Where to go in January?

France · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 7.8 h/day · 🌧️ 20 mm/month · 🌡️ 8°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

☀️ 7.6 h/day · 🌧️ 19 mm/month · 🌡️ 8°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 · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 7.5 h/day · 🌧️ 15 mm/month · 🌡️ 5°C

Plane trees and fountains run the length of the Cours Mirabeau, 18th-century façades on one side, café terraces on the other. Cézanne's studio has been left much as he used it, north light and all, and the Sainte-Victoire he painted again and again rises to the east. In the old streets the fountains keep coming, low and green with moss.

• Cours Mirabeau
• Cézanne's studio
• Old town and fountains
• Montagne Sainte-Victoire (day trip)

When to go to Aix-en-Provence? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 7.5 h/day · 🌧️ 18 mm/month · 🌡️ 6°C

Under the Alpilles, Saint-Rémy keeps Glanum at its southern gate: a Greek then Roman town whose arch and mausoleum never fell, standing right by the road. Next door, the cloister of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole is the asylum where Van Gogh painted more than a hundred and fifty canvases in a single year. On Wednesdays the market takes the whole centre.

• Glanum archaeological site
• Saint-Paul-de-Mausole cloister (Van Gogh)
• Alpilles hiking trails
• Wednesday market

When to go to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 7.4 h/day · 🌧️ 19 mm/month · 🌡️ 7°C

Van Gogh's yellow light is still the local currency, and the foundation that carries his name shows contemporary artists against it. The Roman arena and theatre stand inside the town rather than beside it, tiers of seating opening straight onto everyday streets, with the cryptoporticoes running underground below. St Trophime's cloister keeps its carved arcades and its shade.

• Roman arena (UNESCO)
• Ancient theatre and cryptoporticoes
• Vincent van Gogh Foundation
• Saint-Trophime cloister

When to go to Arles? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Vaucluse

☀️ 7.5 h/day · 🌧️ 27 mm/month · 🌡️ 4°C

Dry stone is the material of the whole plateau: Gordes stacks its pale houses up a spur above the Luberon, lanes curling towards the castle and long views over the valley. Below, Sénanque abbey stands in its lavender field, and the Village des Bories preserves beehive huts built without mortar. A short drive away, Roussillon's ochre quarries turn the same landscape orange.

• Listed hilltop village (one of the finest)
• Sénanque abbey (lavender in July)
• Village des Bories (drystone huts)
• Roussillon and ochre cliffs (day trip)

When to go to Gordes? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Gard

☀️ 7.4 h/day · 🌧️ 25 mm/month · 🌡️ 8°C

Complete ramparts enclose the whole town, a grid of straight lanes anchored by the Tour de Constance. Step outside the gates and the Camargue takes over: salt pans tinted pink, flamingos picking through the shallows, white horses standing in the marsh grass. The light coming off all that water is what people remember afterwards.

• Medieval ramparts (Constance tower)
• Salins du Midi (flamingos)
• Camargue
• Pedestrianised old town

When to go to Aigues-Mortes? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Var

☀️ 7.6 h/day · 🌧️ 27 mm/month · 🌡️ 8°C

Red porphyry meets clear water along the Corniche d'Or, the coast road that bends between the town and the calanques of Le Dramont. The old harbour keeps its cafés and its morning market, and neighbouring Fréjus adds a Roman amphitheatre to the itinerary. Swimming, walking and a little archaeology, all within a few kilometres of each other.

• Calanques du Dramont
• Old harbour
• Corniche d'Or
• Fréjus (Roman arena)

When to go to Saint-Raphaël? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

Morocco

☀️ 9.5 h/day · 🌧️ 1 mm/month · 🌡️ 17°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? →

Morocco

☀️ 9.5 h/day · 🌧️ 6 mm/month · 🌡️ 16°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

☀️ 9.5 h/day · 🌧️ 14 mm/month · 🌡️ 18°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? →

Spain

☀️ 9.5 h/day · 🌧️ 9 mm/month · 🌡️ 18°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? →

Morocco

☀️ 9.1 h/day · 🌧️ 13 mm/month · 🌡️ 13°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

☀️ 9.4 h/day · 🌧️ 31 mm/month · 🌡️ 18°C

Everything on Tenerife arranges itself around Teide, a volcano that pushes through the cloud layer and turns the land at its feet into red-black desert. Down on the coast, Playa de las Américas keeps up its noise and its sunloungers, while the Anaga range holds dripping laurel forest under near-permanent mist. Loro Parque adds tropical colour and birdsong.

