Spring break destinations

March is one of the best travel months in the year, and spring break spends it on about four beaches.

If the party is the point, Cancún, Punta Cana and Miami are the established answers, they do it well, and they are priced accordingly. Nothing below is an argument against that.

If it is not the point, this is the month to use properly.

First: spring break is not one week

American university and school breaks are staggered across late February and the whole of March, with the busiest stretch usually the first three weeks.

That staggering is why a resort is full one week and quiet the next, and it is the most useful planning fact here. Check the specific weeks for the destination you are considering, because a shift of seven days can halve the crowd and the price.

Where March actually works

1. Mexico, away from the Caribbean strip

Mexico City is at its best in March: dry season, jacarandas out, and none of the spring break market, which is concentrated on the Caribbean coast four hundred miles away. Our areas guide, three-day route and safety guide cover it.

Oaxaca and Guanajuato are the same argument with better food and lower prices again.

And the Pacific coast, Puerto Escondido and Sayulita, is warm, dry and a completely different scene from the Caribbean side.

2. Colombia

March is the end of the dry season in most of the country and it is excellent: Cartagena on the coast, Medellín's permanent spring, and the coffee region in between.

It is inexpensive, it is a four-hour flight from Miami, and it is almost entirely outside the spring break market. Our Medellín guide covers the city that most people end up extending in.

3. Costa Rica

The tail of the Pacific dry season, which runs to about April. Warm, reliable, and the wildlife is concentrated around the remaining water.

It is not cheap, which our nomad visa guide is honest about, and it is the most family-workable option on this list.

4. Japan, for the beginning of the blossom

Late March is when the cherry blossom front reaches Tokyo and Kyoto, and it is the single most competitive travel window in Japan. The forecast is published and updated through the spring, and it moves by a week or more year to year.

It is also spectacular, and if your break falls in the last ten days of March you are unusually well placed for it. Our Japanese calendar and blossom timings have the detail, and the April guide explains where the front goes next.

Book early. This is not a window you improvise.

5. Portugal and southern Spain

March is before the crowds and after the rain. Lisbon, Porto, Seville and Granada are all warm enough to sit outside, and the prices have not moved yet.

In 2027 there is a specific bonus: Easter falls on 28 March, so Semana Santa in Seville runs 21 to 28 March. That is either the reason to go or the week to avoid, and our Seville route and April guide have the dates.

6. Morocco

March is the start of the best Moroccan window, which runs through April. Marrakech is warm without the summer heat, the Atlas passes are open, and the desert is comfortable.

Our Marrakech areas guide settles the riad question and the day trips guide is blunt about what the Sahara actually requires.

7. Iceland, the wildcard

Nobody puts Iceland on a spring break list.

March is arguably its best month: enough darkness for the aurora, enough daylight to actually drive and see things, the ice caves still open, and prices well below the summer.

Our Icelandic calendar and Ring Road route have the seasonal detail, and the March guide makes the case.

What it costs

The concentrated spring break destinations are priced by the week, and the difference between a peak week and a shoulder week in Cancún or Punta Cana is substantial for identical weather.

Everything on the list above is priced normally, because March is not a peak month in Mexico City, Colombia, Portugal or Morocco.

The exception is Japan, where blossom season is the peak and the premium is real.

And flights are the lever. Our cheap family holidays guide has the shoulder-week arithmetic, which applies identically here.

The two to skip

Florida's beach towns in the peak weeks. The combination of crowd density, peak pricing and the local restrictions several cities have introduced makes it the worst-value version of that weather, and the Gulf coast an hour away is cheaper and calmer.

Any Caribbean resort in a peak week if the party is not the point. You pay the premium regardless of whether you participate, and the same resort in late April or early May is materially cheaper with the dry season still running.

Before you book

March has the full month and April covers what happens next, including the 2027 Easter shift.

Cheap family holidays has the arithmetic if this is a family trip rather than a student one.

The when to go hub collects the seasonal guides and the March month page rates the whole catalogue. Prices are in each destination's own currency and the converter does the rest.

Seasonal patterns checked September 2026 against national tourism boards including Visit Mexico and ProColombia. American school and university break dates are set institution by institution and are not centrally published, so check the specific weeks that apply to you. Here is how we research and re-check guides.