Where to go in April?

France · Corse-du-Sud

☀️ 11.6 h/day · 🌧️ 34 mm/month · 🌡️ 14°C

Limestone cliffs carry the citadel right to the edge, houses leaning out over a straight drop to the sea. Inside the walls the lanes are narrow enough to funnel the wind, and the King of Aragon's staircase cuts down the rock face in one long diagonal. Boats cross the Straits to coves that can be reached no other way.

• White limestone cliffs
• Citadel and old town
• Strait of Bonifacio
• King of Aragon's staircase

When to go to Bonifacio? →

France · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 26 mm/month · 🌡️ 13°C

The Vieux-Port sets the rhythm, with boats, fish stalls and the whole city sloping down towards the water. Notre-Dame de la Garde watches from her hill, the MuCEM stands on the quay behind its concrete lacework, and the stairways of Le Panier smell of frying panisses. Then the Calanques begin: Sormiou, Sugiton, Morgiou, white limestone dropping into green water.

• Vieux-Port
• Notre-Dame de la Garde (la Bonne Mère)
• Calanques (Sormiou, Sugiton, Morgiou)
• MuCEM and Le Panier (old town)

When to go to Marseille? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 11.4 h/day · 🌧️ 37 mm/month · 🌡️ 14°C

White cliffs fold into inlets of green water, and the coastal path towards En-Vau delivers one drop after another. Back in the harbour, boats moor a few metres from the wine bars, where the local white, grown on terraces above the sea, is the obvious order. Garrigue scents the lanes between one swim and the next.

• Calanques (UNESCO)
• Cassis harbour
• En-Vau cliffs
• Cassis AOC vineyards

When to go to Cassis? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Corse-du-Sud

☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 41 mm/month · 🌡️ 14°C

Umbrella pines come down almost to the sand at Palombaggia and Santa Giulia, where the water shades from glass-clear to deep blue. Above the gulf, the upper town keeps its Genoese fortress and a grid of narrow streets that only fill after dark. Maquis scrub scents everything in between: rock rose, myrtle, juniper, warmed all day by the sun.

• Palombaggia beach
• Santa Giulia beach
• Gulf of Porto-Vecchio
• Genoese fortress

When to go to Porto-Vecchio? →

France · Alpes-Maritimes

☀️ 11.4 h/day · 🌧️ 48 mm/month · 🌡️ 15°C

Pose on the steps of the Palais des Festivals and, for one glorious moment, the red carpet is yours alone — as is the queue behind you. Le Suquet's cobbled lanes and whitewashed walls exist mainly so you have somewhere handsome to put down your third coffee of the morning. The Lérins islands quietly outclass the Croisette, though it would be kinder not to mention that to anyone still photographing themselves on it.

• Palais des Festivals
• La Croisette
• Lérins islands
• Le Suquet (old town)

When to go to Cannes? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Alpes-Maritimes

☀️ 11.4 h/day · 🌧️ 48 mm/month · 🌡️ 14°C

Sea walls take the spray on one side of the old town; on the other, the Provençal market fills every morning with herbs, olive oil and cheese. The Château Grimaldi, where Picasso once worked, now hangs the paintings he left behind, the sea framed in every window. Beyond the harbour, the coastal path around the Cap threads pines, rock and small coves.

• Old town and ramparts
• Picasso Museum (Château Grimaldi)
• Cap d'Antibes (coastal path)
• Provençal market

When to go to Antibes? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Alpes-Maritimes

☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 47 mm/month · 🌡️ 14°C

Lemon groves climb the hills behind the town, and the baroque old quarter stacks pastel façades above a bay that already feels Italian. Serre de la Madone gathers plants from several continents across its terraces, while the Palais Carnolès keeps its paintings in a former princely summer residence ringed by citrus trees. The scent of zest carries surprisingly far.

• Baroque old town
• Serre de la Madone Garden
• Carnolès Palace
• Lemon groves

When to go to Menton? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Haute-Corse

☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 67 mm/month · 🌡️ 15°C

The Genoese citadel holds the headland, and below it six kilometres of sand curve round the bay towards the pines. Fishing boats and café terraces share the old port, while the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Serra, on a hill inland, takes in the whole gulf and the mountains behind at once. Boat trips run north to the red cliffs of Scandola, a UNESCO reserve.

