Places to go this Autumn

Singapore
Some cultures see a man in the moon, but in East Asia its more likely to be a rabbit. The effect is at its
most convincing during the Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrated wherever Chinese culture has made its
mark. On the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendarlate September or early October
by the Western reckoning the appearance of the full autumn moon is a time to give thanks for the
harvest, and an excuse to bring out colorful lanterns and binge on mooncakes. These pie-like pastries,
stamped with an ornamental design on top and lled with the likes of sweet red bean paste or perhaps
less traditional llings such as chocolate, are common enough that the event is often known as the
Mooncake Festival instead. The city-state of Singapore is already in a celebratory mood after the
50thanniversaryof its independence, and mid-autumn festivities focus on the central Chinatown district,
with plenty of street markets and lantern-painting competitions. If you can nd a gap between the old
shop houses and the high-rise skyline, look up and ponder the legend of the moon goddess Change, and
also the white rabbit who appears on the moons face, stooped over a mortar where he mixes her elixir of
immortality.

Santorini, Greece
As crowds and temperatures alike ease from their peak-season highs, September is the perfect time to
escape to Santorini, the best known of the Aegean-scattered Cyclades for reasons that become obvious
as soon as you lay eyes on it. Formed from the rim of a collapsed volcano, its ring of multi-colored cliffs
soar 300 meters high, their tops crowned with an implausible snow drift of white-painted houses. Up
here, in picturesque towns such as Fira and Oia, visitors are rewarded with grand views over island-dotted
seas, and sunsets that blaze over the water and bathe the island in rosy light. For prime gazing, Canaves
Hotel in Oia is amongst the best bases set in 17th-century wine caverns carved out of the cliff, its

rooms, terrace restaurant and innity pool all face dizzying panoramas. Beyond Oia and Fira, Santorinis
countryside is ripe for exploration, with its quiet villages, ancient Minoan sites and vineyards. If the sea
beckons, strike out on a boat, whether for a sunset sail or a day-long trip. Canaves offers a cruise around
the island, with options to snorkel in gin-clear waters, swim in hot springs, lounge on sandy beaches and
feast on local food.
Portugal
Famed for its sweet port wine, the Douro Valley of northern Portugal is one of the oldest wine regions in
the world. Head here in September and youll get a taste of its traditions rst-hand, as workers take to its
steeply terraced vineyards for the annual harvest, picking and pressing the grapes by hand (and feet), as
they always have. Its also a great time to take in the valleys glorious scenery, the soft, late-summer light
picking out the River Douro as it winds between valleys stippled with villages and quintas (wine-growing
estates). Set high above the river, the Quintade Casaldronho makes a great base for a wine break, with 15
hectares of vines, plus olive groves, orchards and walking trails to wander. Theres, naturally, gallons of
wine to tryfrom port tastings to a bottle at dinner serve.
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