WITH the wet, windy weather and dull cloudy skies, it is no wonder that people in England fancy getting away from it all.

It comes as no surprise that people are racing to book up sun and sea destinations after the latest bout of bad weather.

Anna Read, manager of Midland Co-op Travel in High Street, Worcester city centre, said during the last week bookings had been particularly busy.

"There's good deals around, and with the football finishing, people are saying 'Let's get away because the weather here is not that clever'," she said.

"I would say more people have come to us this year for sun and sea holidays, but there are better prices this year, really good late deal prices.

"The prices around at the moment wouldn't have been this cheap last year."

Mrs Read said up and coming popular destinations were Bulgaria, Croatia and Sharmelsheikh in Egypt.

There are a lot of last minute deals around, from £200 upwards, for many European destinations for one to two weeks.

And there are holidays as cheap as £99 for Turkey, if booked a few days beforehand.

Mrs Read said the country that had the biggest growth year on year was Turkey, followed by Tunisia, then Bulgaria.

Jenny Clayton, manager of Global Independent, of The Shambles, Worcester city centre, said there had been a large influx of people booking last minute deals, a day or two beforehand.

She said the bad English weather could possibly be one of the reasons why people were booking to go abroad.

"The other thing is that the destination is popular," she said.

"Turkey is selling well, the Greek Islands and Cyprus.

"There's not so much selling in the UK this year, such as Butlins.

"I think it's to do with the weather. It's been very mixed."

Mrs Clayton said there were some good deals around at the moment such as multi-centre holidays from £599, and around £600 for a fortnight in the Dominican Republic in December.

She said previous popular destinations, such as Majorca and The Canary Islands, were not selling as well as they used to.

"More people are booking more late deals now than a year ago," she said.