Where to go in October

In October the good weather is overwhelmingly north of the equator — 17 of the top 24 destinations below sit in the northern hemisphere. If you are travelling from the southern hemisphere, October is a long flight into someone else's summer. On the scoring used here, the strongest single destination in October is Arequipa — 26.6 °C, rain on 1 days, and 98 out of 100.

Against September, the map has moved: Las Vegas (+42), Fresno (+42) and Diyarbakır (+41) improve most sharply on September, while Whistler (-34), Prince George (-32) and Greater Sudbury (-31) 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 October: for heat with low odds of rain, Surat at 33 °C across 6 wet days, for the driest month outright, Hurghada with 0 rain days and for mild rather than hot, Chaniá at 24 °C with 10 rain days.

If the weather matters less to you than the crowd does, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Antofagasta score well in October 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 October destinations

1. 1 Arequipa Peru Drier than the rest at 1 wet day, 26.6 °C.
2. 2 Port Said Egypt 25 °C, lows of 24 °C, rain on 2 days.
3. 3 Irvine United States 22.2 °C, lows of 17.7 °C, rain on 2 days.
4. 4 Shimla India 19.6 °C, lows of 8.3 °C, rain on 2 days.
5. 5 Santiago Chile 26.4 °C and notably dry air at 42% humidity.
6. 6 Geraldton Australia 20.4 °C, lows of 17.4 °C, rain on 3 days.
7. 7 Whyalla Australia 24.3 °C, lows of 13 °C, rain on 3 days.
8. 8 Napa United States 27 °C by day falling to 12.3 °C overnight — hot afternoons, cool sleeping.
9. 9 San Jose United States 26.6 °C by day falling to 11.7 °C overnight — hot afternoons, cool sleeping.
10. 10 Mildura Australia 26.7 °C and notably dry air at 45% humidity.
11. 11 Beijing China 20.6 °C by day falling to 6.8 °C overnight — hot afternoons, cool sleeping.
12. 12 Lima Peru Drier than the rest at 0 wet days, 28.7 °C.
13. 13 Qingdao China 19.8 °C, lows of 15.3 °C, rain on 4 days.
14. 14 Srinagar India 24 °C and notably dry air at 45% humidity.
15. 15 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Spain 23.9 °C, though at 78% humidity it feels heavier than the number suggests.
16. 16 Gaziantep Turkey 24.5 °C and notably dry air at 50% humidity.
17. 17 Kayseri Turkey 21.5 °C, lows of 8.6 °C, rain on 5 days.
18. 18 Murcia Spain 27 °C, lows of 15.4 °C, rain on 5 days.
19. 19 Antofagasta Chile Cooler than most of this list at 17.1 °C — the option if heat is the thing you are avoiding.
20. 20 Firá Greece 20.5 °C, though at 75% humidity it feels heavier than the number suggests.
21. 21 Wuzhong China Cooler than most of this list at 18.7 °C — the option if heat is the thing you are avoiding.
22. 22 Casablanca Morocco 26.8 °C, lows of 18.3 °C, rain on 6 days.
23. 23 Ankara Turkey 20.6 °C, lows of 8.1 °C, rain on 6 days.
24. 24 Busan South Korea 20.6 °C, though at 76% humidity it feels heavier than the number suggests.

Where to avoid in October

• Akureyri Iceland Highs of 0.2 °C, and 26 nights below freezing.
• Tromsø Norway Highs of 2.9 °C, and 19 nights below freezing.
• Reykjavík Iceland 19 rain days, 5 of them heavy.
• Rovaniemi Finland Highs of 3.2 °C, and 17 nights below freezing.
• Anchorage United States 6 °C and rain on 16 days — nothing works in its favour.
• Trondheim Norway 19 rain days, 4 of them heavy.
• Broome Australia 28 days above 35 °C — the month is the problem, not a heatwave within it.
• Banff Canada 7.2 °C and rain on 16 days — nothing works in its favour.

Other months