• Teide National Park (UNESCO)
• Playa de las Américas
• Loro Parque
• Anaga laurel forest

When to go to Tenerife (Santa Cruz)? →

Morocco

☀️ 9.4 h/day · 🌧️ 10 mm/month · 🌡️ 10°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? →

Tunisia

☀️ 8.6 h/day · 🌧️ 18 mm/month · 🌡️ 13°C

Flat, sandy and full of date palms, Djerba does island life at low volume. Houmt Souk trades pottery, silver and sponges under whitewashed arcades, while Sidi Mahrès unrolls a long strip of shallow warm water. Inland, the village of Erriadh has been covered in murals by artists from around the world, and the Ghriba, one of North Africa's oldest synagogues, keeps its painted blue interior nearby.

• Houmt Souk (medina and souks)
• Ghriba Synagogue
• Sidi Mahrès beaches
• Erriadh (Djerbahood street art village)

When to go to Djerba? →

Australia

☀️ 13.1 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 25°C

Kings Park looks over the Swan River and the skyline from a ridge of bushland big enough to get lost in, eucalypts and wildflowers included. Cottesloe takes care of the Indian Ocean swim, and the ferry to Rottnest Island delivers bicycles, white bays and quokkas that pose without being asked. Fremantle, down at the port, keeps its limestone warehouses and its working-town character.

• Kings Park (panorama and botanical garden)
• Cottesloe Beach
• Fremantle (historic port)
• Rottnest Island (quokkas, day trip)

When to go to Perth? →

Chile

☀️ 13.6 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 21°C

The Andes close off the end of most streets here, and from Cerro San Cristóbal you get the city with the snowline behind it. The Mercado Central is where lunch happens: conger eel, sea urchins, whatever came up the coast that morning. Between the Plaza de Armas with its cathedral and bohemian Bellavista, where Neruda's La Chascona is open to visitors, the capital changes register block by block.

• Cerro San Cristóbal (panorama)
• Plaza de Armas and cathedral
• Bellavista (La Chascona, Neruda's house)
• Mercado Central (seafood)

When to go to Santiago? →

Colombia

☀️ 11.2 h/day · 🌧️ 13 mm/month · 🌡️ 27°C

Cartagena's old town sits inside its Caribbean ramparts, a grid of ochre façades, bougainvillea and balconies that catch the last of the light. Castillo San Felipe de Barajas rises on its hill above the bay, all stone ramps and tunnels. Getsemaní next door is painted walls and busy squares, and the Islas del Rosario lie an hour offshore in water clear enough to read through.

• Fortified old town (UNESCO)
• Castillo San Felipe de Barajas
• Islas del Rosario (day trip)
• Getsemaní (colourful quarter)

When to go to Cartagena? →

Argentina

☀️ 12.3 h/day · 🌧️ 46 mm/month · 🌡️ 26°C

Vines run right up to the foot of the Andes here, and Malbec is what they are for. The bodegas of Maipú and Luján de Cuyo pour it a short drive from Mendoza, usually with a long lunch attached. When the tasting is done the cordillera takes over, with Aconcagua within a day's reach and Parque General San Martín keeping the shade in town.

• Wine route (Malbec)
• Maipú and Luján de Cuyo wineries
• Andes (Aconcagua, day trip)
• General San Martín Park

When to go to Mendoza? →

India

☀️ 10.6 h/day · 🌧️ 2 mm/month · 🌡️ 23°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? →

South Africa

☀️ 13.1 h/day · 🌧️ 11 mm/month · 🌡️ 21°C

Table Mountain drops its flat grey wall straight into Cape Town, and the cable car up it takes minutes. Beyond, the peninsula road winds past beaches and baboons to the Cape of Good Hope, while Bo-Kaap's lime, pink and cobalt houses climb the slope behind the centre. Boats cross the bay to Robben Island and its museum.

• Table Mountain
• Cape Peninsula and Cape of Good Hope
• Robben Island
• Bo-Kaap district

When to go to Cape Town? →

India

☀️ 10.7 h/day · 🌧️ 11 mm/month · 🌡️ 25°C

Portugal left its churches at Old Goa, vast and whitewashed above the Mandovi, and its street plan in Fontainhas, where the houses are painted ochre, blue and green with tiled name plates. The beaches then take over: Baga busy, Anjuna with its Wednesday flea market, Palolem a calm crescent in the south. Vindaloo, xacuti and feni round it off.

• Old Goa (Portuguese churches, UNESCO)
• Fontainhas (Latin quarter)
• Anjuna, Baga and Palolem beaches
• Anjuna flea market (Wednesday)

When to go to Goa (Panaji)? →

Chile

☀️ 12.5 h/day · 🌧️ 11 mm/month · 🌡️ 20°C

An adobe village in the world's driest desert, San Pedro sends visitors out in every direction: to the sculpted ridges of the Valle de la Luna at sunset, to the El Tatio geysers steaming in the cold before dawn, to the flamingo lagoons of the Salar de Atacama. After dark the sky is so clear that the observatories queue up for it.

• Valle de la Luna
• El Tatio geysers (sunrise)
• Salar de Atacama (Andean lagoons)
• Stargazing (clearest skies)

When to go to San Pedro de Atacama? →