Where to Go for Winter Sun: 7 Places for the Holiday You Actually Want

Research checked 24 September 2026 · November 2026-February 2027

You can learn quite a lot about a holiday at three in the afternoon.

Someone is still in the sea. Someone else has moved their chair into the last patch of sun. A child is standing beside a beautiful hotel pool, refusing to put a toe in it. All three families booked somewhere “warm”.

That word does a remarkable amount of work in travel advertising.

Before choosing a destination, picture your own afternoon. Do you want to read outside with a jumper nearby? Swim until you lose track of time? Take a long lunch, then walk somewhere interesting? There are good trips here for all three. The expensive mistake is booking one while imagining another.

The best winter sun destinations at a glance

The climate table uses January averages as a common midwinter benchmark: average daytime maximum, sea temperature and hours of bright sunshine per day. These are climate guides, not a forecast for January 2027. Click each figure for its source. Tenerife uses the southern airport; Phuket represents the Andaman option and Hurghada represents the Red Sea option. Nearby coasts can differ.

Flight times are published outbound durations from London, with the airport shown; they exclude check-in and hotel transfers. Services can be seasonal. The listed Gatwick-Phuket service starts in December, so November may require a connection. Check the timetable for your dates before booking.

Suggested stays are our editorial recommendations, excluding travel days. A complicated journey can make a short stay poor value. Use the way Max builds a trip to compare the whole holiday around your dates and priorities.

Southern Tenerife: short-haul winter sun with options

Choose southern Tenerife when one person wants a week beside the pool and another starts asking about day trips before breakfast. Base yourself around a beach you can actually walk to. Las Vistas brings sand, a promenade and places to eat into the same afternoon.

The hotel is half the decision. A lovely pool is of limited use if nobody wants to get in. Confirm which pool is heated during your stay, including the children’s pool, and whether its terrace catches afternoon sun.

Allow five to seven nights. Leave some days empty. You do not need to turn an island with plenty to do into a list of things you must do. The sea stays Atlantic: swimmers who need warm water should read the temperature column before booking.

Gran Canaria: winter sun without a full diary

Choose the south of Gran Canaria for beach walks, outdoor lunches and a resort week that settles into a rhythm. Maspalomas and Meloneras make sense when a promenade and somewhere for dinner matter more than changing scenery every morning.

The distinction between north and south matters. Gran Canaria’s climate guide explains the island’s contrasting conditions; an island-wide weather icon cannot tell you how a particular terrace will feel.

For five to seven nights, prioritise an easy daily routine. Check the route to the beach, pool heating and shelter from the wind. These are small questions with a surprisingly large effect on a week away.

Madeira: for people who feel better after a long walk

Madeira suits the traveller who says they need a rest, then spends the first morning looking at a map.

Build the trip around Funchal, meals worth lingering over and outings chosen close to the day. Five to seven nights leaves room to move a walk when the weather changes. It also leaves time for the enjoyable business of doing less than you planned.

Book Madeira for the days on land. Its official winter weather guidance describes mild conditions and cool seas. Keep mountain plans flexible: rain, wind and fog can affect access. Check trail status before setting off.

If your ideal afternoon includes walking shoes drying by the door and deciding where to eat, Madeira makes sense. For hours in warm seawater, choose a tropical option.

Cyprus: a November coastal break

Cyprus earns its place through a modest promise: a change of scene, a long lunch and a day that does not need filling from morning to night.

Choose November first. The tourism authority’s seasonal guidance for Cyprus distinguishes its warmer November days from cooler, sometimes rainy midwinter weather. A January stay needs a different brief.

Spend three to five nights in Paphos with a comfortable hotel and restaurants within easy reach. Check seasonal opening dates. Walk by the harbour, explore the archaeological sites and leave room for a second coffee.

The mistake is bringing a July itinerary into January. A coastal walk makes an excellent winter afternoon; it will not satisfy someone who was promised a swimming holiday.

Dubai: beach, pool and city in one winter holiday

Dubai works when the group has competing ideas of fun. There can be a beach day, a pool day and a city day without changing hotels.

