The choice of the
place to visit depends on several factors, such as individual preferences, the type of holiday desired, and also the place where one comes from: for example, a tourist from a Nordic country could choose
to visit a city in southern Europe such as Rome or Athens at Christmas, although this is not the best time of the year with regard to the climate, in these cities: but it is still better than the cold and gloomy environment of the Nordic winter.
Furthermore, those who are not sensitive to cold could swim in the sea in January in the Canaries, or soak up the sun at Easter in California. However, we have chosen the best periods according to climate, taking into account a number of parameters,
such as temperature, amount of sunshine, the chance of very hot or very cold weather, and of hurricanes.
Where to go to sea?
Sometimes you may want to take a
beach holiday at a certain period, for example at Christmas or August, but you could have no clear ideas about where to go. Where to find sunshine, a warm sea and warm but not too hot temperatures?
Here is a guide to answer these questions.
Select the countries that have a favorable climate for swimming and sunbathing, month by month.
Which city to visit?
In this section, we deal with
trips to cities, to walk around streets and parks, etc. We will suggest the good times, according to climate, when you can find comfortable temperatures, and possibly little rain.
The best weather to visit cities is generally less warm than the one advisable for a beach holiday, because for instance walking in the sun when the temperature is 30 degrees Celsius (86 °F) in the shade is not as nice as lying on the beach sunbathing with the same temperature, with the breeze blowing from the sea
and the opportunity to take a refreshing swim in the sea. Therefore, we think the best temperature for a holiday in a city is lower, around 25 °C (77 °F).
This guide is not intended as a comparison between the cities, because some cities may not have a really good period from the climatic point of view, for example those located in nordic or rainy countries, and in these cases we chose the relatively better periods for those cities,
because otherwise we would not have been able to consider them at all.
Nothing prevents, however, to take a last minute trip and consult the weather forecast in advance, and decide to leave, should it prove good, in months other than those indicated here.
This guide refers to the periods in which you can visit the individual cities, so we don't mean that the climate is good also in the rest of the country to which they belong.
For an in-depth analysis on climate of these cities or the climate of their country, please refer to the dedicated pages (see the
list of the countries).
The cities of the Middle East were included in the paragraphs about Asia.