In the wake of one of the wettest Julys on record, leading holiday booking site, Hotels.com, has seen a significant rise in searches for last minute short breaks, also known as nanobreaks, to many popular European destinations as cash-strapped British holidaymakers escape for some summer sun.

Paris tops the list of favourite foreign nanobreak locations for Brits, with searches up 50% year-on-year, followed by Nice (up 40%), with Berlin (25%), Rome (20%), Dublin (15%) and Valencia (10%) following close behind.*

The rise in European nanobreaks coincides with a Social Media competition currently being run by Hotels.com that simply asks people to tag their travel-related Twitter posts #nanobreak.

Entries can also be submitted by tagging Flickr pictures or YouTube videos, and the best entry, as judged by a Hotels.com panel, will win an extended nanobreak to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for two, courtesy of TAP Portugal and the Caesar Park Ipanema hotel. Three runners up will each receive a £200 Hotels.com voucher.

The competition, which is open to UK residents over 18, has been created to help encourage participants to take a holiday, however short, even in the current hard times.

Alison Couper, Director of Communications at Hotels.com said: “It is great to see the British holiday spirit alive and well despite the unexpected rain this summer and we are really enjoying reading people’s nanobreak musings on Twitter.”