• Genoese citadel
• Calvi beach (6 km)
• Scandola (UNESCO reserve nearby)
• Notre-Dame-de-la-Serra chapel

When to go to Calvi? →

Morocco

☀️ 12.2 h/day · 🌧️ 4 mm/month · 🌡️ 20°C

The road from Marrakech drops out of the Atlas into a wide ochre plain, and Ouarzazate begins where the palm groves do. Aït-Ben-Haddou, a stacked earthen ksar above the river, has stood in for half the ancient world on film, and the Atlas Studios next door keep the sets. In town the Kasbah Taourirt holds its rammed-earth towers; north-east, the Dadès gorges narrow to red walls.

• Ait Benhaddou (ksar, UNESCO)
• Atlas Studios (Hollywood of the desert)
• Taourirt kasbah
• Dadès gorges (day trip)

When to go to Ouarzazate? →

Morocco

☀️ 12.1 h/day · 🌧️ 8 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°C

Ten kilometres of sand curve round the bay, backed by promenade cafés and dependable sunshine. Above it all, the hilltop kasbah of Agadir Oufella gives the widest view of the coast, especially at the end of the day. Souk El Had trades in argan oil, spices and pottery behind its walls, and Paradise Valley hides palm-shaded river pools further inland.

• Agadir beach (10 km)
• Agadir Oufella kasbah (ruins, panorama)
• Souk El Had
• Paradise Valley (day trip)

When to go to Agadir? →

Spain

☀️ 11.9 h/day · 🌧️ 4 mm/month · 🌡️ 20°C

Wind is the point on Fuerteventura. The dunes of Corralejo shift in slow golden waves behind the beach, Sotavento draws kitesurfers to its lagoon, and Cofete runs on and on beneath bare cliffs with barely a building in sight. The Atlantic stays a startling turquoise, and the island keeps its desert quiet.

• Corralejo beaches and dunes
• Cofete (wild beach, 12 km)
• Sotavento (kitesurf)
• Corralejo dunes nature park

When to go to Fuerteventura? →

Morocco

☀️ 12.0 h/day · 🌧️ 18 mm/month · 🌡️ 18°C

Atlantic wind is the defining fact here. It keeps the town cool, fills the bay with windsurfers and rattles the blue shutters of the medina, whose ramparts and cannon look out from the Skala over a working fishing port where sardines go straight onto the grill. In June the Gnaoua festival takes over the squares, and the trance rhythms carry well past midnight.

• Fortified medina (UNESCO)
• Sqala du Port and cannons
• Beach and windsurf spots
• Gnaoua Festival (June)

When to go to Essaouira? →

Spain

☀️ 12.0 h/day · 🌧️ 6 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°C

Lanzarote looks like nowhere else: the lava fields of Timanfaya stretch out in rust and black, still warm just below the surface. César Manrique opened the island's volcanic tubes to visitors at the Jameos del Agua and the Cueva de los Verdes, and cut the Mirador del Río into a cliff above the sea. Art and geology working the same seam.

• Timanfaya National Park (volcanoes)
• Jameos del Agua (César Manrique)
• Cueva de los Verdes
• Mirador del Río

When to go to Lanzarote? →

Greece

☀️ 11.4 h/day · 🌧️ 9 mm/month · 🌡️ 17°C

Santorini's white villages line the rim of a flooded volcanic crater, terraces hanging over deep blue water. Oia takes its sunset seriously, and so does everyone who walks up for it. Down at sea level the beaches turn red and black with volcanic sand, and Akrotiri lies preserved beneath the ash, its streets and staircases still standing where they were left.

• Sunset at Oia
• Caldera and white villages
• Red beach and black beach
• Akrotiri archaeological site

When to go to Santorini? →

Morocco

☀️ 11.3 h/day · 🌧️ 20 mm/month · 🌡️ 20°C

You walk into the medina with a budget and a firm resolve, and mislay both somewhere around the third glass of mint tea. The souks arrive in colours that make sunglasses feel like a moral decision, which is why the Majorelle Garden exists: a cool blue pause before you plunge back towards Djemaa el-Fna. Even the palm trees look as though they are negotiating for shade.

• Djemaa el-Fna
• Medina and souks
• Majorelle Garden
• Bahia Palace

When to go to Marrakech? →

Spain

☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 19 mm/month · 🌡️ 18°C

Between the sea and the hills, Málaga keeps its Moorish past in plain view at the Alcazaba, while the busy lanes below lead to the Picasso Museum and the sand of La Malagueta. Inland, the Caminito del Rey runs as a walkway pinned to the wall of a gorge, high above the water. Fortress stone, modern art and southern light in one compact city.

