Where to travel in March, the month two calendars collide

March is one of the strongest months of the travel year because two calendars overlap in it: the northern spring starts and the southern summer has not quite finished.

It is also the month with the single clearest destination to avoid on this whole site.

1. Iceland, and this is its best month

March is one of the two best aurora months, alongside September, and it is the better of the two for a first winter trip.

The reason is not darkness, it is everything else. November to January have deeper darkness and much worse conditions to be out in it. March gives you usable daylight, improving roads, and an aurora season with a month still to run.

And the years matter. Solar activity is forecast to stay elevated through 2026 and into 2027, then decline toward the cycle minimum in the early 2030s. The next two Marches are better bets than the several after them.

The single most useful correction: inside the auroral zone, Kp 2 to 3 is usually enough. Cloud is the variable that decides your night, not solar activity, and five nights gives you roughly 70 to 80 per cent odds of a sighting. When to see the northern lights has the full argument, and the best time to visit Iceland has the roads.

2. Japan and Korea, for the beginning of the blossom

The blossom front starts in late March and moves north, and March is where you catch its beginning rather than its peak.

Korea's Jeju is usually first, around 20 March. Japan's Kyushu follows, and Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka are expected to peak around 28 March to 5 April in 2027.

The honest planning note: full bloom lasts about seven days in any one place, and the real forecasts are not published until December, with the private forecasters updating from January and February. Late March is the higher variance bet; the first week of April is the safer one.

The hedge is to travel with the front, starting south and moving north. Cherry blossom in Japan 2027 has the dates and the booking strategy, and the best time to visit South Korea has Korea's version.

March is also still ski season in Hokkaido, with warmer days and lower prices than January.

3. Spain, and a festival fortnight

In 2027 Spain's March is unusually concentrated.

Las Fallas, Valencia, 15 to 19 March. Enormous satirical sculptures built over months and burned on the final night, with daily explosions in the main square.

Semana Santa, 21 to 28 March 2027. Seville's is the most famous and the most disruptive: processions close streets without notice for hours at a time.

Those are days apart, which makes mid-to-late March in eastern and southern Spain a very full stretch.

Decide whether you are going for them or around them. Semana Santa is extraordinary and it is not a sightseeing week, because everything else in the city is subordinate to where a brotherhood happens to be.

And note what 2027 leaves you: Seville's Feria runs 13 to 18 April, so the fortnight between Semana Santa and the Feria is the best window in the Andalusian year: warm, everything open, and rates back to normal for about fifteen days between two weeks that triple them. The best time to visit Spain has the whole calendar.

4. Thailand's Gulf islands, in the second of their two best months

February and March are the sunniest months on Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, and the Andaman coast is also excellent in March, so this is the second of the two months where both Thai coasts work at once.

The north is the exact opposite. See the avoid section. The best time to visit Thailand has the three-region table, and the best islands in Thailand ranks the beaches.

5. Portugal, before the crowds

March is the shoulder in Portugal and it is genuinely good value.

Lisbon is mild and bright, the interior is green and flowering, and the prices have not yet moved. The sea is still cold, which is the trade: this is a city and countryside month rather than a beach one.

Lisbon's tourist tax is €4 per person per night and Porto's is €3, both capped at seven nights and neither raised for 2026, which makes Portugal cheaper on that line than Spain's Catalonia, Amsterdam or Milan. The best time to visit Portugal has the month table.

6. New Zealand, in its second-best month

March is New Zealand's second-best month after February: still warm, quieter again, prices easing, and the vineyards in harvest.

And it adds something February does not: Central Otago and Arrowtown start turning gold in late March and through April, which is one of the best sights in the country and is on nobody's list. The best time to visit New Zealand has the rest.

7. Mexico's centre, at the end of the dry season

March is still dry and warming in the central highlands, and it is the last month of the monarch butterfly season, with the sanctuaries open to about the end of the month.

Watch for Semana Santa, which falls in late March or April depending on the year and is when Mexican families travel and the coasts fill.

And the Caribbean caveat applies: sargassum arrived on Quintana Roo beaches in January and March 2026, breaking the historical pattern. The best time to visit Mexico has the detail, and the Pacific coast is unaffected.

8. Croatia and Plitvice, at a quarter of the price

March is Plitvice at its most spectacular and its cheapest.

Adult entry is about €10 from November to March, against about €40 from June to September, and in March the meltwater is running and the boardwalks are almost empty.

Be clear about what else is not open: the coastal catamarans do not start until about April, so this is an interior trip. The best time to visit Croatia has the ferry season.

The one to avoid, without qualification

Chiang Mai and northern Thailand.

March is the worst month of the burning season. In 2026:

• 158 separate wildfires on 24 March alone, across 15 districts.
• Over 2,090 fire hotspots in the province between 1 January and 27 March.
• PM2.5 around 188 micrograms per cubic metre on the worst days.
• Several days ranked among the most polluted cities in the world.

This is the clearest single "do not go" on this site. If your trip is built around northern Thailand, move it to November or December. Where to stay in Chiang Mai has the full picture, and the digital nomad guide notes that the long-term residents themselves leave for these three months.

The school holiday note

School holiday and public holiday dates are published nationally and are worth checking against your dates.

Easter moves, and in 2027 it falls in late March, which pulls the northern European family travel peak into the end of the month rather than into April.

That matters for southern Europe specifically, because Semana Santa and the Easter school holidays land together and the Mediterranean coast fills. The first half of March is materially quieter and cheaper than the second.

In the southern hemisphere the school year is well underway, which is why New Zealand and Australia stay easy through March.

Before you book

Where to travel in February is the month before and where to travel in October is the autumn equivalent, with where to travel in January and where to travel in December covering the winter. The best places to travel in 2027 is the year ahead, and underrated European cities has the alternatives when the obvious answers are full.

There is more in the when to go hub, and the month pages carry the destination shortlists. The UN tourism body publishes the seasonal arrivals data behind which months are actually busy where.

Seasonal patterns and festival dates checked September 2026. Easter moves each year, blossom forecasts are not published until winter and the 2026 sargassum season broke its own pattern, so check the specific dates for your year rather than trusting any guide, this one included. Here is how we research and re-check guides.