I've managed to take some (for my level) semi decent pics of family whilst we were away. The problem is that because it was around noon, the sun cast shadows over the eyes. This happened irrespective of the direction the subject faced. Getting them to look up a bit made them squint because of the brightness.

In the brightness of the conditions, the onboard flash did bugger all and I didn't pack my Speedlite flash with me to conserve weight and bulk.

Other than having a flash, is there any way around this?

Reflectors? Even a sheet of plain white paper, used to reflect light will make a difference.

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For portrait photography, I'd imagine that's fine but these were essentially "holiday snaps".

Also called "raccoon eyes".

There's a few things you can try.

Stop taking photos until the sun's moved lower.
Or, use your flash.
Or, turn your subjects to face the sun to fill out those shadows.
Or, use something to reflect light into their faces.
Or, get them under some shade.

There isn't any magical fix for this.

Some pics were out in the full glare of the sun. Tried the flash but was too far away for it to be effective.

Repositioning seemed to help only if it was later or earlier. When the sun was straight up at noon, it was near on impossible.

I used spot metering on the faces which helped whenthe sun was behind them.

Note, these were holiday pics rather than anything formal so I was limited in terms of equipment and conditions. Sometimes family wanted pics with buildings/landmarks etc.