Where to go in May?

France · Pyrénées-Orientales

☀️ 12.0 h/day · 🌧️ 46 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°C

The bell tower of Notre-Dame-des-Anges was a lighthouse before it was a steeple, and it has stood in the water making the postcard ever since Matisse and Derain invented Fauvism here — a marked trail sets their canvases where they were painted. The royal castle closes the bay, anchovies are still salted in town, and the Côte Vermeille runs on in coves to the Spanish border.

• Royal castle on the shore
• Notre-Dame-des-Anges and its lighthouse belfry
• Fauvism trail (Matisse, Derain)
• Coves of the Côte Vermeille

When to go to Collioure? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Bouches-du-Rhône

☀️ 12.1 h/day · 🌧️ 48 mm/month · 🌡️ 18°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 · Alpes-Maritimes

☀️ 12.1 h/day · 🌧️ 50 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°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

☀️ 12.1 h/day · 🌧️ 50 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°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 · Var

☀️ 12.2 h/day · 🌧️ 61 mm/month · 🌡️ 18°C

Pampelonne's sand runs for kilometres south of the village, while the citadel looks down on ochre roofs and a harbour that still lands fish. On market days the Place des Lices fills with produce and craft stalls under the plane trees. In a former Renaissance chapel, the Musée de l'Annonciade shows Fauve and Pointillist canvases in carefully softened light.

• Pampelonne beaches
• Saint-Tropez citadel
• Musée de l'Annonciade
• Place des Lices

When to go to Saint-Tropez? →

🚆 By train🚌 By bus

France · Corse-du-Sud

☀️ 12.2 h/day · 🌧️ 59 mm/month · 🌡️ 18°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

☀️ 11.8 h/day · 🌧️ 66 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°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 · Alpes-Maritimes

☀️ 11.8 h/day · 🌧️ 58 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°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

Morocco

☀️ 12.4 h/day · 🌧️ 6 mm/month · 🌡️ 23°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

☀️ 12.0 h/day · 🌧️ 14 mm/month · 🌡️ 23°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? →

Cyprus

☀️ 12.6 h/day · 🌧️ 20 mm/month · 🌡️ 21°C

The floor mosaics in the archaeological park come first: Dionysus, Theseus and Orpheus laid out in coloured stone where Roman villas once stood. West along the shore, the Tombs of the Kings are cut deep into the rock beside the sea. The harbour keeps a small castle, fish tavernas and the road towards Aphrodite's Rock.

• Archaeological park (Roman mosaics, UNESCO)
• Tombs of the Kings
• Aphrodite's Rock
• Old town and harbour

When to go to Paphos? →

Tunisia

☀️ 11.8 h/day · 🌧️ 22 mm/month · 🌡️ 23°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? →

Morocco

☀️ 12.2 h/day · 🌧️ 1 mm/month · 🌡️ 20°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

☀️ 12.5 h/day · 🌧️ 3 mm/month · 🌡️ 19°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? →

Greece

☀️ 12.8 h/day · 🌧️ 21 mm/month · 🌡️ 21°C

The Knights of St John left Rhodes a walled medieval town people still live in, a warren of cobbles, arches and courtyards below the Palace of the Grand Masters. Down the coast, Lindos stacks white houses beneath an acropolis on a headland above two bays. Anthony Quinn Bay keeps its clear water and pine-backed rocks for anyone willing to swim off stones.

• Medieval old town (UNESCO)
• Palace of the Grand Master
• Lindos and its acropolis
• Anthony Quinn beach

When to go to Rhodes? →

Spain

☀️ 12.4 h/day · 🌧️ 6 mm/month · 🌡️ 21°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? →

Egypt

☀️ 12.1 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 32°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? →

Egypt

☀️ 12.1 h/day · 🌧️ 0 mm/month · 🌡️ 31°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? →

Egypt

☀️ 12.5 h/day · 🌧️ 2 mm/month · 🌡️ 30°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? →

United Arab Emirates

☀️ 11.9 h/day · 🌧️ 5 mm/month · 🌡️ 30°C

Two cities, really. There is the Burj Khalifa and the mall at its foot, where the fountains perform against the tallest tower in the world, and there is old Dubai over the creek, reached by wooden abra. Bastakiya keeps its wind towers and courtyard houses, the gold and spice souks keep their haggling, and offshore Palm Jumeirah curls into the Gulf with Atlantis at its tip.

• Burj Khalifa (world's tallest tower)
• Dubai Mall and Fountains
• Old Dubai (Bastakiya, gold and spice souks)
• Palm Jumeirah and Atlantis

When to go to Dubai? →

United Arab Emirates

☀️ 11.9 h/day · 🌧️ 12 mm/month · 🌡️ 31°C

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is the set piece: white marble, inlaid flowers and reflecting pools that double everything at dusk. On Saadiyat, the Louvre Abu Dhabi shelters its galleries under a perforated dome that filters the light into a slow rain of dots. The Corniche unrolls beach and cycle path along the whole waterfront, while Yas Island keeps the theme parks and the Grand Prix circuit.

• Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
• Louvre Abu Dhabi
• Abu Dhabi Corniche
• Yas Island (Ferrari World, F1)

When to go to Abu Dhabi? →

Egypt

☀️ 12.4 h/day · 🌧️ 1 mm/month · 🌡️ 27°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

☀️ 10.9 h/day · 🌧️ 13 mm/month · 🌡️ 34°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

☀️ 11.6 h/day · 🌧️ 15 mm/month · 🌡️ 32°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)

When to go to Udaipur? →