Where to go in March

In March the good weather is overwhelmingly north of the equator — 18 of the top 24 destinations below sit in the northern hemisphere. If you are travelling from the southern hemisphere, March is a long flight into someone else's summer. On the scoring used here, the strongest single destination in March is Hurghada — 25.1 °C, rain on 0 days, and 100 out of 100.

Against February, the map has moved: Beijing (+32), Kansas City (+32) and Wuzhong (+31) improve most sharply on February, while Agra (-44), Kanpur (-42) and Ahmedabad (-42) 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 March: for heat with low odds of rain, Delhi at 32.8 °C across 3 wet days, for the driest month outright, Hurghada with 0 rain days and for mild rather than hot, Key West at 24 °C with 5 rain days.

If the weather matters less to you than the crowd does, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Arequipa score well in March while still sitting outside their own peak season — the combination that gets you the place closer to itself.

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 March destinations

1. 1 Hurghada Egypt Drier than the rest at 0 wet days, 25.1 °C.
2. 2 Antofagasta Chile Drier than the rest at 0 wet days, 21.4 °C.
3. 3 Cairo Egypt 26.3 °C by day falling to 10.8 °C overnight — hot afternoons, cool sleeping.
4. 4 Alexandria Egypt 22.9 °C, lows of 11.8 °C, rain on 2 days.
5. 5 Chihuahua Mexico 25.7 °C and notably dry air at 32% humidity.
6. 6 San Luis Potosí Mexico 26.6 °C by day falling to 9.1 °C overnight — hot afternoons, cool sleeping.
7. 7 El Paso United States 22.3 °C and notably dry air at 36% humidity.
8. 8 Tucson United States 24.9 °C and notably dry air at 39% humidity.
9. 9 Geraldton Australia 25.7 °C, though at 72% humidity it feels heavier than the number suggests.
10. 10 Las Vegas United States 22.6 °C and notably dry air at 37% humidity.
11. 11 Mexico City Mexico 26.2 °C by day falling to 8.9 °C overnight — hot afternoons, cool sleeping.
12. 12 Cape Town South Africa 21.1 °C, though at 79% humidity it feels heavier than the number suggests.
13. 13 Dubai United Arab Emirates 27.3 °C, lows of 20.1 °C, rain on 3 days.
14. 14 Perth Australia 25.9 °C, lows of 19.2 °C, rain on 3 days.
15. 15 Kathmandu Nepal 24.8 °C and notably dry air at 37% humidity.
16. 16 Adelaide Australia 27.2 °C, lows of 14.9 °C, rain on 4 days.
17. 17 Virār India 28.3 °C, lows of 24.8 °C, rain on 1 day.
18. 18 Murcia Spain 21.3 °C, lows of 8.7 °C, rain on 4 days.
19. 19 Agadir Morocco 26.3 °C, lows of 14 °C, rain on 5 days.
20. 20 Pokhara Nepal 25 °C by day falling to 11.8 °C overnight — hot afternoons, cool sleeping.
21. 21 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Spain Cooler than most of this list at 19.2 °C — the option if heat is the thing you are avoiding.
22. 22 Arequipa Peru 25.3 °C, lows of 12.7 °C, rain on 6 days.
23. 23 Marrakesh Morocco 25 °C by day falling to 10.4 °C overnight — hot afternoons, cool sleeping.
24. 24 Valencia Spain 20.3 °C, lows of 9 °C, rain on 6 days.

Where to avoid in March

• Tromsø Norway Highs of -2.7 °C, and 29 nights below freezing.
• Akureyri Iceland Highs of -3 °C, and 30 nights below freezing.
• Whistler Canada Highs of 2.9 °C, and 23 nights below freezing.
• Banff Canada Highs of -0.4 °C, and 31 nights below freezing.
• St. John's Canada Highs of 0.1 °C, and 29 nights below freezing.
• Bergen Norway Highs of 4.1 °C, and 15 nights below freezing.
• Trondheim Norway Highs of 2.6 °C, and 21 nights below freezing.
• Reykjavík Iceland Highs of 3 °C, and 16 nights below freezing.

Other months