Best Time to Visit Europe, Month by Month
Pick a month and see which European destinations combine comfortable weather with comparatively light tourism pressure. Every number comes from long-term climate normals and official Eurostat regional tourism statistics — nothing is estimated by hand and nothing is sponsored.
47 destinations have both a verified monthly climate record and a matching Eurostat NUTS 2 tourism region. Scores blend climate suitability (60%) with relative crowd conditions (40%).
47 destinations ranked for September
1. BordeauxFrance
84 / 10018.4 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 61
Regional peak: August
2. BolognaItaly
81 / 10019.9 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 53
Regional peak: August
3. DubrovnikCroatia
80 / 10021.6 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 50
Regional peak: August
4. SplitCroatia
80 / 10020.9 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 50
Regional peak: August
5. CannesFrance
79 / 10020.2 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 47
Regional peak: August
6. MarseilleFrance
79 / 10020.2 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 47
Regional peak: August
7. BarcelonaSpain
76 / 10021.6 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 39
Regional peak: August
8. AlicanteSpain
75 / 10023.6 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 37
Regional peak: August
9. FlorenceItaly
75 / 10019.9 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 37
Regional peak: August
10. PalermoItaly
75 / 10023.7 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 37
Regional peak: August
11. NiceFrance
79 / 10020.2 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 47
Regional peak: August
12. SicilyItaly
75 / 10023.7 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 37
Regional peak: August
13. ValenciaSpain
75 / 10023.6 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 37
Regional peak: August
14. Amalfi CoastItaly
74 / 10022.2 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 35
Regional peak: August
15. NaplesItaly
74 / 10022.2 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 35
Regional peak: August
16. PortoPortugal
74 / 10019.7 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 36
Regional peak: August
17. MalagaSpain
72 / 10022.6 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 29
Regional peak: August
18. MarbellaSpain
72 / 10022.6 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 29
Regional peak: August
19. MilanItaly
72 / 10019.1 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 30
Regional peak: August
20. AlgarvePortugal
71 / 10020.8 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 28
Regional peak: August
21. FaroPortugal
71 / 10020.8 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 28
Regional peak: August
22. SevilleSpain
71 / 10024.6 °C average in September · climate 99 · quiet 29
Regional peak: August
23. AthensGreece
70 / 10023.8 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 25
Regional peak: August
24. CreteGreece
68 / 10023.9 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 21
Regional peak: August
25. RomeItaly
68 / 10021.4 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 19
Regional peak: July
26. IbizaSpain
67 / 10023.5 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 17
Regional peak: August
27. Palma de MallorcaSpain
67 / 10023.5 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 17
Regional peak: August
28. MadridSpain
66 / 10020.8 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 16
Regional peak: October
29. TenerifeSpain
66 / 10021.9 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 15
Regional peak: August
30. LisbonPortugal
65 / 10020.6 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 13
Regional peak: August
31. MadeiraPortugal
65 / 10021.9 °C average in September · climate 100 · quiet 12
Regional peak: August
32. BudapestHungary
64 / 10016.2 °C average in September · climate 90 · quiet 24
Regional peak: August
33. InterlakenSwitzerland
63 / 10015.0 °C average in September · climate 80 · quiet 37
Regional peak: July
34. ViennaAustria
61 / 10015.9 °C average in September · climate 87 · quiet 21
Regional peak: December
35. KrakowPoland
59 / 10014.1 °C average in September · climate 75 · quiet 36
Regional peak: August
36. ParisFrance
57 / 10015.7 °C average in September · climate 85 · quiet 16
Regional peak: July
37. DublinIreland
57 / 10013.8 °C average in September · climate 73 · quiet 34
Regional peak: August
38. CopenhagenDenmark
57 / 10013.4 °C average in September · climate 71 · quiet 35
Regional peak: July
39. ZurichSwitzerland
56 / 10015.0 °C average in September · climate 80 · quiet 20
Regional peak: July
40. AmsterdamNetherlands
56 / 10014.7 °C average in September · climate 78 · quiet 23
Regional peak: August
41. PragueCzech Republic
54 / 10014.7 °C average in September · climate 78 · quiet 18
Regional peak: August
42. OsloNorway
53 / 10011.8 °C average in September · climate 64 · quiet 37
Regional peak: July
43. BerlinGermany
52 / 10014.4 °C average in September · climate 77 · quiet 15
Regional peak: July
44. MunichGermany
52 / 10013.8 °C average in September · climate 73 · quiet 20
Regional peak: August
45. WarsawPoland
50 / 10013.5 °C average in September · climate 72 · quiet 18
Regional peak: August
46. StockholmSweden
50 / 10011.8 °C average in September · climate 64 · quiet 30
Regional peak: July
47. ReykjavikIceland
43 / 1008.6 °C average in September · climate 48 · quiet 35
Regional peak: July
Compare the year
Put up to 5 destinations side by side and see how their Best Month Score moves through the year. Higher is better.
Compare up to 5 destinations
| Destination | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crete | ||||||||||||
| Barcelona | ||||||||||||
| Porto |
Hover, tap or focus a cell to see the weather, crowd and temperature detail behind it.
How the Best Month Score works
- Best Month Score = 60% climate score + 40% crowd score, rounded to a whole number out of 100. The two inputs are always shown next to it.
- Climate score uses the destination’s long-term monthly mean air temperature. A monthly mean of 18–24 °C scores 100; the score falls away smoothly on both sides (roughly 80 at 15 °C, 65 at 30 °C, 15 at 0 °C), so hotter is explicitly not treated as better. The curve is a monotone interpolation between those anchors, so neighbouring temperatures never jump.
- Crowd score = 85% monthly seasonality + 15% tourism intensity. Seasonality compares the month with the destination region’s own busiest month: a month with half the nights of the regional peak scores 50, the peak month itself scores 0.
- Tourism intensity is the region’s annual nights spent per 1 000 inhabitants, ranked against every other region in this index. Regions carrying the heaviest visitor load relative to their population score lowest, so a quiet month in a saturated region is not presented as uncrowded.
- Tourism figures are averaged over the last complete calendar years, 2022, 2023, 2024, to smooth single-year anomalies. A destination is only included when its region reports all twelve months in at least two of those years; partial months are never read as zero.
- In the default ranking only the highest-scoring destination is listed in the top ten when several destinations share both the same NUTS 2 tourism region and an identical climate record; the others keep their scores and simply appear further down, and every filter or sort shows the full list.
- Matching is a fixed, documented mapping from each destination to one Eurostat NUTS 2 region (NUTS 2021) — for example Barcelona to Cataluña and Paris to Île-de-France. Destinations in the same region share the same tourism pattern but keep their own climate record, which is why their scores differ.
- Only destinations with both a verified monthly climate record and a Eurostat monthly NUTS 2 region are ranked. The United Kingdom, Türkiye and non-European destinations are not in this dataset and are excluded rather than estimated.
About the data
Tourism figures measure nights spent at hotels and similar accommodation establishments. They are a proxy for visitor pressure, not a headcount: day visitors, cruise passengers and unregistered stays are not included, and a region is always larger than the city at its centre.
Climate figures are long-term monthly averages, not a forecast. They describe a typical month, so an individual trip can be warmer, cooler or wetter than the average suggests. Rainfall, sea temperature, humidity and daylight are not part of this score.
Sources: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments by month and NUTS 2 region (from 2020 onwards) (tour_occ_nin2m), reference years 2022–2024; climate normals from GeoRank / CHELSA v2.1 (1981-2010). Snapshot generated 2026-08-31 and served as static data — no external service is called when this page loads.