• Alcazaba (Moorish fortress)
• Picasso Museum
• Caminito del Rey
• La Malagueta beach

When to go to Málaga? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

Egypt

☀️ 11.8 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 29°C

The Nile is at its most photogenic at Aswan: granite boulders, white sails and desert on both banks. Philae stands on its island, columns and pylons rising straight from the water, while Abu Simbel and its colossi lie upriver to the south. In town the souk sells hibiscus, spices and cotton, and Elephantine Island is a short ferry hop away.

• Abu Simbel (day trip, UNESCO)
• Philae Temple (island)
• Nile cruise
• Aswan souk and Elephantine Island

When to go to Aswan? →

India

☀️ 11.8 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 29°C

Mumbai runs on the sea and the timetable. The Gateway of India faces the harbour where boats leave for the Elephanta Caves and their rock-cut Shiva, and Marine Drive curves away in a long arc that switches on at dusk. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is Victorian Gothic at full volume, while Chowpatty handles the rest: bhelpuri, kulfi and the evening crowd.

• Gateway of India
• CST station (UNESCO)
• Marine Drive and Chowpatty
• Elephanta Caves (UNESCO, day trip)

When to go to Mumbai? →

Egypt

☀️ 11.9 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 28°C

Ras Mohammed, where two gulfs meet, hands Sharm El Sheikh some of the Red Sea's finest diving: sheer walls and coral gardens a short boat ride from shore. Naama Bay takes care of the rest, with sheltered swimming, dive centres and long evenings. Inland the Sinai turns granite and empty, and the classic outing is the night climb up Mount Sinai to meet the sunrise.

• Ras Mohammed National Park (diving)
• Naama Bay beach
• Sinai desert (day trip)
• Mount Sinai (sunrise)

When to go to Sharm El Sheikh? →

Egypt

☀️ 11.8 h/day · 🌧️ 1 mm/month · 🌡️ 28°C

Ancient Thebes spreads over both banks of the Nile, and a felucca is still the sensible way between them. Karnak's hypostyle hall is a forest of columns you walk through rather than look at, while Luxor Temple is best after dark, when the lighting picks out the reliefs. On the west bank lie the Valley of the Kings and the terraces of Hatshepsut's temple against the cliff.

• Karnak Temple
• Valley of the Kings
• Luxor Temple
• Temple of Hatshepsut

When to go to Luxor? →

India

☀️ 11.3 h/day · 🌧️ 2 mm/month · 🌡️ 30°C

White marble changes colour through the day, and this is where you notice it: the Taj Mahal is pink at sunrise and blinding by midday. Agra Fort answers in red sandstone, its audience halls and marble pavilions looking back along the river. Across the water, Itimad-ud-Daulah is a small jewel of inlaid stone, and Fatehpur Sikri, an abandoned imperial city, lies out to the west.

• Taj Mahal
• Agra Fort (UNESCO)
• Itimad-ud-Daulah's Tomb
• Fatehpur Sikri

When to go to Agra? →

Egypt

☀️ 11.8 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 25°C

Everything here points underwater: Red Sea coral just off the beach, and day boats out to the Giftun Islands for snorkelling over gardens of soft coral and reef fish. Back on land, the marina fills up in the evening with seafood restaurants and slow strolling. Behind the town, the Eastern Desert opens into flat gravel plains best crossed by 4x4.

• Coral reefs and diving (Red Sea)
• Giftun Islands (snorkelling)
• Marina Hurghada
• Eastern desert (4x4 day trip)

When to go to Hurghada? →

India

☀️ 11.1 h/day · 🌧️ 5 mm/month · 🌡️ 31°C

Mehrangarh rises straight out of its rock, and from the ramparts the old city below turns out to be almost entirely indigo. The lanes down there are narrow, steep and full of spice, textiles and temple bells, with the clock tower and Sardar Market at the centre. Just outside stands Jaswant Thada, white marble that glows when the light comes in low.

• Mehrangarh Fort
• Blue old town
• Jaswant Thada
• Clock tower and Sardar bazaar

When to go to Jodhpur? →

India

☀️ 10.9 h/day · 🌧️ 2 mm/month · 🌡️ 31°C

Varanasi meets the Ganges along a wall of stone ghats, and the way to see them is from a rowing boat at first light, when the bathers are already in the water. At dusk the Dashashwamedh ghat fills for the aarti, all lamps, bells and smoke. Behind it the old lanes run narrow and loud, while Sarnath, where the Buddha first taught, keeps its calm just outside the city.

• Ghats of the Ganges (Dashashwamedh, Manikarnika)
• Aarti ceremony (at sunset)
• Old town and alleyways
• Sarnath (day trip, Buddha's first sermon)

When to go to Varanasi? →