Choose your address around the things you will repeat. A cheaper room becomes less appealing when reaching the beach turns into a daily project. Budget for meals, beach access and the attractions you actually intend to visit, as well as the room.

For five to seven nights, leave gaps between outings. Buying another ticket is rarely the answer to an overtired afternoon. Sometimes the best thing a hotel offers is being easy to return to.

Start with Max’s Dubai and Abu Dhabi family itinerary, then adapt its pace to your own stay. Its destination-focused planning route is useful if you already know you want the Emirates. Confirm winter pool heating before relying on daily swimming.

Phuket or Krabi: where to go for winter sun and warm seas

If your imagined afternoon involves getting into the sea without negotiating with yourself, choose Thailand’s Andaman coast.

Phuket and Krabi belong on the same shortlist, but they are not interchangeable hotel locations. Decide whether you want to walk out for dinner, stay mainly at a resort or take boat trips. Then choose the beach and transfers to match. An island name tells you very little about an ordinary Tuesday there.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand places the Andaman high season from November onwards. For a trip built around swimming, favour December to February; November is the transition into that season. Rain and rough-sea days remain possible.

Allow nine to twelve nights after a long-haul journey. With a shorter stay, use one base. A boat ride can be a lovely day out; carrying your luggage onto one every few days is a different experience. Follow local beach flags and boat operators’ weather decisions.

Egypt’s Red Sea: Hurghada or Marsa Alam for reef time

Choose Hurghada when you want a resort holiday with a straightforward London flight. Choose Marsa Alam when the reef and the hotel’s immediate coastline are the main attraction. Egypt’s tourism board describes the Red Sea’s mix of beaches and water activities, but the useful question is much smaller: how do you get into the water at your hotel?

Ask whether there is sandy entry, whether the house reef needs a jetty, and what happens when wind closes that access. A “beachfront” address does not answer any of those questions. For longer snorkelling sessions, ask a local dive centre about suitable thermal protection.

Allow five to seven nights and choose a heated pool as a fallback. Hurghada’s January climate figures describe mild afternoons and cooler evenings, not tropical heat. Check the airport and transfer for the property: a flight to Hurghada is not a flight to Marsa Alam.

Where to go for winter sun, month by month

November: Cyprus, Tenerife or Hurghada

Choose Cyprus for a short coastal break, southern Tenerife for a longer pool-and-promenade stay, or Hurghada for resort and reef time. November is the month to make the most of Cyprus before midwinter changes the character of the trip.

December: Dubai, Phuket or Gran Canaria

Choose Dubai for mixed family interests, Phuket for a long beach holiday, or southern Gran Canaria for a simpler Atlantic resort week. Price early December separately from Christmas and New Year. The same hotel can represent a very different purchase a fortnight later.

January: Krabi, Dubai or Madeira

Choose Krabi for sea swimming, Dubai for beach and city days, or Madeira for gardens, meals and flexible walks. January makes the distinction between warm air and warm water especially useful.

February: Phuket, Tenerife or Hurghada

Choose Phuket for a longer escape, Tenerife for a hotel with confirmed pool heating, or Hurghada for reef time with a comfortable resort fallback. Compare the precise school-holiday week if travelling with children.

Before booking a winter-sun hotel, ask these five questions

1. Which pool is heated on our dates? Ask for the normal operating temperature and whether the children’s pool is included.
2. Does the terrace get afternoon sun? Recent winter photographs tell you more than a summer brochure.
3. Can we comfortably walk to dinner? Check hills, crossings and the actual route.
4. What will we do on a windy or rainy day? One good alternative is enough.
5. How many usable holiday days are we buying? Count connections, transfers and late arrivals as well as nights.

Our guide to when to book flights and hotels helps with the purchase timing. Compare flexibility alongside the final price.

Winter sun questions worth asking

Tell Max what your afternoon should look like

Give Max your departure airport, dates, travellers and total budget. Then add the detail that matters: “We want to swim every day”, “A heated pool is enough”, or “We mainly want walks and lunch outside”. Include a maximum journey time.

Use the sample itineraries for a sense of pace. The destination can come next. First, decide what you want to be doing at three.