Holiday guide

If you’re among the thousands of Britons who have yet to book a summer holiday, you’ve probably got a few questions. Is Tuscany cheap? Is Turkey full?Are there any sea view cottages available in Cornwall? Can you still get a no frills flight to Palma? Is it better to call the Splendido direct and negotiate a deal, or is it cheaper to book through Expedia? And who can I ask to look after the cat?

Luckily for you, we’ve spent the past week scouring the websites, hassling the tourist boards and grilling the tour operators to bring you the answers to all those questions and more.
Except for the cat. He’s your problem. Unless stated, packages include flights from London. For details of UK regional and Irish departures, contact the operator

ITALY

Villas going begging, hotels open to offers When England prospers, our children wear new shoes,” says the Italian villa broker Umberto Piaggi his kids wear Gucci loafers but the poor bambini will have to make do and mend this summer, as Italy finds itself forsaken by the suddenly less well off Chiantishire types.No other sector in European tourism is so utterly dependent on UK trade, and the effect of the weak pound, as well as Italy’s tendency towards fleecing tourists, means that as tumbleweed blows through Tuscany, starving brokers such as Umberto are begging the British to make them an offer.

Invitation to Tuscany 0845 838 7421, invitationtotuscany.com, a villa specialist, says bookings are at their lowest ebb for 30 years, with dozens of two and three bedroom properties still unsold. Worried owners, who had been banking on a last-minute rush, are now desperately undercutting each other, and the company’s MD, Dan Wrightson, says that the best way to grab a deal is to forget the internet prices are changing too fast and call direct.Reductions are coming in all the time as owners in Italy start to panic about unsold weeks, he says. Not all will appear on our website, so talk to us and we may be able to negotiate special reductions.

Currently, dozens of properties are available at 50% off, with owners willing to let places sleeping 10 or more to families of four at an even greater discount. There’s consensus among most agencies that prices will drop even lower as the summer goes on, but if you’re leaving it to the eleventh hour to book, you could be hit with high last-minute air fares.Among the steals are the Lornano properties, on a Chianti wine estate think bucolic views, cheap wine and fabulous cuisine, seven miles from Siena which have been discounted by 50% until August 28. A week in a villa sleeping four is going for £736 with Invitation to Tuscany. Or there’s the honey-coloured Villa Sangiovese, down from £1,730 a week to £865. It sleeps six, so with return flights with Ryanair 0871 246 0000, ryanair.com at £108, that’s a week in Chiantishire at the Lambrusco price of £252pp.