Winter sun destinations
Winter sun means different months depending on which half of the world you live in. Both versions, the only genuinely warm option in Europe, and the traps.
Photo · Atlantic Ambience · Pexels
"Winter sun" means two completely different sets of months depending on which half of the world you are reading this from, and most guides only write one of them.
From the northern hemisphere it means December to March.
From Australia, New Zealand and southern Africa it means June to August, and the destinations are almost entirely different.
Both are below.
The northern winter, December to March
The Canary Islands, and it is not close
The only genuinely warm option in Europe. Subtropical, off the African coast, with daytime temperatures in the low twenties through the whole northern winter and sea that stays swimmable.
Four hours from most of western Europe and inside the EU, which removes the paperwork question entirely.
The differences between the islands matter:
- Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are the driest and windiest. Best for
reliability and for watersports.
- Gran Canaria has the most varied landscape and a genuine city in Las
Palmas.
- Tenerife has the highest mountain in Spain and two distinct climates
either side of it: the south is dry and sunny, the north is green and cloudier. The Teide summit needs a free permit booked ahead, which sells out weeks in advance and catches people out.
- La Palma and El Hierro are the quiet ones, for walking rather than beaches.
The catch: the resort strips in the south of Tenerife and Gran Canaria are built for volume and are not representative of the islands.
Egypt's Red Sea
The best value on this list. Hurghada, Marsa Alam and Dahab are warm and dry through the northern winter, the diving is world-class, and the prices are a fraction of the Canaries'.
Pair it with Luxor, which our Egyptian calendar explains is at its best in exactly these months, and the ten-day route has the sequence.
The Gulf: Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman
November to March is the entire Gulf season and it is genuinely reliable: warm, dry, and with the summer heat that makes the region unusable safely distant.
Oman is the better country and Dubai is the better-connected one. Our Dubai verdict is honest about which trip you are taking, and the November guide covers when the season opens.
Thailand's Andaman coast, from mid-November
The cool dry season on the Phuket and Krabi side runs from about mid-November to April and is the most reliable warm weather in Southeast Asia.
The Gulf side is doing the opposite and is at its wettest from October to December, which our wet season guide sets out. Getting the coast right is the whole thing.
Southern Vietnam
Dry and warm from about December to April, and consistently the best value long-haul warmth from Europe.
The north is cold in these months, which surprises people, and the Vietnamese calendar has all three regional seasons.
The Caribbean and Mexico
The dry season runs from about December to April and the weather is reliable.
So are the prices, which peak in exactly the same window. Late April and early May are much cheaper for near-identical conditions.
Cape Verde, the wildcard
Six hours from Europe, warm and dry all northern winter, and far less visited than the Canaries. Sal and Boa Vista for beaches, Santo Antão for some of the best walking in the Atlantic.
The southern winter, June to August
If you are reading this from Australia, New Zealand or southern Africa, this is your section.
Bali and Indonesia. The dry season runs June to September, which makes the southern winter the best time to go. Our Bali calendar has the detail and the seven-day route is the trip.
Fiji. The dry season is May to October and the cyclone season opens on 1 November, so the southern winter is precisely the safe window. The Fijian calendar has it.
Thailand and Vietnam. Thailand's Gulf islands are at their sunniest in these months, which is the inverse of the Andaman pattern above, and northern Vietnam is warm.
Northern Australia. The dry season in Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Kimberley runs through these months and is the only sensible time to be there.
The catch in all of them: these are the southern school holidays, so the routes are full and priced accordingly. Our cheap family holidays guide has the arithmetic.
The traps
Mild is not warm. Southern Spain, Sicily, Malta, Cyprus and the Algarve are all lovely in the northern winter and the sea is cold. They are walking destinations, not beach ones, and our Europe in winter guide makes that distinction properly.
The Caribbean at Christmas is the most expensive fortnight of the most expensive season, for weather you can have in April for much less.
Dubai in the northern winter is reliable and is also its peak pricing, and the shoulder months either side are meaningfully cheaper.
And the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius are the classic answers and are priced as such, and each has a specific season rather than a year-round one.
The one-line version
From the north: the Canaries for convenience, Egypt for value, the Gulf for reliability, Thailand's Andaman coast for a long-haul winter.
From the south: Bali, Fiji, Thailand's Gulf and northern Australia, in June to August.
Before you book
Europe in winter covers the version of winter that is not about sun at all, and it is the better trip for a lot of people.
January and December have the month-by-month, and July is the southern-hemisphere equivalent.
The when to go hub collects the seasonal guides and the January month page rates the whole catalogue. Prices are in each destination's own currency and the converter does the rest.
Seasonal windows checked September 2026 against national tourism boards including Spain's and Egypt's. Sea temperatures and cyclone seasons are climatological rather than fixed, and the southern-hemisphere school holidays are set state by state. Here is how we research and re-check guides.
