Where to go in July

July is one of the even months — the shoulder seasons line up on both sides of the equator, so the list below spans 12 northern and 12 southern destinations. That makes it one of the better months for going somewhere unusual rather than somewhere obvious. On the scoring used here, the strongest single destination in July is Arequipa — 24.3 °C, rain on 0 days, and 100 out of 100.

Against June, the map has moved: Jabalpur (+28), Nagpur (+26) and Bhopal (+25) improve most sharply on June, while Sacramento (-40), Boise (-37) and Tri-Cities (-37) fall away fastest. Those are the places where a fortnight's difference in your dates changes the trip.

Depending on what you are actually after in July: for heat with low odds of rain, Naples at 33 °C across 5 wet days, for the driest month outright, Hurghada with 0 rain days and for mild rather than hot, Nanaimo at 23.9 °C with 7 rain days.

Every strong destination this month is also in its own high season, which is the trade July asks you to accept: the weather is not the constraint, the price is.

Ranked on a 0–100 score combining temperature, rain days, heavy-rain days and humidity, computed from NASA POWER daily data 2001–2020. Capped at three cities per country so the list stays useful rather than becoming one coastline.

Best July destinations

1. 1 Arequipa Peru 24.3 °C and notably dry air at 34% humidity.
2. 2 Tangier Morocco 26.6 °C, lows of 20.6 °C, rain on 0 days.
3. 3 San Francisco United States 22.8 °C, lows of 12.5 °C, rain on 0 days.
4. 4 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Spain 23.1 °C, though at 84% humidity it feels heavier than the number suggests.
5. 5 Irvine United States 22.4 °C, lows of 18.2 °C, rain on 0 days.
6. 6 Port Said Egypt 26.4 °C, lows of 25.5 °C, rain on 0 days.
7. 7 Málaga Spain 27.3 °C, lows of 22.3 °C, rain on 0 days.
8. 8 Firá Greece 25.2 °C, lows of 22.4 °C, rain on 1 day.
9. 9 Belo Horizonte Brazil 26 °C, but only 11 hours of daylight; short days for an otherwise good month.
10. 10 Brasília Brazil 27.4 °C and notably dry air at 54% humidity.
11. 11 Pretoria South Africa 20.9 °C and notably dry air at 44% humidity.
12. 12 Córdoba Argentina Cooler than most of this list at 20.3 °C — the option if heat is the thing you are avoiding.
13. 13 San Miguel de Tucumán Argentina 22.1 °C and notably dry air at 59% humidity.
14. 14 Salta Argentina 25.4 °C and notably dry air at 46% humidity.
15. 15 Lisbon Portugal 22.2 °C, lows of 17.4 °C, rain on 1 day.
16. 16 Funchal Portugal 22.1 °C, lows of 19.4 °C, rain on 1 day.
17. 17 Mount Isa Australia 26 °C and notably dry air at 37% humidity.
18. 18 Alice Springs Australia 21.7 °C and notably dry air at 45% humidity.
19. 19 Eugene United States 25.7 °C by day falling to 12.4 °C overnight — hot afternoons, cool sleeping.
20. 20 Aveiro Portugal 26 °C, lows of 16 °C, rain on 2 days.
21. 21 Dodoma Tanzania 27.8 °C and notably dry air at 59% humidity.
22. 22 Cagliari Italy 27.6 °C, lows of 23.4 °C, rain on 1 day.
23. 23 Townsville Australia 25.9 °C, but only 11.1 hours of daylight; short days for an otherwise good month.
24. 24 Zanzibar Tanzania 27 °C, but only 11.8 hours of daylight; short days for an otherwise good month.

Where to avoid in July

• Ludhiana India 26 days above 35 °C — the month is the problem, not a heatwave within it.
• Ushuaia Argentina Highs of 2.7 °C, and 20 nights below freezing.
• Delhi India 19 days above 35 °C — the month is the problem, not a heatwave within it.
• Agra India 20 days above 35 °C — the month is the problem, not a heatwave within it.
• Hermosillo Mexico 22 days above 35 °C — the month is the problem, not a heatwave within it.
• Tucson United States 22 days above 35 °C — the month is the problem, not a heatwave within it.
• Te Anau New Zealand 22 rain days, 6 of them heavy.
• Queenstown New Zealand 18 rain days, 2 of them heavy.

Other months