisbon adds time, so book a direct Madeira flight with easyJet from Gatwick from £120 return if you want to keep it simple and visit Porto Santo as a day trip by ferry.

Neither of these is a two-click booking, which is exactly why they're worth mentioning. If your mates are all doing Zante in August for £200 a head plus bags, Plovdiv for £68 return plus a cheap bus is a genuinely different summer.

For June flights, the window to get the best prices is right now, April 2026. easyJet and Ryanair load their lowest fares first and fill from the front, so the £49 one-ways to Seville or the £74 return to Split that exist today will not exist in six weeks. School half-term in late May already inflates prices around those dates, so avoid 23-31 May if you want value at either end of summer.

July is where most people get caught out. Prices for the last two weeks of July, when UK schools start breaking up, typically jump 30-50% compared to early July. A Rome return that sits at £105 in the first week of July can be £165 or more by the 20th. If your dates are flexible, early July is almost always the better call financially and for crowds.

August is expensive, full stop. Returns to Greece and Croatia in peak August regularly hit £200-£280, and that's before accommodation. The deals that do exist in August tend to be on less fashionable routes, so Plovdiv, Porto Santo, or even a long-weekend in Lisbon can still be manageable at £130-£160 return. Set up fare alerts on Google Flights for your preferred routes and check mid-week, Tuesday and Wednesday fares are consistently cheaper than weekend searches.

One last thing: bag fees will bite you on Ryanair and Wizz Air. A return cabin bag on Ryanair from Stansted to Athens can add £50-£70 to your trip. Factor that in when comparing a £79 Ryanair fare against a £105 easyJet return, because the gap narrows very quickly once bags are in the mix.