Best time to visit Rotterdam

Rotterdam is a city of two halves. June scores 76 and December scores 29 — a 47-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. The good window runs May to September — 5 months within ten points of the best.

August is the warmest month at 21.3 °C and January the coolest at 5.6 °C — a 15.7 °C spread across the year. 27 nights a year dip below freezing.

There is a real wet season here. January, August, October, November and December carry the rain — up to 16 wet days in a month — while April drops as low as 10. That 6-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Rotterdam, and it moves further than the temperature does.

The sea peaks at just 17.7 °C, which is wetsuit territory even at its warmest — a coast to look at rather than swim in. Daylight swings hard — 16.7 hours at midsummer against 7.8 at midwinter. That 8.9-hour difference changes how much fits into a day more than the temperature does.

The three strongest months are June, July, September. The one to think twice about is December. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight, sea temperature and crowd levels.

Rotterdam month by month