School may only have just reopened and the buckets and spades are scarcely packed away after the summer holidays, but already time is getting short if you plan to get away this autumn or winter, especially if you are looking for family breaks abroad over the mid-term weekend at the end of October. Most tour operators say availability is scarce in the current buoyant market.

That weekend, Joe Walsh Tours is offering a family plan, leaving on October 27th for Tenerife and on October 28th for Gran Canaria for £1,164 for two adults and two children. In each case, it's for one week in a three-star self-catering apartment, and is available through JWT Travelshops, but you may have to gets your skates on - there are very few seats left.

"These are purpose-built destinations. That time of year, the weather is still fairly good - mid-20s - and you get good standards. Nothing cultural as such. Those have been booking since April," explains Mr Lee Cox, manager of JWT.

The same weekend, JWT is offering a week on Gran Canaria for £329 per adult. Throughout October and November, there's an attractive long-haul special to Langkawi in Malaysia for 12 nights, room only, for £789 per person.

Pre-Christmas sun-breaks - and by then we certainly will need them - include Egypt, departing on November 29th (and the weather will be gorgeous there then) for one week in Luxor for £369. This can be tailor-made to include Nile cruises, which adds to the cost.

Other specials include a week in Lanzarote or a week in Gran Canaria, each departing on December 2nd and costing £249 and £239, respectively.

If it's shopping you want, the United States is still a good destination, even though the euro/ dollar relationship is anything but healthy right now. However, economists are predicting a rise in the rate of the euro towards year end, so by the time JWT introduces its new Atlantic fares on November 1st (and running until mid-December) things may be in better shape.

On a seat-only basis, there are flights to New York and Boston at £228, Miami and Orlando at £263 and San Francisco at £270. You must stay a Saturday night or otherwise for five nights; the trouble is that reasonably-priced hotel rooms in New York are hard to come by at this time of year.

If you can bear to think of Christmas at this time of year, JWT Travelshops will have one or two-day trips to Lapland. It's a three-and-a-half hour flight and the average temperature in December is -26 degrees, so it would hardly be suitable for very young children. The brochures are just coming in and prices are in the region of £400 to £500. However, the prices do go down nearer Christmas if you wait for last-minute specials.

Budget Travel agrees with JWT that there is very little availability at mid-term. The only family-break options that still are available are Club Praia da Rocha in Portugal, departing on October 28th from Dublin for two adults and two children at a cost of £1,010 plus insurance; Stil Marieta apartments in Gran Canaria, departing from Cork on October 29th for two adults and one child, at a cost of £941 plus insurance; and on the same date another ex-Cork, to the Bungalows Canary on Gran Canaria for two adults and one child, at £972 plus insurance.

Budget has no packages left for Christmas and the New Year.

For DINKies (double income, no kids), Budget Travelshops is doing winter short-stay breaks in Dubai in the Gulf and Prague in middle Europe. Seven nights in Dubai start from £549 including flight and hotel. A three-nighter weekend in Prague starts from £319 including flight and hotel. If you're greedy and want both, there is a combination of seven nights in Dubai and two in Prague, starting at £650.

Budget's autumn/winter programme, which includes Christmas and the New Year, has weeklong sun holidays in European destinations such as Lanzarote (£219) and Tenerife (£179) and Malta (£249). Egypt is available (except at Christmas and New Year) with a week in Luxor, starting at £349. A combination of Luxor and a Nile cruise starts from £499 or a seven nights Luxor and seven nights Red Sea resort starts at £549.

Falcon Holidays do special holidays geared to families in the autumn. Take the one in the Apathotel Ocean Club in Callao Salvaje in Tenerife: it is an all-inclusive holiday where food, snacks and drinks are included in the cost, as well as sports and a daily and evening entertainment programme. And wait for it kids - free ice cream is on tap from 10.30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Falcon Kids Club is also available for your use and abuse. For a family of two adults and two children for seven nights, prices start at £1,306.

Self-catering apartments ideal for families include the Aquazul Apartments at Puerto del Carmen in Lanzarote and the Club Caleta Las Villas in Calet de Fueste in Fuerteventura. They both have Falcon Kids Clubs, packed with toys and games and children can join in the organised programme of activities and make new friends, allowing their parents to have a quiet swim and a cocktail or two by the pool.

For adults without appendages, in Lanzarote, Falcon is offering seven nights half-board in the four-star Hotel Occidental Oasis, Costa Tequise, from £459 per person or seven nights self-catering for six adults in the three-bedroom Falcon Villa in Matagorda from £309 per person.

These packages run from November 1st through the winter; the prices quoted are for departures on December 14th, returning on December 20th.

Trailfinders have been offering some of the best flight deals around for many years and now is offering tailor-made holidays in several destinations. These include flights, hotels, car hire, tours, rail travel, motor-homes and cruises.

They have two big brochures which you need time to digest - one for North America, which, apart from the US and Canada, includes Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean and Cuba, and the other, the worldwide brochure, covering Australia, New Zealand, the Far East, Pacific, South America and Africa. They both come in Irish editions, which means prices are in punts, and are very detailed. If you are looking for information from them by phone, you will be told where you are in the queue and how long it will take before your call is answered; this is updated as you wait.

Trying to make contact with tour operators at the moment is tedious and trying. Obviously they are inundated with enquiries and business is brisk. You need patience, or a good friendly travel agent - and soon - if you are going to get what you want this autumn and winter.