Where to go in March?
In March, the sun doesn't shine the same way everywhere. Calvi and a handful of other destinations come out on top: here's our pick of breaks, ranked by the average climate recorded over the last three years. Estimated from 3 years of data (sunshine, rain, clear skies, temperature), across 414 destinations.
Breaks in France
No passport needed: the corners of France where the sun puts in overtime in March.
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Calvi 67
France · Haute-Corse
☀️ 9.7 h/day · 🌧️ 69 mm/month · 🌡️ 13°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
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Bonifacio 67
France · Corse-du-Sud
☀️ 9.5 h/day · 🌧️ 61 mm/month · 🌡️ 12°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
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Marseille 65
France · Bouches-du-Rhône
☀️ 9.3 h/day · 🌧️ 62 mm/month · 🌡️ 11°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)
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Cassis 65
France · Bouches-du-Rhône
☀️ 9.2 h/day · 🌧️ 65 mm/month · 🌡️ 12°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
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France · Corse-du-Sud
☀️ 9.4 h/day · 🌧️ 89 mm/month · 🌡️ 12°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
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Menton 64
France · Alpes-Maritimes
☀️ 9.3 h/day · 🌧️ 86 mm/month · 🌡️ 12°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
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France · Var
☀️ 9.3 h/day · 🌧️ 86 mm/month · 🌡️ 11°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)
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France · Bouches-du-Rhône
☀️ 9.1 h/day · 🌧️ 74 mm/month · 🌡️ 10°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)
Close to home
A few hours by train or plane, and the sky already looks different in March — no need to cross the planet.
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Spain
☀️ 11.3 h/day · 🌧️ 6 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°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
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Lanzarote 82
Spain
☀️ 11.3 h/day · 🌧️ 8 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
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Ouarzazate 80
Morocco
☀️ 10.8 h/day · 🌧️ 2 mm/month · 🌡️ 16°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)
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Djerba 80
Tunisia
☀️ 10.3 h/day · 🌧️ 7 mm/month · 🌡️ 17°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)
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Agadir 78
Morocco
☀️ 10.6 h/day · 🌧️ 26 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)
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Spain
☀️ 11.1 h/day · 🌧️ 36 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
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Valletta 76
Malta
☀️ 10.4 h/day · 🌧️ 22 mm/month · 🌡️ 15°C
Valletta fills a narrow peninsula between two harbours, laid out on a grid of golden limestone and very steep steps. St John's Co-Cathedral hides a riot of gilt and marble behind a plain front, along with Caravaggio's Beheading of St John the Baptist. From the Upper Barrakka Gardens you look down on the Grand Harbour and across to the Three Cities, a short ferry ride over the water.
- St John's Co-Cathedral (Caravaggio)
- Upper Barrakka Gardens (panorama)
- Grandmaster's Palace
- Three Cities (boat trip)
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Las Palmas 75
Spain
☀️ 11.0 h/day · 🌧️ 54 mm/month · 🌡️ 18°C
Las Palmas has a proper city beach: Las Canteras, a long golden arc where the Atlantic rolls in gently, surfers at one end and swimmers at the other. Inland, the Vegueta quarter keeps its cobbles, colonial balconies and the Casa de Colón, while the Viera y Clavijo botanical garden gathers the island's subtropical flora into a single ravine.
- Las Canteras beach
- Vegueta old town
- Casa de Colón
- Viera y Clavijo Botanical Garden
Further afield
If you have time to spare, here's where in the world summer is hiding in March.
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Hampi 93
India
☀️ 11.7 h/day · 🌧️ 1 mm/month · 🌡️ 30°C
Boulders the size of houses tumble across the landscape at Hampi, and among them stand the temples of the old Vijayanagara capital. Virupaksha works as a temple rather than a ruin, with flower offerings and drums at dusk, while the stone chariot at the Vittala complex remains the image everyone carries away. Late in the day the granite turns amber and every rock becomes a viewpoint.
- Archaeological site (UNESCO, former Vijayanagara empire)
- Virupaksha Temple
- Stone chariot (Vittala Temple)
- Granite boulder landscape
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Mumbai 90
India
☀️ 11.1 h/day · 🌧️ 5 mm/month · 🌡️ 27°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)
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Goa (Panaji) 90
India
☀️ 11.2 h/day · 🌧️ 4 mm/month · 🌡️ 28°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)
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Santiago 90
Chile
☀️ 11.7 h/day · 🌧️ 1 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)
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Luxor 89
Egypt
☀️ 11.5 h/day · 🌧️ 1 mm/month · 🌡️ 22°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
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Jodhpur 88
India
☀️ 10.9 h/day · 🌧️ 3 mm/month · 🌡️ 26°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
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Aswan 88
Egypt
☀️ 11.4 h/day · 🌧️ 4 mm/month · 🌡️ 22°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
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Udaipur 87
India
☀️ 11.2 h/day · 🌧️ 11 mm/month · 🌡️ 24°C
Lake Pichola does the work here, reflecting the City Palace along its whole length and turning the Lake Palace into a white shape apparently floating offshore. Inside the palace, courtyards give way to mirrored rooms and terraces looking over the water. Jagdish Mandir stands at the top of the bazaar steps, and the garden of Saheliyon-ki-Bari keeps its fountains and marble elephants.
- City Palace on Lake Pichola
- Lake Palace (palace on the lake)
- Jagdish Mandir
- Saheliyon-ki-Bari (gardens)
For a getaway right now: where to go this weekend?
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