Best time to visit Sydney

Sydney is a city of two halves. July scores 76 and January scores 11 — a 65-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 July to September — 3 months within ten points of the best.

August is the warmest month at 22.4 °C and February the coolest at -1.5 °C — a 23.9 °C spread across the year. It never reaches 30 °C in an average year, which takes heat off the list of reasons to avoid any particular month. At the other end, 132 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. December carries the rain — up to 17 wet days in a month — while February and September drop as low as 12. That 5-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Sydney, and it moves further than the temperature does.

The sea peaks at just 18.4 °C, which is wetsuit territory even at its warmest — a coast to look at rather than swim in. Daylight runs from 8.7 hours in winter to 15.7 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

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

Sydney month by month